Whether they share a wall, a fence, or live across the street, a new nationwide survey by Lombardo Homes—No. 95 on the 2022 Builder 100—found more than half of Americans (53%) currently have an annoying neighbor.
In April 2022, the Michigan-based builder surveyed 1,212 Americans to get their feedback on difficult neighbors and how they deal with those annoyances.
Survey respondents live in various types of housing arrangements, from detached single-family homes to apartments to townhomes, and were 49% female and 49% male, with an age range of 18 to 79 and an average age of 41 years old.
Noisy Neighbors
Coming in at No. 1, noise ranked as the biggest neighbor complaint. According to respondents, loud music is the No. 1 noise complaint. Loud adults who are talking or shouting, loud pets, loud children, and loud exterior work—such as construction sounds—complete the top five noise complaints.
But when it comes to construction, sometimes the noise is unavoidable, so the survey drilled into socially acceptable times to begin work outside. For construction crews, respondents say starting around 8 a.m. on weekdays and around 9 a.m. on the weekends would be ideal.
When it comes to music and parties, respondents say those ragers should end around 10 p.m. during the week. On the weekend, neighbors might hope for less noise around 10 p.m. or midnight at the latest.
Rounding out the top 10 neighbor annoyances are people who don’t clean up after pets, neighbors who are intrusive or nosy, neighbors who don’t understand the rules of parking, unsupervised children running amok, aggressive animals, upstairs neighbors with loud footsteps, smoke from cigarettes, people who don’t maintain their landscaping, and passive-aggressive neighbors.
Keep Calm or Confront
The majority of respondents (63%) have either never confronted their neighbors for their grievances or have only on a rare occasion. But, 4% say they have no problem confronting their neighbors every time they’re annoyed and 11% confront them frequently.
When voicing their grievances, 37% say they’ve confronted a neighbor face-to-face, but people also admit to leaving a note (13%), calling the police (15%), or reporting them to a landlord or homeowner’s association (HOA) (16%). Seventeen percent also say they’ve even done something on purpose just to “get back” at that annoying neighbor.
According to the survey, neighbors have also banded together to challenge a particular household. Thirty-eight percent say they’ve turned to other neighbors to see if they have the same issue with a common neighbor, and nearly 1 in 10 have confronted that common neighbor together.
Strength may also come in the form of an HOA, with 60% saying they have neighbors who break the rules set by an HOA. But, 27% also admit to breaking the HOA rules themselves.
