Neighbor Harassing Guests

[Alex-and-Christy0]

Good day everyone!

We have a situation where we are legally renting out our home through AirBNB and have a neighbor who is not happy about the situation. On many occasions she has voiced her concerns to our guests as they are either in the driveway or on a walk. The neighbor has even gone as far as to tell our guests to take the trash up, not park in the street, etc. Thus far we have been able to smooth things over for the most part with the guests and prevent any negative reviews. We have been back and forth with the neighbor on several situations and have decided to cut off communication with them to avoid further conflict as they are quite tenacious and borderline harassing.

We are curious if anyone has had a similar situations of neighbors repetitively bothering guests or sharing their opinions of the Airbnb/STR situation and their level of dislike.

We have contemplated seeking legal advice and potentially a cease and desist or even a civil defamation suit, however, we are not sure if this situation would be considered defamation in the eyes of the law, and also don't want to poke the hornets nest more than necessary.

[Shaw807]

Even if your guests are horrible, what are YOU going to do about it? You forced this on them.

[Kimberly1245]

My experience in dealing with my neighbor, was that my noise complaints were never validated. Ever. “Just let us know if it happens after 9”…

All these house really need to read the neighborhood section contained on this site

[Alec152]

I just launched my first AirBnb last week. The neighbors across the street are not happy about it either. They started playing loud music that is audible from the house and, when asked to turn it off (by us, other neighbors and eventually the police), resorted to verbally harassing my guests. The second guests to ever stay at my place were genuinely scared and called to tell me that they unfortunately couldn't remain at the property. Apparently the neighbors had told them to "fu** off, they are in a residential neighborhood" and to "go leave a bad review because [they] don't want others staying here". 

It sounds like my case may be a bit more extreme however we may still share the same solution. Essentially I was told to go and get an anti-harassment from the local court with some sort of criminal clause stating that the neighbors may not speak to anyone on my property for any reason. I'm hoping this does the trick but will add to the post later with an update. 

Also, if anyone has had interactions closely related to mine and has any info regarding how to deal with any aspect of the issue, guests, airbnb, etc. please reply with any input! 

[Ania1999]

I have a similar situation, my neighbor complained to Airbnb bc of a “party”. But it was just a family with some loud kids during the day. And yesterday he texted me a whole rant about “drug parties and screaming babies” and when I checked my cameras it was literally my guest in the backyard holding his crying infant. Do these people not get that the house next door could have been sold to a whole family with kids and they would have had that every single day? What am I supposed to tell my guests, don’t let your baby cry in the day? Don’t park 3 cars in MY driveway that allows for it? 

[Carol8098]

I feel your pain! I’m in similar situation with older neighbors who don’t like kids playing in the pool.

[Kimberly1245]

Here’s why, I’m a neighbor in my pool is not even 100 yards from the Next pool. All our other neighbors have pools it’s like being on a body of water. It helps sound to travel!

maybe I just wanna lay by my pool and listen to quiet and the birds?

Why do you automatically think we don’t like kids or something?

Kids swim in my pool, they live here. It’s not a novelty every week. 

Please be more understanding of your neighbors and how loud it must be for them!!

[Andrea7409]

Maybe you should hear to non-stop screaming kids the whole summer in your previous peaceful home for the whole summer and then we talk again.

[Shaw807]

Kids grow up. The ones at your hotel are there every weekend for the rest of their lives.

[Max2382]

Exactly the misunderstanding of Airbnb landlords that torture regular homeowners with constant screaming kids like groundhog Day and don't understand why it's an issue.

It should be against the law to let out entire properties on Airbnb in residential neighborhoods.

[Kimberly1245]

This!! 

[Kimberly1245]

Don’t you get it? The people didn’t buy their house to have a baby screaming one day, a barking dog the next day, beep beep, slam slam radio all the time a vehicles they don’t recognize in a residential neighborhood.???

Try to see it from somebody else’s side! 

And where I live three bedroom two bath home equals eight people allowed. That means that if not a short term rental, each of the houses surrounding me would have eight residents!! Which would never happen! 

Yeah, noise is noise. 

[Andrea7409]

Sure, everyone wants to hear loud screaming kids the whole time. And other than neighbours kids, they never grow out of the screaming phase. Stop imposing these noisy people on your poor neighbours. 

[Carol7608]

Hi yes i have.

i have a neighbour put cones up and tried stopping guests fromgetting in drive, he has them on his side of property as its open the parking. im not agains that but he has one at the top  on high way and thats illegal. he has been reported for this and has stopped . he now emails airbnb and trys to say theres a violation going on. 

that hasnt worked neither and now has decided to talk to me  raising his voice. im going to put a fence up now much to his dislike , which will make it harder for him to get inand out. his own fault i guess.

i think sometimes its best not to say anything and get a solicitor to get him to stop has]rassing you. by law in uk you cant be stopped for who parks on your drive or who comes to your house. try renting it as rooms as well i have done that  and said in my airbnb that i sometmes stop there. and if your there and loud music is played say you were there . 

[Kimberly1245]

Mines close to yours. I’m the neighbor tolerating all the noise all day and night. It’s been 18 months in a nice quiet residential area. I have not resorted to the type of passive aggression behavior that you’re referring to although very tempted. when I asked somebody to kindly take It inside after they bounced a basketball in the driveway for 30 minutes and we’re partying, I got called a f-ing bitch. 

Y’all need to think of what it feels like to be in the other person shoes.

After 16 kind complaints in 18 mos  and dealing with the neighbors after being threatened by them, I’ve also now received a cease and desist, threatening a defamation suit, (they made stuff up) And then I’m interfering with their business. That isn’t registered  with the city.

I guarantee you all, being nice and putting your neighbors above your guests 100% will get you very far in your neighborhoods!

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

So sad that this situation is making everyone miserable and on edge! No one needs this kind of stress in their lives. 

Are you current on your license and permit with your city or county? That can make a big difference in how to approach such a situation.

Here we have public hearings where neighbors can have their say, before a permit is issued. This process makes it possible for everyone to feel heard, and not ambushed. All the various agencies get to investigate for potential impacts on the neighborhood, also considering public health and safety. We have some reasonable restrictions on our hosting, but they make total sense, so we don't consider it problematic.

That does not mean we will never have any problems here, but so far so good.  By the time we'd had our public hearing we had learned so much, and the neighbors all know what we are doing. We even had one show up with a big truck to get a guest's car out of a muddy ditch. Yay! 

Legal advice is good, imho, professional mediation may be the solution, as less adversarial. I hope this resolves well, and peace is restored to the neighborhood. Best wishes to you!