I’m considering buying my first home (when the market eventually corrects) and am concerned about potential problems with neighbors. One friend who owns a home in a bit of a poor part of town has fireworks going off in his neighbor’s backyard, keeping him up at night, sporadically. Another friend has problems with barking dogs. Reading posts on FWF 1.0 and FWF 2.0 reveal many other issues like school buses blocking your driveway and trees falling into your backyard.
How about non-noise related issues like cigarette smoke? If your neighbor chain smokes outside all day, it would make it impossible for me to be in the backyard or even open my windows for fresh air. Perhaps purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of high end industrial fans pointing back to my neighbors yard would solve the issue?
My question is: What neighbor-related problems are possible, what are common, how do you deal with them when they occur, how can you proactively prevent them from happening, and what strategies exist for purchasing a home to avoid such problems?
Also, as much as I despise HOAs, I wonder if living in an HOA mitigates some or all of these problems. Because in theory, if the neighbor is setting off fireworks, and a complaint is made to the HOA with documented evidence, then that neighbor will be fined to the point of losing his house if he doesn’t eventually stop. Same for barking dogs, I would imagine.
But maybe the person who’s setting off fireworks is the child of an HOA board member or the barking dog is owned by an HOA board member so nothing gets done?
I’ve long considered moving onto a 10 acre property in a rural area to avoid this since I imagine if I’m 1/4 mile away from my neighbors, then none of this stuff would bother me.