Doing a neighbor a favor is supposed to build goodwill, not turn your garage into her personal evening hangout spot.

One woman found herself in a very similar situation after her husband fixed a nearby neighbor’s AC as side work. But this simple transaction somehow evolved into the neighbor showing up uninvited almost nightly with a case of beer in hand.

So when asking her to text ahead of time didn’t help, dinners, home projects, and family time with their two-year-old have all been interrupted by her sudden appearances.

Despite genuinely liking her as a person, the couple is running out of polite ways to explain that unannounced visits every evening aren’t actually welcome.

You’ll want to keep reading for the full dilemma.

Tired of my Neighbor just showing up

I actually like this neighbor for the most part, but she’s been ticking me off lately.

For some background: my husband does HVAC, and several neighbors have hired him to check their ACs. He does it as side work and at a cheaper rate than hiring someone through an HVAC company. This neighbor was one of the ones who hired him.

She further describes the problematic neighbor.

She is an older woman in her late 50s, lives right up the street from us, and is also handy but with vehicles rather than HVAC. He needed to order parts to fix her AC, so it took about a week to complete.

Anyway, since then she is always coming by unannounced.

This neighbor doesn’t seem to be great at taking hints.

My husband likes to have a few beers in the garage after work, and she will just stop by with a case of beer on any given evening and expect to hang out until we have dinner.

We have asked her to text ahead of time to ask, but she just texts that she is heading over with beer, no asking, just telling.

Her husband isn’t near as good as being direct as she is.

Last night she came over while we were eating dinner to ask my husband to help pick up some new tools after he is done working today. My husband is always too nice to say no. He does this with all our neighbors, not just her. Problem is now she just expects to stop by and recruit his help with things.

This behavior is really starting to grind her gears.

She’s nice and I do enjoy her company here and there, but I’m getting tired of coming out in the evenings and her just being there. Whether we’re outside or not. If our garage is open but we’re inside, she’ll knock on the door to hang out. If we’re inside, she’ll text us to come out and want to drink.

It’s starting to impact their routines and their mental health.

She had interrupted dinners, home projects, family time (we have a 2 year old). We’ve tried setting boundaries and she’s just ignored them and kept coming.

I’ve about had it. It’s hard because she’s genuinely a nice person and fun to talk to. She’s just clueless. I think it’s a cultural thing because she’s not from the US.

Turns out a nice neighbor can be just as problematic as a mean one.

What did Reddit have to say?

“No” means no — and a grown woman should know better.

Time is valuable — and this neighbor is taking up more than her fair share.

Part of this rift could be generational.

This couple needs to put on a united front.

A neighbor who turns “please text first” into “I’m already on my way” isn’t confused about the request, she’s simply choosing to treat it as optional.

What began as a one-time favor has clearly morphed into an ongoing assumption of access, both socially and now in terms of labor. And, for the record, asking for help with errands during dinner isn’t something you do with someone you’re respecting boundaries with.

Liking her personality doesn’t obligate the family to keep sacrificing dinners, projects, and time with their toddler to accommodate visits they never actually agreed to on a nightly basis.

If polite, repeated requests haven’t changed anything so far, maybe it’s time to stop being nice.