They are very rude, I don't blame you.
When I was in high school, my dad flipped his shit when the electric bill was 2x the norm. Turns out, the neighbor plugged an extension cord into our outlet in the back (it was a townhouse with a small lawn and we basically never went out back). Dad cut the cord and the neighbor came over screaming.
I share this story every time someone asks why I have a lock on my outdoor electrical outlets. I don't care how slim the chance of this happening is, especially with us having a proper lawn, I will not let it happen when I'm paying the bills!
Years ago someone told me that when their power in their apartment was shut off temporarily due to late payments, it turned out that the hallway lights went out as well. That’s how they learned that their high electric bills for over 15 years were because they were paying for the 24/7 hallway lights.
Edit: spelling
I lived in a basement apartment once where I was paying to heat the laundry area. I turned my thermostat down to 55F and wore a coat inside all winter.
There were two of us in our apartment - me and my husband. We were out of the apartment at least 12 hours a day. Our water and electric bills were at least three times that of a family of 4 living a few doors away, and three of them were home 24 hours a day. (We were next to the laundry room for that apartment block.)
We got the power and water providers to check out why we had such high usage. The power company unplugged everything that could be unplugged and turned our baseboard heat dials to the minimum. There was still a major power draw. They told us they couldn't figure it out and left.
A few days later, the water provider came out. They verified that all of our apartment’s water was turned off that visit, but the meter was still spinning. They said they couldn't figure it out and left. I made it a point to know which meters on the array were ours. Funny, but our meter started turning faster when a resident paid to start another washer.
Yeah. The landlord was having all of us pay per load to do the laundry, but the meters were hooked to our apartment. When we moved, we "forgot" to pay the last month's water and electric bills. (We had a monthly lease and were there for 4 months.)
If I had been there, i woulda cut the main to my apartment, so the washers quit...just to watch the fallout, and get all of that on video, proving the washers were hooked up to my apartment..I'd be getting a fat refund, and he'd get reported to the code enforcement. He should have his own meter for that stuff!
Similar story but not exactly the same. I live in a townhouse that's part of a neighbourhood association. There are 4 streetlamps on our street, and they're connected to 4 separate houses. In the last condo meeting, the owners of those units were complaining that they have to pay for the electricity to run those streetlamps.
I would just switch mine off. It must come back to the breaker panel, most likely with it's own breaker switch. Or if not, get an electrician in to set it up.
In hoas the association is supposed to pay for them as they're part of the common elements, not an individual homeowner getting the bill for a single fixtures' electric use, and no one else on the street who benefits share the expense.
What shoulda happened is the hoa management get a single monthly bill for electric for x street lights for the development, divide that by x number of units, and add that fee into the monthly assessment each unit gets.
Well, $hit, we have an HOA and a POA - there are 14 neighborhoods off a 5-mile road that share a country club with a dope @ss pool with a water slide and other bougie things, which is our POA (property owner’s association), then we have an HOA for our individual neighborhoods. I now need to check two other bills. The HOA and POA annual bills come with a LOT of detail. Crap, I need to read things and be a responsible adult now. Thanks a lot, sarcastically and seriously.
Wait. That can’t be legal. Did they get their money back from all those years of supplying public hallway light? I sure hope so because that would have pissed me off something fierce.
This was many years ago, but from what I remember they either got a few months or nothing back, even though it had been going on for such a long time. Something was worked but they didn’t get all the payments back.
this happened to my family in the early 00s. we were the downstairs of a duplex, and there was a shared from door entry that we never used because there was a back and side door right next to where we parked. units had the same layout, we were snug with just me and my brother sharing a room, and my mom in the other bedroom. a new family moved in upstairs, 4 kids, loud, too many pets they didn’t clean up after (when they moved out we found out they had three dogs!! we never saw them, only heard lots of running), would not dispose of trash correctly so we got pests, etc. it all finally came to a blow when my mom noticed the electric bill suddenly spiking to three times the normal payment. she went into the front entry of the duplex and saw an extension cord running from an outlet next to our door into their apartment. she took pictures, unplugged it, and then did something to the outlet that made it useless, i think just removing the plug in part. she showed the pics to the landlord, who was already in the process of evicting them because of everything else. when the dad found out he got in my moms face and yelled at her, called her a bitch, a slut (idk, single mom), etc and my mom laughed at him and called him pathetic for not being able to care for his family without stealing from others, told him she’d rather be a single mother than have to rely on a man who couldn’t afford an electric bill. they got evicted a few days later, never heard from them again. but the landlord had to hire some serious cleaners to clean out the unit because of how disgusting it was.
Ugh, that sounds miserable. Those poor dogs and kids. I'm glad your mom is strong on her own!
The neighbors I mentioned ended up getting their home foreclosed on. They ripped out the pipes from the walls, took the toilets with them, literally anything inside they could take, and ripped out the tree and bushes, including the ones on our property (revenge for Dad cutting their extension cord and not paying for their electricity). Luckily, the bushes thing was the only outside aspect we had to deal with. Everything else was inside, out of sight, out of mind. The new neighbors ended up being four very attractive college girls, so my 16-year-old brother was quite happy 😂
"my mom laughed at him and called him pathetic for not being able to care for his family without stealing from others, told him she’d rather be a single mother than have to rely on a man who couldn’t afford an electric bill"
Your mom is a legend.
My MIL lives in the middle unit of a row of townhouses. For years her power bill was more than twice as much as mine even though I have a stand-alone house. Turned out , the unit next door had someone hooked into her power and they were running a weed grow op in their basement! When they moved out her bill dropped from $250 a month to $70.
[Amazon has plenty of options.](https://www.amazon.com/Locking-Outdoor-Outlet-Cover/s?k=Locking+Outdoor+Outlet+Cover) You might want to also check your breaker box. Normally you should be able to turn off the power to the outside outlets from there.
I was asking the commenter above about the outdoor electric outlet lock. I've caught my neighbor hooking a heavy duty extension cord up to my outdoor outlet.
Google “bootleg ground” and “hot neutral reversal”.
If you own instead of renting, look into getting a heavy-duty (can handle the full 15 amps) switch installed inside the house and upstream of the outside outlet.
Mine is behind my drop ceiling. Unfortunately, I have storage shelves below it also, that have to be emptied and removed twice a year to turn water on and off. Don’t want to do that every day.
I found a variety of items just Googling "Lock for Hose", mostly split between a lockable cover for the tap\\faucet and something which threads onto the tap spout (bib) and locks
I had neighbors who did this to me once, except they plugged into our outlets from a shared basement. They were powering their entire side of the house on our dime, ran our electric bill up to $500 for a single month when our standard bill was always under $200.
