Living next to nightmareneighbourscan be exhausting.
Whether they're blasting music at all hours or constantly asking to borrow your things, it can take you all your inner strength not to tell them to leave you alone. But one woman's sister said she was being "mean" for begrudging her neighbours' "weird"requests, so she wanted to know what other people thought.
"I personally think our neighbour is asking for too many favours and in my opinion some of them are going too far/not appropriate given we aren’t friends and say a passing hello at most", she toldMumsnetusers.
She explained: "About two years ago they knocked and said they were going on holiday and could we put their bins out, grab a parcel that was due so it wouldn’t sit outside all week, and gave us their number in case of emergency with the house. We agreed as we had just moved in and wanted to be nice and figured they could return the favour one day.
"Since we exchanged numbers we have since been asked for multiple favours, about 2-3 times a month, ranging from taking a parcel into feeding their cat to a lift to the airport (1 hour away - we said no). We didn’t mind the small favours until they became more and more frequent and they just pushed the boundaries."
She then shared another bizarre request that the neighbour had made, writing: "They text me once to ask if I could go round and feed their cat as their train was cancelled and it was already 7pm. They told me where the spare key was and I happily nipped round and did it.
"But then they started to ask us every time they would be home late whether it was working late or going out. We started to lie and say we were out because it was so often.
"We then got asked to feed the cat for a whole week while they went away because they didn’t want to pay for a sitter. I have suggested an automatic feeder and even given some names of a cat sitter my sister has used but nothing has changed."
They also constantly ask for "unusual" favours, such as lifts, to borrow things, to pick them up, and show the cleaner where the spare key is.
"To answer some questions I’m sure will come up – No, they are not old (late forties ish? We are late twenties). No, they are not disabled. No kids."
She then asked: "Am I being unreasonable to say no even when I am free and could help them? My sister thinks I should do the favour given I’m just sitting in my house when they ask but for me, it’s just too much and we never ask for any in return because, to be honest, it wouldn’t cross my mind to!
"And yes I would absolutely love to be blunt and tell them to stop asking but they are quite forceful and to be honest I think would make our lives a misery if we fell out."
In the comments, someone wrote: "Gosh they're persistent! If they haven't gotten the hint already I'm not sure they're going to...You're not being unreasonable though. Just keep saying no. They're obviously the type that if you give them an inch they'll take a mile, so it's not really a simple matter of just doing the favour. Every favour you do is encouraging further cheeky f***ery."
Another added: "I would always help with the cat, because I love animals and am doing that for the him/her. With a lot of the other favours that are taking the p**s."
Someone else suggested: "I'd go for the direct approach and tell them face to face (not in a text or email as you don't want them going back and dwelling on it) that you are happy to help out when they are away or in a real emergency and hope they would do the same for you but that you no longer have time to deal with the sort of day to day requests that are more frequent like giving lifts and doing thing just because they are late from work."
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