Her Landlord Told Her Neighbors to Stay Out of Her Yard. They Looked Right at Him and Kept Doing It Anyway.
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Imagine living in a house with two floors, and each floor is a separate apartment. One apartment has the backyard as their designated yard, and the other apartment has the front yard as their own private yard.
What would you do if your apartment included the front yard, but your neighbors kept letting their kids play in your yard instead of in the backyard (their yard)?
In this story, one woman is in this exact situation. She complained to her landlord who talked to the tenants, but it didn’t seem to help.
Now, she’s not sure what to do, and she’s also wondering if she’s wrong for even complaining about it.
Let’s read the whole story.
AITA? Neighbors keep using my yard even though they have their own private yard.
I (24f) (I have a small senior dog) have lived in my apartment since September (2022).
New neighbors moved here in November. They are a family of 5 and they have two dogs, one medium, one large.
The house has an apartment upstairs (mine) and a much larger apartment downstairs (neighbors).
My neighbors have a huge yard with private access through the back of their apartment. I have a quite small yard that they have access to because our front doors are side by side.
This would be so frustrating!
When I signed my lease it stated the front yard is only for me, and the backyard is for my neighbors. It also states that pet waste is to always be disposed of.
Despite this, my neighbors allow their dogs to use my yard for the bathroom, often.
They also have various chairs, bikes, and clutter in my yard.
I have gone to my landlord about this twice and she has talked to my neighbors.
But it didn’t seem to help.
Despite the fact that our landlord has told them to stop, my neighbors have not stopped using my yard.
A week ago I became frustrated and moved the clutter over the fence to the neighbors large yard since it was in my space.
Today I came home and some of the clutter was back in my yard and her kids were playing in my yard.
She’s not sure how to handle the situation.
I have no problem with children, I’m a teacher, but it is extremely frustrating that my neighbors keep using my yard when they have their own that is quadruple the size.
I always pick up my 7 pound dogs waste and dispose of it and I have stepped in their dogs waste multiple times, in my own yard.
Since reaching out to the landlord has not made my neighbors stop, I have been thinking about just texting my neighbors on my own.
I’m not sure if I’m overreacting but I’m really feeling at a loss with how to cordially handle this. The rent is not cheap and the designated yard was a large part of why I chose this place. Do I reach out to my neighbor myself? Do I reach out to my landlord yet again? And most importantly am I a jerk???
Would talking to the neighbors help, or should she stick to communicating via the landlord?
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Let’s see what Reddit suggests.
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This person suggests keeping the communication through the landlord.
Here’s some more advice.
This idea might work.
Here’s another suggestion.
I like the idea of swapping yards with the neighbors. If they’d rather use the smaller front yard, then she should get the larger backyard. However, that may not work since I’m not sure if she has access to the backyard from her apartment.
In the meantime, carefully worded emails to the landlord might work. Or a hose perhaps. Since it’s an apartment, it’s not like she could install sprinklers.
If she neighbors keep using her yard, the landlord needs to reduce her rent.
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