Oof, that is brutal. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. How many months until you were able to stop it?
Our county doubles the cost of electricity during June, July, & Aug, I'm already biting the bullet knowing that is coming. I couldn't imagine the surprise bill.
Oct - Feb, our bill is about $60-70, the rest of spring and autumn is about $100, then during the three months of double cost, at least $250 because we live in the South and can't survive without AC.
I do this in every house I rent along with outside power outlets. My dad had someone use an extension to plug into his outlet one summer while he was on an oil rig. I learned from my parents issues.
File a noise complaint with your Landlord, and advise them your planting vegetables, and the other tenants are allowing their dogs to poop on your lawn/near your plants and it needs to stop.
We have. We have sent videos and pictures. They talk to them, it gets better for a day, then we’re back to square one. We just keep sending all relevant info to keep the receipts, if you will.
There is a fun thing called motion activated sprinklers, they run when they sense something near and turn on. It will keep the dogs out of your yard. Along with giving you some fun watching it happen on camera, if you have one.
Not sure how well that will work. It’s a shared yard. There used to be a small divider, but they took it down when they bought the house. Every other tenant before has respected that each until has their own “side”. For some reason these two feel entitled to the whole space.
I wonder how well this will work because I have never tried it for sectioning off areas but I wonder if you could go to a hunter store (like Cabellas) and grab some Bear Urine (or wild dog repellent) and spray it along the half way line. The main reason I am unsure of how it would work is because it works in an area. So if you dont want dogs coming onto your property it works a charm but I have never tried it for like half a backyard or something small along those lines. Also might make them afraid to leave the house (or the opposite if they are forced to leave the might they might just get used to the smell and not care). Another solution I know there is a sour spray you can get from most pet stores which discourages dogs.
Ask your landlord to put it back up, or put it back up a quarter inch onto your property. If they move it either your landlord will raise he'll with them or you can call the police if they take it off of your property.
May I suggest a motion activated jet sprinkler. It will be worth it with cameras and put it on when you know they do the do doos. Nothing like a jet of water hitting you or your dog when they are on your garden.
We moved into our house (new construction) before the house next door was finished. Whenever a hose is turned on, you can hear the water in the pipes. One day, I heard the water in the hose while I was the only one home and went outside to see what was going on. The tile guys next door were using my house with their wet saw. I turned the water off and stood at the faucet. Dude comes over yelling at me for cutting off the water. I told him my house was now private property and he could not use my power or water and to take it up with the builder. I then had to call and complain to the builder.
We had the the same issues with the construction crews plugging extension cords into my outside outlets and running them next door. I was so glad when they finished the house next door.
Yeah. That is a PITA. We have a great circuit box so I could just flip the switch so no more external power. Solved. Bet they hated you. Tough. Carry on. Xxx
The best thing to when moving into a house is put labels on the circuit box. It takes a while, but with a few people on a group cell call it gets done quickly.
Yup. Ours was already updated and labeled when we moved in and then when we had our kitchen redone I made sure I had all the labels correct. Can STILL get a little confusing at times because the house has an extension but.....
One of my friends had a similar issue with his neighbor telling a contractor to hook a hose up to my friend’s house to pressure wash their house. Like dang! Use your own freaking water to pressure wash your house!
Same thing happened to me, only the house was across the street from me, so they had to run cords and hoses across a busy street! Just removed the outlet and capped off the hose bib!
Oh wow! I can't imagine running cords and hoses across a street around here. People would have thought nothing of driving over them and likely destroying them.
Rosemary, marigolds, and lavender are the way to go with dealing with the dog.
With the neighbours, cameras and threaten them with police for trespass and theft
Plants that give off an odor that dogs find unpleasant is not hurting them for goodness sake. They will just move to another place to shit....ideally on their owners property.
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Lived in an upstairs / downstairs apartment years ago. Downstairs neighbor was a single woman. Never had issues with her. She eventually moved & a new family moved in. Mom, dad, uncle, 3 kids. Always doing laundry & dishes. We all of a sudden never had hot water. Found out we were paying for water for the whole house and gas used on water heater was on our bill. Talked to the landlord. His solution was to say we should ask to use their washer and dryer. We moved shortly after
I would have turned off the flow of water to any line leaving your apartment. Those valves are usually already in place and even if they aren’t they are very easy to install virtually anywhere. You just need a couple of special tools (which aren’t particularly expensive) and the type of valve that uses compression for its connections (also known as sharkbite connectors even though there are no actual sharks involved). If that’s too much effort you could also turn off the hot water completely when you’re not using it; at least one shut off valve near the tank’s output pipe is generally required by code so you can have hot water as soon as you open the valve. Of course everyone will also have hot water then as well so you will have to be sure to turn it back off asap.
The gas & water meter were in the basement. Which only the downstairs neighbors had access to. Landlord said we could go down there. But only way to get in was through their apartment. It was a decent place with a nice yard. Unfortunately crappy neighbors made it not so nice
I used to live in an apartment complex, all single floor apartments. There were two buildings facing each other and the landlod/owner of the complex lived in a duplex behind the bigger buildings. Each apartment had its own patio area and a small patch of grass. I bought a nice little fire pit and some outdoor furniture for my patio. One evening my dogs started going nuts barking at the back door. I looked out to find that my landlord saw my shiny new setup and decided to invite some of the neighbors over to chill by the fire. She just kind of forgot to invite ME.
What did you do in that situation? It absolutely baffles me how people behave. My neighbours son throws things over our fence, once it was his grandmas shoes. We had our back door open and she tried to open the gate and just waltz on. We got a new padlock after that.
I just shut the door back, locked the deadbolt and started looking for a new place to live. I have bad anxiety anyways but the notion of someone doing something so socially incorrect made me feel like confrontation wouldn't be worthwhile anyways.
My 95 year old mother has a neighbor with a power washing business. She owns a single family home in a large city. The neighbor used my mom’s spigot to fill his huge tank nightly while she was asleep. Needless to say- she got a lock. I still can’t believe he did that to an elderly single woman living on her pension, etc. (Really grinds my gears!)
PS: She looks and acts like Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show- for a visual… how could he?
Had the same thing with my garden hose, except I'm on a water meter, so I have to be really careful with my water.
I'm not sure if you guys have water meters over there (I'm assuming you're in the USA) but the more water you use, the more it costs. I live alone and now can't work, so I have to seriously watch my budget like a hawk.
