Recently on my neighborhood website there was a post talking about a neighbor who was leaving anonymous notes about issues they were having with the owner along with complaints lodged with the City of Tempe for various issues like poorly maintained landscaping or parking vehicles on unpaved areas. This neighbor asked the unhappy neighbor to come over and talk to them so they could work things out face to face.
Though this may seem like a good idea it probably is not. Here is an example. My friend, Stardust, lives in Colorado where it is legal to grow marijuana plants in your home for personal use. Her neighbor, whose house is very close to hers, decided to build a 10’ x 20’ outside shed and planted 25 plants. This became a neighborhood nuisance due to the all night growing lights, 12 foot plastic fence outside her bedroom window, the constant aroma of processing pot, extension cords running everywhere creating a fire hazard as well as increased traffic. Stardust tried to work something out face-to-face but the neighbor became very aggressive and mentioned he had a gun. Add to all the problems above the unpleasant idea of flying bullets if the neighbor had an unhappy customer or someone tried to steal his crop. Yikes!
At this point Stardust had no choice but go to the city and lodge a formal complaint. Once the neighbor received the complaint the anger and aggression directed towards her went up exponentially. Stardust decided the situation was not going to get any better and put her house up for sale. Luckily where she lives in Colorado is a seller’s market so the house sold quickly. The unruly neighbor had to be disclosed but it did not seem to bother the buyers. Stardust got lucky as if she had been in a slower market the neighbor could have scared off potential buyers and she would have been stuck in a very bad situation.
The lesson learned is it may be better to report an issue with a neighbor anonymously to the proper authorities rather than risk a potentially dangerous confrontation. One never knows how someone is going to react.