I can imagine that it could be difficult to live in a 2-unit condo building as an owner but the other unit is rented out. Renters probably aren’t as likely to live in one place as long as owners, so there would be quite a bit of turnover with new neighbors every year or every few years.

In this story, we see the point-of-view of the renters in a 2-unit condo building. Their neighbor owns her condo, and she doesn’t seem to like them at all. She criticizes them, even to her young child, and she even seems to refuse to talk to them directly, sending them messages via their landlord instead.

It’s kind of weird and very annoying, but I’m sure it’s frustrating for her too.

Keep reading for the full story.

Entitled NFH weaponizes HOA rules, gets mad when it backfires, then badmouths us to everyone

We rent the lower unit of a two-condo building in a big city. Our upstairs NFH is the only other HOA member besides our landlord, and she acts like she owns not just her unit, but ours too.

When we first moved in, we put a storage unit in the garage to secure some of our belongings (we live in a big city, theft happens). We placed it as far back in our parking area as possible, trying to be thoughtful.

The idea was that keeping the storage unit further back in the garage would allow us to park our car further forward into the garage and give NFH more room to back in, get her kid in and out, and move things around easily.

They tried to be neighborly about the problems at first.

We didn’t have the HOA zoning maps at the time (our landlord hadn’t given them to us) so we didn’t realize that a portion of the back of the garage was technically part of a zoned common area.

NFH was out of town for over a month after we moved in, so we had no reason to think it would be an issue… until she returned, saw the storage unit, and immediately brought it up during a totally unrelated conversation about her dog using our patio as a toilet (which, trust me, is its own saga).

She sent us the HOA zoning maps to prove (1) she (and her dog) had “easement and walkthrough access” through the patio to the garage, and (2) our storage unit was placed in a common area.

She was right about the storage unit, so we moved the storage unit fully into our assigned parking space. We thought: let’s follow the rules, avoid further drama, and move on.

Well, boy were we wrong. That didn’t end the conflict. Instead, it created a new one.

The new problem involves parking.

With our storage unit sitting fully in our zoned space in the garage, we have to park our car further back (closer to the garage door, still 100% within our designated zone, clearly marked with tape on the ground).

And now NFH constantly complains that our car is parked too far back and making it hard for her to back her vehicle in.

This is comical, given we’ve been told that past tenants tandem-parked two cars in our zone, meaning a car was consistently parked to the back line of the zone, plus NFH told us when we met her that she’s “used to parking in tight spaces.” Clearly… not?

This is weird.

She refuses to talk to us directly. Instead, she sends photos of our car to our landlord and texts him, asking him to ask us that we pull our car forward.

We complied to this request almost a year ago, but in recent weeks, she started checking how far forward our car is parked every time she walks into the garage. She even left a note on our windshield saying “thanks in advance” for pulling our car further forward… even though we’ve been parking in the same spot for months.

Meanwhile, she trashes us to anyone she can (neighbors, friends, the HOA handyman) while she’s in the garage:

Here are some examples of things she says about them.

• “They built this thing that decreases the parking. It’s a whole point of contention.” (ummmm… let’s think back – it became a point of contention when SHE complained about it being in the common area?)
• “They’re awful.” (how charming.)
• “They’re renters, they’re not very nice.” (funny how we became ‘not nice’ after setting boundaries she didn’t like.)
• “I hope they move out soon.” (girl, same. and I hope the next tenant tandem parks two massive vehicles in that garage!)
• (telling her sub-5 year old child) “They’re naughty. We love it when they’re gone.” And proceeding to teach her child to refer to us as “the naughty neighbors” and our car as “the naughty car.” (wow, what great parenting!!!)

Here’s a quick recap of the situation…

To be clear: she flagged the storage unit as a violation, we moved it to comply and now she’s mad that her life isn’t easier because of it.

NFH blames us for having less space for her to maneuver her car while backing into the garage.

And she regularly comes within inches of hitting our car (or worse, actually grazes it, which she’s done twice) then takes zero responsibility and acts like we’re the villains for not making her life easier.

We’re just trying to exist without stepping out of bounds. Has anyone else dealt with a neighbor who constantly shifts the goalposts like this? Are we completely losing it?

It sounds like these neighbors aren’t destined to be friends, but can they at least reach a compromise and agree to stop bad mouthing each other?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who got creative with his parking after his neighbors started using his extra spot without asking.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

I’m not sure if this advice would help because it sounds like the neighbor is an owner not a renter.

Here’s another suggestion.

This person is mainly annoyed by the little kids being part of it.

Another person explains why it’s not really weird that the neighbor communicates through the landlord.

This whole parking situation does sound stressful. I can see why they’re both annoyed. It’s too bad the neighbor is bad mouthing them, especially in front of her child, but it sounds like her parking situation is more stressful than it used to be. I’m not sure what they could do to make everyone happy.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about some renters who moved out and left their apartment in the same state of disarray they’d found it in when they moved in.