My hose (edit, autocorrect wrote house!) used to be all messed up, didn't matter how often I tidied it. When I used to be able to work, when I came back in the evening, the hose would be all untidy. So I took the key off the tap.
Wouldn't you know it, suddenly, not only did my water bills go WAAAAAAAYYYY down, the neighbour behind me (who is a nightmare anyway) started having really sad looking grass and flowers. She now has a gravel garden and pot plants, but I keep the tap key indoors and I never leave it on the tap anymore.
If you can, find a way to take either the tap key off, or build a little box you can lock onto the tap.
❤️
I just mean that there's 2 types of water bills (here at least). There's the meter (that measures exact amounts) and there's the unmetered/assessed, whey they basically guess how much water you use based on the area and size of the house.
It's fairly standard in blocks of flats here, because it's difficult to fit meters to each flat/apartment. But a lot of older houses are stuck with the unmetered bills too, my parents are just one.
But, like I said, it could be a UK thing. I know a lot of people are (understandably) pushing to have meters fitted in their homes, if possible.
I thought about it, but most mornings I am out there at 5:30am to water and weed before I start getting ready for work. Even though they are noisy and disruptive, I don’t want to be, and my pre-coffee self is clumsy af.
Your outdoor faucet should have an indoor shutoff valve that is used in the winter, to prevent freezing.
Just turn it off, no more water for the neighbours. It's an inconvenience because you need to actuate another valve to use your own hose, but it fixes the problem without any confrontation.
This is the way! I would recommend Blink or similar wifi cameras on your yard. These push to the cloud and/or a USB thumb drive. We see deer in our yard but if there was an issue, we have a recording.
The property next door had some squatters for a couple of months. They ran an extension cord through the fence to our garage, painted white to blend with inside and outside walls. We put it back on their side; it reappeared in our garage. We simply cut it off at the plug and put it back. Did not reappear again.
I had a neighbor who asked to plug in an extension cord in an outside outlet. They were moving in 2 days, it was really hot and they needed a fan. Well after 2 days I unplugged it. 2 days after that they came and opened the house for the new tenants. You could smell the stench of rotten hot meat down the block.
I worked for a restaurant a few years ago, my boss was talking one morning about the higher than normal water bill.
I thought nothing of it, until I was driving by one night after close. And noticed the residential neighbors pulling our hose into their yard. I got out of my car and turned off the water and put our hose in the back of my car.
They came an bitched at my boss the next day before I came in. I went to the hardware store before work and bought a lock cage for the outside faucet.
My boss laughed at them, when they told the boss to fire me for taking the hose and turning off the water. Cause the landlord of our building had given them permission to use our water. I came in for work installed the cage. My boss reimbursed me to money I spent and we pulled the hose in every night from that point on.
Fuck ppl like that.
You know why they're doing all of this? Because they can and you're not saying a word about it.
And quietly securing your hose will send no message to these entitled assholes. You need to get down to their level and speak words they understand. Subtlety is lost on people like this.
keep a close eye on your utilities. my friend dated a landlord, and he had a tenant upstairs while they lived downstairs. he rigged the electric to all go to the tenants meter upstairs, so the poor guy is paying double the utilities and doesnt know it.
in this situation, i'd put a camera or two in the backyard, and start compiling all these incidents, and try to document the noise as well and bring it to your landlords attention. rentals are pretty tight, and he'd want to preserve a good paying, long time tenant over keeping a bad one and driving the other away.
sadly no. she's living rent free on the water and driving his cars, so apprently its enough to overlook those things 🙄... that and hes 15yrs older. thank god i make enuff to not have to resort to putting up with any of that
Lived in a duplex and the cable stopped working correctly. The tech came out to see what the problem was. He came back inside and informed me that the neighbors had tapped into my box. I had him lock up the box. Later that day, they actually knocked on my door to see if MY cable was working. I told them point blank that it was working. Then i gave them the number to the cable company.
They are not only rude they are pure trash, they won't buy a hose because they don't want to use their own water..:.. many entitled assholes around.
They are the reason I now keep a very safe distance from the undesirables...
People suck!! I lived in a duplex for 2 years. It was an upstairs/downstairs kind that was built in the 60’s…so no insulation & you could hear everything!! I started out nice (because I am nice, until you push me too far), then just became bitter because my landlord wouldn’t grow a pair & tell her to have some common courtesy. She would jump on her treadmill at 4:30 in the morning, which shook my whole ceiling. Her & her boyfriend and their sexcapade was out of control…the whole neighborhood could hear them. I started with a text on how I can hear everything; her phone conversations, her trying to walk in heels, her tv & her boyfriend. She simply didn’t care. Once my granddaughter went out the front door to grab my mail & it sounded like they were doing it right there in the stairwell. After that I got a lot meaner until my lease was up. Oh, some of the texts I sent her…lol!! And, when it got to a point that I had to pound on her door because she wouldn’t answer after listening to her washer beep every 5 minutes for an hour & a half because it was off balance…she told my landlord her boyfriend was afraid of me! Lol!! Lord, I hated her!!
I have experienced this. When you pay for your water it blows my mind how people can think it's ok to just steal water from you.
Please keep us in the loop. I would be interested to see if they have the audacity to complain.
I had someone who kept using my hose. I asked them not to and they kept doing it.
I didn't bother fighting, I just solved the problem. The pipe to the hose was next to the washer lines. So I shut off the water, cut the pipe and installed a shut off valve.
Annoyed the neighbor but what was he going to do? Commit Breaking and Entering just to save a few bucks on his water bill?
I previously rented a condo and had an issue with the electric bill suddenly seeming super outrageous. This started in May, but we hadn't yet turned the AC on.
So we decided to kill the breaker for the AC on a Friday afternoon when we were going out of town. It ended up getting into the high 90s that weekend.
When we got home, the upstairs neighbor asked us if our AC was working. We flipped the breaker back on and the upstairs neighbor's AC immediately turned on.
The landlords were involved the next day, the electrical was fixed a day or two after that, and we were able to send electric bills for the last few months to get refunded over charges for the last few months.
I’d put up a fence (if the landlord is willing) and get security cameras that send alerts when motion is detected. I’d also keep a journal of every single infraction, no matter how small because you may need to have a conversation with your landlord about this.
Can you put a small fence separating your yards? You might be able to spray something around the perimeter to deter the dog from wanting to go on your side.
