Complications of a Bad Neighbor-Solve a Problem Paper
Rhonda Mayer
PHL/458
September 2, 2012
Tracy Colcord

At some point everyone encounters a problem or issue in their lifetime and the most difficult part of it could be finding a solution. According to the book “ The Art of Thinking” by Ryan Ruggiero, the greatest difficulty people have in thinking about problems and issues is evaluating the various solutions and choosing the best one. Growing up most of us desire to have a family and a nice comfortable home. Taking the first step to buying a house is a difficult decision and most couples goes through a lot of planning when preparing to make this commitment. Aside from financial support, searching for the right house takes a lot a lot of time. When the house is found that’s desired the next step is to investigate the neighborhood. Many times this step is omitted but it may be the most important step to making a final decision because the neighborhood as a whole is the place which people invest, raise their children and live for many years to come. Making sure to cover all needed steps to buying a home is most crucial for peace and happiness to be united inside and outside the home.

When I bought my first home in Georgia in 1998, my husband and I were in a hurry to purchase a home for our family of three. I was in my early twenties and was very inexperienced in buying a new home. After several months of looking at multiple houses which were shown by my cousin who was my real estate agent, my husband and I found the perfect house, a beautiful 1800 square foot home with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. The house was located in a very nice quiet subdivision, and my soon to be home was near the end of a cul-de-sac. My husband and I feel in love with the place at first sight, it had all the options we were looking for along with the upgrades and amenities. It seemed perfect and no reason not to buy it; we signed the buyer’s agreement the next day with no further inspection of the community. Unfortunately, we did not take the needed steps of checking into the neighborhood and I had no idea what we would be getting into with out future neighbor Mr. Johnson. Having an unfriendly and trouble making neighbor next to me created very miserable conditions and I had to figure out the solution to our problem. “Tough time’s never last, but tough people do. “ Robert H. Schuller. Words to live by in bad conditions. Four months after we moved into our new home I noticed Mr. Johnson was giving us issues. He always parked his mini van across the sidewalk on the front side of our property. I asked him nicely to move his mini van because it was illegal to black a side walk. Mr. Johnson replied “If I wasn’t happy with his parking call the cops.” I took his advice and the first step by calling the authorities, they came to my home and Mr. Johnson was issued a warning, I thought this would be a red flag and teach him a valuable lesson, but I was wrong. The next day when we were leaving for church I noticed our trash can had been turned over and several of my flowers in my flower bed had been uprooted. I suspected Mr. Johnson and called the cops but with no evidence they could only make a report of the incident. My husband suffered under these poor conditions too. He enjoys working in the yard in the afternoons; when he would be in the front yard planting or fertilizing Mr. Johnson would sit in the middle of his yard staring with his two barking poodles for hours. One day Mr. Johnson’s poodles got off the leash and came into my front yard and broke several of my newly potted plants. I would have called animal control because the dog was off the leash and there is a leash law to be enforced. But I wanted to keep the peace so I didn’t call. One afternoon while my husband was fertilizing our back yard he found an envelope beside our mailbox which inside had a note addressed to us stating that fertilizer from our yard had spread to Mr. Johnson’s yard and his poodle became sick from the condition. At this point, I told myself that I had enough abuse, and was prepared to take the final step to take action to protect myself and my family. As said “A good example is for better than a good precept.” Dwight L. Moody. I talked to my other neighbors in the area and learned they had also had trouble with Mr. Johnson in the past. He would always use his dogs as tools against abiding by the rules and never had anything positive to give back. The more bad actions Mr. Johnson made the more the neighbors would distance themselves from him and his home, which was one of the nicest in the neighborhood. I asked my neighbors to come forward and confront the situation but they were not willing to participate, afraid of the disturbance it might cause within the subdivision. I took matters into my own hands. As Alfred North Whitehead warned “Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination.” Being creative means combining knowledge and imagination. I used my creative thoughts and started collecting evidence; I took pictures of Mr. Johnson’s dogs roaming freely and in my yard unattended. I also, video tapped the dogs barking for hours, which is a noise violation in our community. After much collected evidence I presented my case to our HOA and authorities and filed a complaint. Mr. Johnson was not happy when he saw me in the arbitration hearing, and he blamed me for all that had happened. I presented all the evidence to him in front of the council, none of which Mr. Johnson could deny. The arbitrator told Mr. Johnson that if he didn’t’ cooperate with me he intended to support me one hundred percent if we ended up in court. Mr. Johnson had no choice, we laid down some rules in writing and both of us agreed to them. After meeting with Mr. Johnson I felt I had taken all needed steps to make a more peaceful life for my family. Everything seemed to work better in our neighborhood. When buying a new home make sure to complete the two important steps , One ask questions about the subdivision or community and Second Inspect the neighborhood, don’t make a hasty decision, taking your time makes better choices and answer more unforeseen questions. As with my example failing to do so can cause much grief and unhappiness starting a new home life. If you ever have problem with a very difficult neighbor, first you need to communicate the problem as I tried with Mr. Johnson, if that fails gather evidence and seek assistance through your HOA or local authorities. In the end everyone has the right to have peace of mind at home and enjoy coming home to a peaceful environment.

References
Dwight L. Moody. (n.d) Brainy Quote.com retrieved September 02, 2012 Brainy Quote.com website: http//www.brainyquote.com/quotes.authors/d/Dwight_l_moody.html

Robert H. Schuller (n.d) BrainyQuote.com retrieved September 02, 2012 Brainy Quote.com website: http//www/brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/Robert_h_schuller.html

Ryan Ruggiero. “The Art of Thinking”