Why neighbours fight

Noise from building works in the daytime can disrupt the sleeping pattern of night-time or shift workers such as taxi drivers, nurses and security workers and make it harder for mothers with new-born babies.

The potential noise and mess that getting a builder in could bring is reason enough to concern 40 per cent of homeowners. The issue of being able to access your property is of the utmost concern for UK homeowners. Nobody wants to come home from work and find that they are blocked off from their drive.

That is why 43 per cent of us would want to discuss access rights to their property. Access rights to a property is a type of dispute where it is best to speak with your neighbours in order to rectify the problem so it is recommended that you keep talking to the people next door.

Having an obstruction built in the path of natural light shining into your home is an overwhelming concern for many homeowners.

According to our research, two-thirds of people cite their number one concern with their neighbours as an extension that could block out their light. Issues over rights to light are very complex and should always be discussed with a lawyer.

This has seen as many as 30 per cent of us get hot under the collar with frustrations arising from a range of problems with our hedgerows. It could be that an overhanging tree is extending into your garden invading your space, or that by cutting down trees and shrubs you are inadvertently removing a layer of privacy enjoyed by your neighbours. Meanwhile some neighbours might take offence at those who fail to trim their hedgerow, leaving the street looking unkempt. Cutting down a tree in most cases is a minor issue and so it is best to resolve the problem informally by talking to your next door neighbour whenever possible.

Boundary disputes are another example where you may find it necessary to take legal advice. Like the number one issue which neighbours argue over, boundary disputes can get very heated which is why it sometimes becomes necessary to get a conveyancing solicitor to help resolve the issue for you. Number one on our list counting down the top reasons for arguing with your neighbours is fences.

Unlike boundary disputes, fences should really be a minor issue which you can resolve informally. Our advice is to consult with your neighbour if you have this issue.

When fences are left unfixed it can create friction between people who live next to each other - 37 per cent of homeowners have argued about removing or repairing fences making it the most common issue that neighbours argue over. If you've have been affected by one of the issues in this article and are in need legal advice you can call the dispute resolution lawyers at Slater and Gordon on freephone or contact us online.

Call us for free on The most common of all, noise ranks as the leading cause of neighbourly arguments. Just like anything, timing and consistency are the key factors at play here. If either of these is off, the chances of your neighbour being upset skyrocket. Especially after a long day of winter driving, coming home to find your parking spot inaccessible can be, at the very least, frustrating. Kids can generate a lot of noise, at all hours of the day.

Hockey pucks, dogs who love all things wooden and wiry, and the most treacherous of all: stones shot out of a lawnmower. Ontario is no stranger to dock spiders who, despite their name, are found all over cottage country and not just on docks. Here are Who says that Christmas movies have to spread love and happiness through seasonal joy? Sometimes, these movies need to indulge on the darkness that I was surrounded by stacks of books piled on the floor and tons of DVDs, and the desire to soak up my solitude and revel in it.

A young family of four lived in the one-bedroom apartment next door. The mother had lived there for years, and had a deal on rent that was apparently worth staying for, putting bunks in the bedroom so that her children could have some space while she and her husband slept on a pullout couch in the living area. I could hear every move the family made: the tantrums, the horseplay, the highs and lows of being together constantly. It drove me crazy. I got a better white-noise machine and soldiered on.

On Saturday, May 31, , I came home from a business trip at close to midnight, groggy and jet-lagged, to find crime-scene tape surrounding my building. The next morning a crowd of reporters had gathered in front of my building, and I learned from them what had happened.

There was little I could have done to help her, much less to have prevented her death, yet I felt implicated.

How could my neighbors and I have failed this young woman so terribly? Where were they all on the night she had been killed? Had they heard her scream? I was at my local bar, a place where I usually felt safe and the bartenders knew my drink order. He aggressively hit on me, and I was disturbed by how quickly the police officer was able to go from protector to pursuer. I craved a feeling of security, of knowing someone out there was looking out for me, and it was nowhere to be found.

I drank too many whiskey sodas that night and then walked the few blocks back to my apartment alone, the intensity of my loneliness causing me to stumble as much as the alcohol. This, perhaps more than anything else, is what listening to my neighbors fight has taught me: that even in a city as dense and filled with humans as New York, you can be totally invisible. But at other times it is dangerous, even mortally so.

Seeing one other, paying attention to one another, might be our only grace. I like to believe that if I saw violence in the street I would reach for my phone and call immediately. I wish I could say that I became a better neighbor following the murder-suicide, but only a few months later I had become the opposite. I never feared for my physical safety, but my mental health was at an all-time low.