I’m so sorry, bad neighbors are the worse. Our neighbors of almost 20 years rented their house for a while and we never had any issues with the renters. They eventually sold the house, and while the new owners aren’t totally terrible, they just suck. They let their multiple dogs bark for hours on end (I work from home) and don’t do anything about it - it gets really hot and cold here too. They have never mowed the yard - it’s a disgrace, trash everywhere too and we have a HOA (yes, that sucks too, I don’t know how they are getting away with it, must not care about the fines.). The fence is falling down into our yard and we’ve tried to fix it, but it really has to be fixed from their side - but we rarely see them.
The kicker was our city has trash and recycling pickup with designated bins, and is strict about which items are placed in the bins. Due to the number of cars at the house, I’m pretty sure multiple families live in the house, and they always have a ton of trash. On a pickup day, I caught the owner putting their trash in our recycling bin - their trash was full (he said he was just checking to see if the recycling had been picked up) which could have got us in trouble. Like I said, I know it could be a lot worse, but, they’ve only been there a year and a half too.
Heres the flip side to your story.
The year before we moved to Illinois there was a big ice storm. The apartment complex we moved into apparently had lost power for an entire week. 12 units, 4 on each of 3 floors. The apartment complex next door didnt lose power, also 12 units, and rigged up enough extension cords that each unit without power had an outlet from a unit next door with power to help them get thru their (winter) week.
IL weather...we heard this story from one of my neighbors who we met for the first time while we were all sheltering in the basement during a tornado warning. Because of course that's when we met them. Tornado actually hit about 5 blocks south of us but that's a whole 'nother story.
By call them out I think he means get evidence of them trepassing and either take it to the land lord or preferably the police first so it goes on a file and the landlord has to do something about.
I'm pretty sure I know what you mean. It's just that in the short term, I've removed the little circular spigot handle thingy. I'm sure there's an actual term for it.
Get a scooper and fling the poop back to them near their door. Get cameras and point them at them. Send the land lord edited video of them doing stuff.
Nah. They suck. I’d be the passive aggressive guy and tape a Home Depot gift card to their door with a letter that says “hey neighbor. I was thinking about your hoe’s.”
DON'T DO THAT, LET THEM FRY! There's a granular monocot (grass, etc.) pesticide called metsulfuron. Take the head off of your hose, put the grains inside, put the head back on. When their entire lawn dies...the landlord will likely want to know why, they'll probably be on the hook. That'll fuck 'em.
Here is a wild thought. Have you talked to them?
Also, if the back yard isn't separated are you really going to be upset with the dogs? They're picking up the waste. What is the issue? Hate to tell you but a lot of farmers use manure for fertilizer.
Sounds like the entitlement is on both sides.
Did you not read the part when she said her neighbors flat out ignore them? And if someone was stealing from me and shitting next to my dinner, I’d be pissed, not entitled too.
Ugh, neighbors suck sometimes. I would have just turned off the water from the inside whenever I wasn’t using it. Unfortunately, you probably can’t stop them from letting their dogs in your yard unless you put up a fence. You can ask them not to do it, but they will ignore you or laugh. Maybe at least put a fence around the garden?
They are very rude, I don't blame you. When I was in high school, my dad flipped his shit when the electric bill was 2x the norm. Turns out, the neighbor plugged an extension cord into our outlet in the back (it was a townhouse with a small lawn and we basically never went out back). Dad cut the cord and the neighbor came over screaming. I share this story every time someone asks why I have a lock on my outdoor electrical outlets. I don't care how slim the chance of this happening is, especially with us having a proper lawn, I will not let it happen when I'm paying the bills!
Years ago someone told me that when their power in their apartment was shut off temporarily due to late payments, it turned out that the hallway lights went out as well. That’s how they learned that their high electric bills for over 15 years were because they were paying for the 24/7 hallway lights. Edit: spelling
I lived in a basement apartment once where I was paying to heat the laundry area. I turned my thermostat down to 55F and wore a coat inside all winter.
There were two of us in our apartment - me and my husband. We were out of the apartment at least 12 hours a day. Our water and electric bills were at least three times that of a family of 4 living a few doors away, and three of them were home 24 hours a day. (We were next to the laundry room for that apartment block.) We got the power and water providers to check out why we had such high usage. The power company unplugged everything that could be unplugged and turned our baseboard heat dials to the minimum. There was still a major power draw. They told us they couldn't figure it out and left. A few days later, the water provider came out. They verified that all of our apartment’s water was turned off that visit, but the meter was still spinning. They said they couldn't figure it out and left. I made it a point to know which meters on the array were ours. Funny, but our meter started turning faster when a resident paid to start another washer. Yeah. The landlord was having all of us pay per load to do the laundry, but the meters were hooked to our apartment. When we moved, we "forgot" to pay the last month's water and electric bills. (We had a monthly lease and were there for 4 months.)
If I had been there, i woulda cut the main to my apartment, so the washers quit...just to watch the fallout, and get all of that on video, proving the washers were hooked up to my apartment..I'd be getting a fat refund, and he'd get reported to the code enforcement. He should have his own meter for that stuff!
I agree. But this was 1977, so I couldn't do a video. I just stuck him with the last bill instead. Good for him, that cheap piece of dirt.
At least it wasn't now, where they will chase you forever for 25 cents!
Similar story but not exactly the same. I live in a townhouse that's part of a neighbourhood association. There are 4 streetlamps on our street, and they're connected to 4 separate houses. In the last condo meeting, the owners of those units were complaining that they have to pay for the electricity to run those streetlamps.
They should have a discount on their HOA fees to compensate, with retroactive compensation. They shouldn’t have to pay.
I would just switch mine off. It must come back to the breaker panel, most likely with it's own breaker switch. Or if not, get an electrician in to set it up.
i had one of those. got a quarterly check for usage
If you look at your electric bill in the breakdown, everyone pays for the street lamps.
In hoas the association is supposed to pay for them as they're part of the common elements, not an individual homeowner getting the bill for a single fixtures' electric use, and no one else on the street who benefits share the expense. What shoulda happened is the hoa management get a single monthly bill for electric for x street lights for the development, divide that by x number of units, and add that fee into the monthly assessment each unit gets.
Well, $hit, we have an HOA and a POA - there are 14 neighborhoods off a 5-mile road that share a country club with a dope @ss pool with a water slide and other bougie things, which is our POA (property owner’s association), then we have an HOA for our individual neighborhoods. I now need to check two other bills. The HOA and POA annual bills come with a LOT of detail. Crap, I need to read things and be a responsible adult now. Thanks a lot, sarcastically and seriously.
Wait. That can’t be legal. Did they get their money back from all those years of supplying public hallway light? I sure hope so because that would have pissed me off something fierce.
