LIFE CAN NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN

I am quite certain this sort of thing happens to many hapless people and it is the sort of thing that you read about in the newspapers. What I cannot understand are the reasons why a few people feel they have the right to totally upset the equilibrium of other peace loving citizens by their selfish and hostile behaviour. It is the kind of thing we are used to seeing on The Jeremy Kyle Show when one family imposes will unfairly on another. But these aren't uneducated yobbos but adults who simply want to get their own way at everybody else's expense.

In this case I am of course referring to The Neighbour From Hell!

To explain: I have lived with my wife in a peaceful community for more than 25-years. We get along well with our long-term neighbours; we all speak to each other, there is no aggression and we are all of a type who are prepared to help each other in a time of need. Only ... this idyllic situation was destined to change when one of my neighbours split up with his wife and sold his house. It's probably not relevant, although it may be, that the house was sold for considerably less than it was really worth in order for the previous owners to settle their financial affairs. The purchaser was a forty-something divorcee that arrived with two boisterous young sons and a male 'friend' in tow that from day one began to alter the entire status quo of the immediate area where we live. 

Now, if I were to move home (which may now be on the cards) one of the first things I would do would be to introduce myself to my neighbours and, without being overbearing, attempt to make friends with them. I don't necessary mean forging the type of friendship whereby you are in and out of one another's homes - but the kind that allows everyone to continue enjoying a pleasant way of life without interfering with anyone else.  

But immediately they, let's call them the She Devil family. moved in Mrs She Devil  and her 'friend' took it upon themselves to take over the communal visitor's parking space despite having a garage and two private parking bays of their own and on-street parking outside their front door. On day one She Devil collared me and suggested I move my car to allow her easier access into the visitor's parking space. She then subjected me to a tirade of lies about the state my neighbour had left his house in. There was no need to move my car because She Devil had ample space of her own. But she felt the need make a point - like a dog marking its territory - as she continued to do every day since by parking in the visitor's bay leaving her private bays clear for her 'friend's'  workman's van ...  a white van! 

Over the Bank Holiday they went away in the white van leaving She Devil to push her point deeper, this time by parking her car at an angle that blocked both my private bay and that intended to be used by visitors to the houses in the courtyard where we live. Prior to going away, she also lobbed off a few branches of my flowering bush that were hanging over her garden. While most people would have disposed of these in their garden refuse bin, She Devil was unable to resist tossing them over the fence into my garden. I know she was legally correct in doing this, but morally it was debatable and any decent person would have simply disposed of the branches. 

I was angered by her actions because I was convinced by blocking two parking spaces for five days while she was away was done in order to make a point; possession being nine-tenths of law or squatters rights or some other such nonsense.  I posted a polite through her letterbox suggesting that the parking issues needed to be addressed. I know I am in the right and she knows that she is not entitled to block parking spaces that are there for the use of others. Only this time she had parked her car on the space that I own. She Devil returned from wherever she had been and banged heavily on my front door. She wanted confrontation - suggesting that she would park wherever she liked. I won't go into the details of a heated verbal debate - well, not much of a debate really because I was unable to get a word in edgeways. The entire street would have heard it which will hardly endear her to others. I asked her to leave my property; she refused, so I closed the front door that obviously caused her blood pressure to rise further and she attempted to knock down my door again. I asked her again to leave my property and this time she did but almost took my gate off its hinges as she left. 

She Devil's angry abuse is not restricted to me. The Parcel Force driver has been subjected to it but my former neighbour who sold her the house was the first to be subjected to her wrath. After leaving his house in good order, She Devil's solicitor sent him a letter claiming compensation for a garage door that won't open or lock; the electrics and water system that has suddenly become dangerously faulty; and a window that was mysteriously broken between my former neighbour leaving and She Devil moving in. I think it is very strange how none of these defects were spotted by her surveyor? But then, I do have a suspicious nature.

Within weeks of moving in Underdog has already made her mark. She is a control freak who has to have her own way and I fear things can only get worse. Why do some people behave like this?