How to Handle Bad Neighbors

If the owners of the house next door throw wild parties every weekend and have painted the front door DayGlo orange, who are you going to call?

Money magazine has these suggestions for taming the nightmare next door:

Make the right call. For noise issues, call the police. If their dogs run loose, let the animal control department know. If the lawn is littered with political signs, call the zoning board. As for that DayGlo orange door, unless there’s a homeowners' association with rules against such things, there may be no recourse.

Be nice. Asking politely is more likely to get results than shouting.

Use a community mediation center. There are 500 such centers in the United States, according to the National Association for Community Mediation.

Go to court. If the neighbor did something like deliberately destroying a fence, take the matter to small claims court, which is inexpensive and doesn’t require a lawyer.

Source: Money, Sarah Max (06/28/06)