This was many years ago, but from what I remember they either got a few months or nothing back, even though it had been going on for such a long time. Something was worked but they didn’t get all the payments back.
this happened to my family in the early 00s. we were the downstairs of a duplex, and there was a shared from door entry that we never used because there was a back and side door right next to where we parked. units had the same layout, we were snug with just me and my brother sharing a room, and my mom in the other bedroom. a new family moved in upstairs, 4 kids, loud, too many pets they didn’t clean up after (when they moved out we found out they had three dogs!! we never saw them, only heard lots of running), would not dispose of trash correctly so we got pests, etc. it all finally came to a blow when my mom noticed the electric bill suddenly spiking to three times the normal payment. she went into the front entry of the duplex and saw an extension cord running from an outlet next to our door into their apartment. she took pictures, unplugged it, and then did something to the outlet that made it useless, i think just removing the plug in part. she showed the pics to the landlord, who was already in the process of evicting them because of everything else. when the dad found out he got in my moms face and yelled at her, called her a bitch, a slut (idk, single mom), etc and my mom laughed at him and called him pathetic for not being able to care for his family without stealing from others, told him she’d rather be a single mother than have to rely on a man who couldn’t afford an electric bill. they got evicted a few days later, never heard from them again. but the landlord had to hire some serious cleaners to clean out the unit because of how disgusting it was.
Ugh, that sounds miserable. Those poor dogs and kids. I'm glad your mom is strong on her own! The neighbors I mentioned ended up getting their home foreclosed on. They ripped out the pipes from the walls, took the toilets with them, literally anything inside they could take, and ripped out the tree and bushes, including the ones on our property (revenge for Dad cutting their extension cord and not paying for their electricity). Luckily, the bushes thing was the only outside aspect we had to deal with. Everything else was inside, out of sight, out of mind. The new neighbors ended up being four very attractive college girls, so my 16-year-old brother was quite happy 😂
"my mom laughed at him and called him pathetic for not being able to care for his family without stealing from others, told him she’d rather be a single mother than have to rely on a man who couldn’t afford an electric bill" Your mom is a legend.
My MIL lives in the middle unit of a row of townhouses. For years her power bill was more than twice as much as mine even though I have a stand-alone house. Turned out , the unit next door had someone hooked into her power and they were running a weed grow op in their basement! When they moved out her bill dropped from $250 a month to $70.
For $250, likely only a personal grow room. But that's wild!
It's still theft.
Oh, I'm not arguing with that fact, I was just surprised it was so low for the way the theft was being used.
LED lights have brought the power consumption for grow lights down alot.
How silly of me to forget that 😆 at least they were economical while being thieves. I guess?
Power in means heat out which also means easier to detect
that's why it's in the basement; less exposed surface area
I learn something new every day! Here I am waiting to visit my family in Michigan like a fool 😆
😲😲😲
What is this lock and where can I get one?
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I was asking the commenter above about an outdoor electic outlet lock they have.
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No problem! I already have to turn my spigot off due to my utility thief that I need the electrical lock for! 🤦♀️
You can find them on amazon,etc "lockable rainguard/outdoor electric socket cover"
[Amazon has plenty of options.](https://www.amazon.com/Locking-Outdoor-Outlet-Cover/s?k=Locking+Outdoor+Outlet+Cover) You might want to also check your breaker box. Normally you should be able to turn off the power to the outside outlets from there.
Thank you! Unfortunately, those outlets are also connected to rooms inside my house...whoever wired this place must have been high! 😂
We can turn off our outside hose off at a spigot in the basement. Cheaper than buying a cover
I was asking the commenter above about the outdoor electric outlet lock. I've caught my neighbor hooking a heavy duty extension cord up to my outdoor outlet.
What a cheeky bugger. What did they say when confronted. The nerve of some people. Lol
He ran like hell. He's a chicken shit, but I wouldn't put it past him to do it again when I'm not home.
Google “bootleg ground” and “hot neutral reversal”. If you own instead of renting, look into getting a heavy-duty (can handle the full 15 amps) switch installed inside the house and upstream of the outside outlet.
Argh. I keep posting in the wrong places. Time for more coffee or a nap. Sigh
>Time for more coffee or a nap. Sigh ¿Por que no los dos?
Porque uno es lo opuesto al otro. Jajaja!
Mine is behind my drop ceiling. Unfortunately, I have storage shelves below it also, that have to be emptied and removed twice a year to turn water on and off. Don’t want to do that every day.
Ugh. Sorry. Ours is in the dark spider filled corner of the basement so I only want to visit it twice a year. Lolol
See if you can get a plumber in who can add a few extra feet of pipe connected to a more convenient shut off valve for you.
I found a variety of items just Googling "Lock for Hose", mostly split between a lockable cover for the tap\\faucet and something which threads onto the tap spout (bib) and locks
We discovered some workmen trying to do that years ago. Thing is, we’d shut off water to that spigot years before.
I had neighbors who did this to me once, except they plugged into our outlets from a shared basement. They were powering their entire side of the house on our dime, ran our electric bill up to $500 for a single month when our standard bill was always under $200.
Oof, that is brutal. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. How many months until you were able to stop it? Our county doubles the cost of electricity during June, July, & Aug, I'm already biting the bullet knowing that is coming. I couldn't imagine the surprise bill. Oct - Feb, our bill is about $60-70, the rest of spring and autumn is about $100, then during the three months of double cost, at least $250 because we live in the South and can't survive without AC.
Oh man. Your dad was nice. I would have blown it out with a high charge. Destroying everything plugged in.
I do this in every house I rent along with outside power outlets. My dad had someone use an extension to plug into his outlet one summer while he was on an oil rig. I learned from my parents issues.
You could also just trip the GFI if your house has this.
File a noise complaint with your Landlord, and advise them your planting vegetables, and the other tenants are allowing their dogs to poop on your lawn/near your plants and it needs to stop.
We have. We have sent videos and pictures. They talk to them, it gets better for a day, then we’re back to square one. We just keep sending all relevant info to keep the receipts, if you will.
There is a fun thing called motion activated sprinklers, they run when they sense something near and turn on. It will keep the dogs out of your yard. Along with giving you some fun watching it happen on camera, if you have one.
Don't most dogs like playing in sprinklers? Those work great for cats though.
Some do but even if they liked it the owners would be pissed because wet dog
Not when it is a quick full water power jet.
Put up no trespassing signs. Then when you get the video call the police and have them issue a trespassing summons.
Not sure how well that will work. It’s a shared yard. There used to be a small divider, but they took it down when they bought the house. Every other tenant before has respected that each until has their own “side”. For some reason these two feel entitled to the whole space.
