Imagine living in an HOA neighborhood where your house exists before your next door neighbor’s house. If your neighbor knew his bedroom was going to be near your garage before he even built the house, would you have any sympathy for him if he later complained about the noise when you use your car?

In this story, one homeowner is in this exact situation, and he has zero sympathy for his neighbor. Is that the wrong attitude to have?

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA for waking my neighbor up several times a week with my garage door?

I’ve lived in my house for several years before the house he lives in even existed.

He built the house on the lot right next to mine and chose to make the room that is 6 feet away from my carport his master bedroom.

He was active in monitoring his house’s progress during its construction, so he definitely was aware of my house’s layout.

He often goes shopping at night.

I’m a bit of a night owl.

Several times a week I’ll leave to do some grocery shopping or pick up food anywhere between midnight and 3am.

My car is not exceptionally loud–it’s a standard 2006 Camry, and the motor that runs my garage door is not exceptionally loud either. It’s just a standard garage door motor.

I don’t turn on my radio until I’ve left my driveway, and even then, not loud enough that anyone outside the car could hear. I don’t slam my car door when entering or leaving. All I do is open my garage door, enter my car as quietly as I can, pull out, close the garage door, and then do the reverse when I come back home.

He refuses to give in to the neighbor’s demands.

He’s come to my house and knocked on my door to complain many times now, saying I’m being incredibly rude and that I need to stop waking him up by coming and going in the middle of the night.

I refuse to change my habits.

He’s the one who chose to put his master bedroom right next to my driveway, and I should have the freedom to come and go from my house as I please.

He’s getting increasingly irate and has begun putting letters in my mailbox threatening that he’ll go to the HOA about noise complaints, but I know the HOA by-laws and he’s just blowing smoke.

Still, though… am I the jerk here?

Nobody likes to be woken up at night when they’re sleeping, but it doesn’t sound like he is doing anything loud. The neighbor doesn’t have the right to dictate when the other neighbors leave their houses.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this situation.

The neighbor is completely overstepping.

Maybe the neighbor isn’t used to living near other houses.

This is a good suggestion and a good point.

This comment made me laugh!

The neighbor is definitely not a deep sleeper!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.