It can be hard to move to a new country. It can also be hard to start a small business. Neither of those things gives a small business owner an excuse for violating city rules and being disrespectful to the neighbors.

In this story, new neighbors are operating a small business out of their home, and that creates a lot of problems for the neighbors in this residential community.

Eventually, one man was sick of the problems and decided to report the neighbors to the city.

Now, he’s wondering if that was the wrong thing to do.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for reporting neighbor’s business to the city

My (37m) and husband (52m) have been living in a condo in a quiet, residential neighborhood in a small city for about 18 years.

We’ve always had great neighbors.

About 6 months ago, the house next door was sold.

These new neighbors sound awful.

We quickly realized that the new owners were running a landscaping business out of the property, which included commercial trucks being kept at the property (large, dumpster-style trucks), and staff coming and going at all times.

Vehicles from their staff constantly blocked my driveway, and i had to ask them to move their cars, sometimes as much as twice a day.

Staff sat in idling vehicles drinking all night (we’re not sure why they weren’t allowed in the house). Sometimes they would puke or go to the restroom on our property line. Trash was everywhere, and it got onto our property.

OP wasn’t the only one who was upset.

One of the neighbors in my condo association had been talking to these folks. He let us know that they were good people that were new to country and trying to get on their feet.

That is cool, but we expressed our concerns, and he said he would talk to them, and he did (a few times).

Nothing got better.

They kept blocking our driveway, leaving trash, and just being inconsiderate. So i reported them to the city (specifically the commercial trucks that were not permitted in residential areas).

They seem to know who reported them.

One night shortly thereafter, they blocked my driveway again.

I went out and asked them to move.

They accused me of reporting them to the city, and i didn’t deny it.

This lead to an argument where i aired out all the issues, including that i didn’t like the large, loud commercial vehicles in the neighborhood. (the city gave them two weeks to find a new place to store them.).

OP is having second thoughts.

They felt attacked and accused me of being unfair.

If it matters, i am fluent in their native language.

This was our last interaction, and things are now mostly better.

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Most of my neighbors are happy now, but the neighbor who had the relationship with them is not speaking to us. Now i’m thinking i might be the AH for causing hardship to a small business.

The neighbors may be struggling to start a small business, but that doesn’t give them a free pass to break the rules and ignore the laws.

I don’t think OP did anything wrong. Let’s see if Reddit agrees.

This person summarizes what happened.

Another person was in a similar situation.

This person feels bad for the employees.

Nobody thinks OP did anything wrong.

The neighbors clearly didn’t think it through very well when they bought that property and assumed they could operate a landscaping business out of it without bothering their neighbors.

Reporting them was the right thing to do.