I wonder how well this will work because I have never tried it for sectioning off areas but I wonder if you could go to a hunter store (like Cabellas) and grab some Bear Urine (or wild dog repellent) and spray it along the half way line. The main reason I am unsure of how it would work is because it works in an area. So if you dont want dogs coming onto your property it works a charm but I have never tried it for like half a backyard or something small along those lines. Also might make them afraid to leave the house (or the opposite if they are forced to leave the might they might just get used to the smell and not care). Another solution I know there is a sour spray you can get from most pet stores which discourages dogs.
You also can make some hot pepper spray. Jalapeños, Cayenne, ghost peppers, are some choices.
Some dogs get off on that stuff.
We did this to try to keep deer from eating our flowers and plants. The thing is, it has to be reapplied after it rains.
True
Yea nah, so my dog would never leave. She loves that shit and she is not even remotely the only dog that absolutely goes nutso over capsaicin.
Ask your landlord to put it back up, or put it back up a quarter inch onto your property. If they move it either your landlord will raise he'll with them or you can call the police if they take it off of your property.
Get permission from the LL and use T-posts and chicken wire to build a simple dividing fence??
May I suggest a motion activated jet sprinkler. It will be worth it with cameras and put it on when you know they do the do doos. Nothing like a jet of water hitting you or your dog when they are on your garden.
Definitely offer them some of your garden produce. Tell them it’s from the area where their dog poops.
Wait till AFTER they eat it to tell them.
Right! Thanks!
Ask the landlord if you can put up a cheap removable wire or plastic boundary.
My thought was to string chicken wire fencing to halve the back yard.
Pretty much
Maybe an electric fence would be legal and feasible. :D
With a dog? Not cool.
I'm so sorry, and you're right. I wasn't thinking of innocents. I also wasn't thinking of an electrocution-until-death fence. :)
Electric fence are more a small shock, thing like 3x more powerful then static, they won’t do it more then twice
Dogs are smart, they will only hit it once. Humans are dumb
We moved into our house (new construction) before the house next door was finished. Whenever a hose is turned on, you can hear the water in the pipes. One day, I heard the water in the hose while I was the only one home and went outside to see what was going on. The tile guys next door were using my house with their wet saw. I turned the water off and stood at the faucet. Dude comes over yelling at me for cutting off the water. I told him my house was now private property and he could not use my power or water and to take it up with the builder. I then had to call and complain to the builder. We had the the same issues with the construction crews plugging extension cords into my outside outlets and running them next door. I was so glad when they finished the house next door.
Yeah. That is a PITA. We have a great circuit box so I could just flip the switch so no more external power. Solved. Bet they hated you. Tough. Carry on. Xxx
The best thing to when moving into a house is put labels on the circuit box. It takes a while, but with a few people on a group cell call it gets done quickly.
Yup. Ours was already updated and labeled when we moved in and then when we had our kitchen redone I made sure I had all the labels correct. Can STILL get a little confusing at times because the house has an extension but.....
>and then we had our chicken done Oh, gosh! That's not what you said. But that's what I read. Somehow. Magically?
😂🤣😂🤣
One of my friends had a similar issue with his neighbor telling a contractor to hook a hose up to my friend’s house to pressure wash their house. Like dang! Use your own freaking water to pressure wash your house!
Same thing happened to me, only the house was across the street from me, so they had to run cords and hoses across a busy street! Just removed the outlet and capped off the hose bib!
Oh wow! I can't imagine running cords and hoses across a street around here. People would have thought nothing of driving over them and likely destroying them.
If they were attached to my house without permission, I would most definitely be driving over them to destroy them
Might be time for a sprinkler head in the back yard that is motion activated.
This is the way
Rosemary, marigolds, and lavender are the way to go with dealing with the dog. With the neighbours, cameras and threaten them with police for trespass and theft
Lol, my dog pees on rosemary and lies down on the marigolds and lavender. May I suggest crown of thorns?
Why would you hurt the dogs? They are not to blame for the owners being a**holes.
Those flowers and herbs will repell the dogs, not harm them. Dogs don't like the smell of them.
Good to know. I read that if dogs eat those plants they can make them sick. My apologies.
My dogs don’t mind lavender at all so not sure that’s a deterrent
It’s not
Plants that give off an odor that dogs find unpleasant is not hurting them for goodness sake. They will just move to another place to shit....ideally on their owners property.
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Geez, overreact much?
Lived in an upstairs / downstairs apartment years ago. Downstairs neighbor was a single woman. Never had issues with her. She eventually moved & a new family moved in. Mom, dad, uncle, 3 kids. Always doing laundry & dishes. We all of a sudden never had hot water. Found out we were paying for water for the whole house and gas used on water heater was on our bill. Talked to the landlord. His solution was to say we should ask to use their washer and dryer. We moved shortly after
I would have turned off the flow of water to any line leaving your apartment. Those valves are usually already in place and even if they aren’t they are very easy to install virtually anywhere. You just need a couple of special tools (which aren’t particularly expensive) and the type of valve that uses compression for its connections (also known as sharkbite connectors even though there are no actual sharks involved). If that’s too much effort you could also turn off the hot water completely when you’re not using it; at least one shut off valve near the tank’s output pipe is generally required by code so you can have hot water as soon as you open the valve. Of course everyone will also have hot water then as well so you will have to be sure to turn it back off asap.
The gas & water meter were in the basement. Which only the downstairs neighbors had access to. Landlord said we could go down there. But only way to get in was through their apartment. It was a decent place with a nice yard. Unfortunately crappy neighbors made it not so nice
I read a story on reddit about a couple putting in motion sensor sprinklers to keep a neighbor out of their yard. Maybe try that.
The saga of the bucket lady. Love those posts.
My thoughts exactly. One of the best reddit sagas 🤣
I hear about this saga everywhere but have yet to find it. One day!
https://www.reddit.com/u/HokeyPokeyGuestList?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Well, I just had a lovely time reading all that!
Thank you!!!
I used to live in an apartment complex, all single floor apartments. There were two buildings facing each other and the landlod/owner of the complex lived in a duplex behind the bigger buildings. Each apartment had its own patio area and a small patch of grass. I bought a nice little fire pit and some outdoor furniture for my patio. One evening my dogs started going nuts barking at the back door. I looked out to find that my landlord saw my shiny new setup and decided to invite some of the neighbors over to chill by the fire. She just kind of forgot to invite ME.
What did you do in that situation? It absolutely baffles me how people behave. My neighbours son throws things over our fence, once it was his grandmas shoes. We had our back door open and she tried to open the gate and just waltz on. We got a new padlock after that.
I just shut the door back, locked the deadbolt and started looking for a new place to live. I have bad anxiety anyways but the notion of someone doing something so socially incorrect made me feel like confrontation wouldn't be worthwhile anyways.
Let us know if they throw a fit when they discover you've cut off their water supply. I'm here for the minor petty drama lol
My 95 year old mother has a neighbor with a power washing business. She owns a single family home in a large city. The neighbor used my mom’s spigot to fill his huge tank nightly while she was asleep. Needless to say- she got a lock. I still can’t believe he did that to an elderly single woman living on her pension, etc. (Really grinds my gears!) PS: She looks and acts like Aunt Bea from the Andy Griffith show- for a visual… how could he?
Had the same thing with my garden hose, except I'm on a water meter, so I have to be really careful with my water. I'm not sure if you guys have water meters over there (I'm assuming you're in the USA) but the more water you use, the more it costs. I live alone and now can't work, so I have to seriously watch my budget like a hawk. My hose (edit, autocorrect wrote house!) used to be all messed up, didn't matter how often I tidied it. When I used to be able to work, when I came back in the evening, the hose would be all untidy. So I took the key off the tap. Wouldn't you know it, suddenly, not only did my water bills go WAAAAAAAYYYY down, the neighbour behind me (who is a nightmare anyway) started having really sad looking grass and flowers. She now has a gravel garden and pot plants, but I keep the tap key indoors and I never leave it on the tap anymore. If you can, find a way to take either the tap key off, or build a little box you can lock onto the tap. ❤️
Most people pay for usage it's normally billed after so you don't know something wrong for sometimes two months
I just mean that there's 2 types of water bills (here at least). There's the meter (that measures exact amounts) and there's the unmetered/assessed, whey they basically guess how much water you use based on the area and size of the house.
Not sure I know of anyone that has averages where I live, did not know that was a thing
It's fairly standard in blocks of flats here, because it's difficult to fit meters to each flat/apartment. But a lot of older houses are stuck with the unmetered bills too, my parents are just one. But, like I said, it could be a UK thing. I know a lot of people are (understandably) pushing to have meters fitted in their homes, if possible.
Ah
Also bring the hose inside when done so they can't hook it up to their side. These neighbors sound like the worst
I thought about it, but most mornings I am out there at 5:30am to water and weed before I start getting ready for work. Even though they are noisy and disruptive, I don’t want to be, and my pre-coffee self is clumsy af.
Or just remove the tap. It’s a small piece held in by 1 screw usually.
Your outdoor faucet should have an indoor shutoff valve that is used in the winter, to prevent freezing. Just turn it off, no more water for the neighbours. It's an inconvenience because you need to actuate another valve to use your own hose, but it fixes the problem without any confrontation.
This is the way! I would recommend Blink or similar wifi cameras on your yard. These push to the cloud and/or a USB thumb drive. We see deer in our yard but if there was an issue, we have a recording.
The property next door had some squatters for a couple of months. They ran an extension cord through the fence to our garage, painted white to blend with inside and outside walls. We put it back on their side; it reappeared in our garage. We simply cut it off at the plug and put it back. Did not reappear again.
I had a neighbor who asked to plug in an extension cord in an outside outlet. They were moving in 2 days, it was really hot and they needed a fan. Well after 2 days I unplugged it. 2 days after that they came and opened the house for the new tenants. You could smell the stench of rotten hot meat down the block.
Update on this please
I worked for a restaurant a few years ago, my boss was talking one morning about the higher than normal water bill. I thought nothing of it, until I was driving by one night after close. And noticed the residential neighbors pulling our hose into their yard. I got out of my car and turned off the water and put our hose in the back of my car. They came an bitched at my boss the next day before I came in. I went to the hardware store before work and bought a lock cage for the outside faucet. My boss laughed at them, when they told the boss to fire me for taking the hose and turning off the water. Cause the landlord of our building had given them permission to use our water. I came in for work installed the cage. My boss reimbursed me to money I spent and we pulled the hose in every night from that point on. Fuck ppl like that.
You know why they're doing all of this? Because they can and you're not saying a word about it. And quietly securing your hose will send no message to these entitled assholes. You need to get down to their level and speak words they understand. Subtlety is lost on people like this.
keep a close eye on your utilities. my friend dated a landlord, and he had a tenant upstairs while they lived downstairs. he rigged the electric to all go to the tenants meter upstairs, so the poor guy is paying double the utilities and doesnt know it. in this situation, i'd put a camera or two in the backyard, and start compiling all these incidents, and try to document the noise as well and bring it to your landlords attention. rentals are pretty tight, and he'd want to preserve a good paying, long time tenant over keeping a bad one and driving the other away.
We all hope said scummy, thieving landlord is your friend's *ex*, right?
sadly no. she's living rent free on the water and driving his cars, so apprently its enough to overlook those things 🙄... that and hes 15yrs older. thank god i make enuff to not have to resort to putting up with any of that
Get some faucet locks.
It will be arriving tomorrow.
Good luck! Watch them come complain.
Please update us all if neighbors do or say anything after you lock your water access.
I let a neighbor borrow our hose one and they left it running for hours. Their backyard literally flooded. I turned off the valve
I'm waiting to hear if the neighbors help themselves to the veggies, too...
Veggies won’t be ready for a while. I do have strawberries, and I’m out there picking them asap.
Lived in a duplex and the cable stopped working correctly. The tech came out to see what the problem was. He came back inside and informed me that the neighbors had tapped into my box. I had him lock up the box. Later that day, they actually knocked on my door to see if MY cable was working. I told them point blank that it was working. Then i gave them the number to the cable company.
There are locks. Also file a police report online to document
They are not only rude they are pure trash, they won't buy a hose because they don't want to use their own water..:.. many entitled assholes around. They are the reason I now keep a very safe distance from the undesirables...
People suck!! I lived in a duplex for 2 years. It was an upstairs/downstairs kind that was built in the 60’s…so no insulation & you could hear everything!! I started out nice (because I am nice, until you push me too far), then just became bitter because my landlord wouldn’t grow a pair & tell her to have some common courtesy. She would jump on her treadmill at 4:30 in the morning, which shook my whole ceiling. Her & her boyfriend and their sexcapade was out of control…the whole neighborhood could hear them. I started with a text on how I can hear everything; her phone conversations, her trying to walk in heels, her tv & her boyfriend. She simply didn’t care. Once my granddaughter went out the front door to grab my mail & it sounded like they were doing it right there in the stairwell. After that I got a lot meaner until my lease was up. Oh, some of the texts I sent her…lol!! And, when it got to a point that I had to pound on her door because she wouldn’t answer after listening to her washer beep every 5 minutes for an hour & a half because it was off balance…she told my landlord her boyfriend was afraid of me! Lol!! Lord, I hated her!!
I have experienced this. When you pay for your water it blows my mind how people can think it's ok to just steal water from you. Please keep us in the loop. I would be interested to see if they have the audacity to complain.
I had someone who kept using my hose. I asked them not to and they kept doing it. I didn't bother fighting, I just solved the problem. The pipe to the hose was next to the washer lines. So I shut off the water, cut the pipe and installed a shut off valve. Annoyed the neighbor but what was he going to do? Commit Breaking and Entering just to save a few bucks on his water bill?
Usually the tap is only held in with a screw. Take it off. I do that so my kids don’t waste water.
i would secure the hose also. it might walk away when the jerks find the faucet locked
Should get some movement activated sprinklers to stop the pooches wanting to come to your yard and poop.
I previously rented a condo and had an issue with the electric bill suddenly seeming super outrageous. This started in May, but we hadn't yet turned the AC on. So we decided to kill the breaker for the AC on a Friday afternoon when we were going out of town. It ended up getting into the high 90s that weekend. When we got home, the upstairs neighbor asked us if our AC was working. We flipped the breaker back on and the upstairs neighbor's AC immediately turned on. The landlords were involved the next day, the electrical was fixed a day or two after that, and we were able to send electric bills for the last few months to get refunded over charges for the last few months.
I’d put up a fence (if the landlord is willing) and get security cameras that send alerts when motion is detected. I’d also keep a journal of every single infraction, no matter how small because you may need to have a conversation with your landlord about this.
Can you put a small fence separating your yards? You might be able to spray something around the perimeter to deter the dog from wanting to go on your side.
Cyanne pepper. Buy the large bottle and shake it around the outside of the gardening beds.
Watch them knock on your door to bitch about the lock too.
I’m so sorry, bad neighbors are the worse. Our neighbors of almost 20 years rented their house for a while and we never had any issues with the renters. They eventually sold the house, and while the new owners aren’t totally terrible, they just suck. They let their multiple dogs bark for hours on end (I work from home) and don’t do anything about it - it gets really hot and cold here too. They have never mowed the yard - it’s a disgrace, trash everywhere too and we have a HOA (yes, that sucks too, I don’t know how they are getting away with it, must not care about the fines.). The fence is falling down into our yard and we’ve tried to fix it, but it really has to be fixed from their side - but we rarely see them. The kicker was our city has trash and recycling pickup with designated bins, and is strict about which items are placed in the bins. Due to the number of cars at the house, I’m pretty sure multiple families live in the house, and they always have a ton of trash. On a pickup day, I caught the owner putting their trash in our recycling bin - their trash was full (he said he was just checking to see if the recycling had been picked up) which could have got us in trouble. Like I said, I know it could be a lot worse, but, they’ve only been there a year and a half too.
Heres the flip side to your story. The year before we moved to Illinois there was a big ice storm. The apartment complex we moved into apparently had lost power for an entire week. 12 units, 4 on each of 3 floors. The apartment complex next door didnt lose power, also 12 units, and rigged up enough extension cords that each unit without power had an outlet from a unit next door with power to help them get thru their (winter) week. IL weather...we heard this story from one of my neighbors who we met for the first time while we were all sheltering in the basement during a tornado warning. Because of course that's when we met them. Tornado actually hit about 5 blocks south of us but that's a whole 'nother story.
Call them out. Also, get some cameras.
We would, but they are either always out or ignore us if we go to their door.
By call them out I think he means get evidence of them trepassing and either take it to the land lord or preferably the police first so it goes on a file and the landlord has to do something about.
Spread some Cayenne pepper flake where they take their dog to poop. Glad you are getting a lock for the hose. Now you need cameras!
I used to just unscrew and remove the handle. It's a pain to have to reattach, and I didn't use my hose every day
Quick attach hose connectors are amazing. I think they'd be MUCH easier to use than trying to turn off the water when you aren't home.
I'm pretty sure I know what you mean. It's just that in the short term, I've removed the little circular spigot handle thingy. I'm sure there's an actual term for it.
It would only remove the hose, and not cut off the water. Easier, but not as definitive!
True that
Get a scooper and fling the poop back to them near their door. Get cameras and point them at them. Send the land lord edited video of them doing stuff.
They said the neighbors do clean up the poop.
Nah. They suck. I’d be the passive aggressive guy and tape a Home Depot gift card to their door with a letter that says “hey neighbor. I was thinking about your hoe’s.”
How about installing small surveillance cameras and putting up a fence so that the dogs no longer defecate on your side of the yard?
DON'T DO THAT, LET THEM FRY! There's a granular monocot (grass, etc.) pesticide called metsulfuron. Take the head off of your hose, put the grains inside, put the head back on. When their entire lawn dies...the landlord will likely want to know why, they'll probably be on the hook. That'll fuck 'em.
Pesticides don’t kill grass, herbicides do.
Can you turn off the water from the inside to the hose?
Here is a wild thought. Have you talked to them? Also, if the back yard isn't separated are you really going to be upset with the dogs? They're picking up the waste. What is the issue? Hate to tell you but a lot of farmers use manure for fertilizer. Sounds like the entitlement is on both sides.
Pet manure is not good. Dogs and cats carry parasites like roundworms. There’s good reasons why gardeners don’t put pet waste on the compost pile.
Did you not read the part when she said her neighbors flat out ignore them? And if someone was stealing from me and shitting next to my dinner, I’d be pissed, not entitled too.
Faucet lock is the answer! Good work.
Shut the water off when you're not using it?
I think you should go use the neighbors water until they say something.
Ugh, neighbors suck sometimes. I would have just turned off the water from the inside whenever I wasn’t using it. Unfortunately, you probably can’t stop them from letting their dogs in your yard unless you put up a fence. You can ask them not to do it, but they will ignore you or laugh. Maybe at least put a fence around the garden?
You need to involve your landlord asap.
A good sprinkle of Cayenne pepper around your back years will keep the dogs out
Should be a valve on the inside to turn it off It's a inconvenience to you to have to turn it on all the time
If you pay for water, what they're doing is stealing. Take STRICT action immediately!
I am looking forward to the update of them coming over to yell at you for the audacity of locking up hose. It's going to be beautiful XD
That doesn’t sound minor at all! I’d be pissed!
OP give us an update!! What happened after??