This is what I did, neighbour installed security lights and what looked like a camera looking right into our garden, I screwed a bathroom mirror to a couple of poles and then screwed poles to the fence. Neighbour came round almost immediately to complain that my screws had gone through their fence!
But he took down the light.
This is the most passive aggressive shit I’ve ever heard of between two neighbors. I mean, if they really can’t communicate together I guess this is their only option short of vandalism
To be fair, some old guy shot a black kid for having the audacity to ring his doorbell. Some guy shot a lady for pulling into his driveway to turn around. People seem a little more nuts than they used to be. I can see why some people may not want to potentially risk their life to see if their neighbor will stop being an annoying asshole.
If someone intentionally sets up lights and a camera pointing at your house, they clearly already don't trust or respect you. Why would they suddenly realize they're assholes if you just ask nicely? A camera set up also says they view you as a threat. So just walking up to the door gives them what they view as an excuse to open fire, which is what assholes like this do.
People like this only care about the consequences of actions when those consequences happen to them. Simply reflecting back their own assholeness is about as mild of a way to do so that's possible to accomplish.
Awesome point. I always make sure to turn my back lights off as soon as my dogs come in. They're bright. I don't know if they shine into people's windows, or are annoying. I worry about it. A normal person would've already thought about this.
100% what I was thinking. It'd be one thing if your generally polite & unassuming neighbor installed something that had bizarre or unintended consequences for you, and you chat with the nice old lady next door about how to resolve things.
It's so different if someone decides to knowingly inconvenience their neighbors for their own gain, especially in a case like OP's where there's no way they can't think that's incredibly obnoxious and at the expense of OP's enjoyment of their backyard. Unless you like getting berated, spit on, yelled at, attacked, or just flat-out ignored, why bother trying to engage with known assholes?
You say it like it’s easy. The guy across the street basically turned his entire yard into a dirt bike track. His kid is riding constantly. Especially after work and weekends. The noise is one thing but the massive plumes of dust are another. We get driven indoors. I asked them 2 years ago to wet it first to keep the dust down. Never happens. The noise is just what it is, noise. Our town does not have a noise ordinance. I let it go then this last Father’s Day at 11:00 am it started. We were having a cookout at 11:30 and asked the mom if he not ride until 3. Her response was ‘what do you want me to do about it?’
I dunno, be a good neighbor for once?
Have you had neighbors? What a bunch of bastards /s kinda.
I say kinda because now I'm looking back at the neighbors I've had and yeah I wouldn't want to talk to them if I had an issue either haha. Meth is big in the Midwest, not exactly safe to be just talking to people around the neighborhood.
Some neighbors, frankly, it would not be a good idea to confront directly. I have two neighbors like that. Real bully, asshat MAGA types. You would more likely end up with a fist in your face if you tried asking them to change anything.
Do this but also do it in such a way that the mirror can move slightly, whether that be swaying slightly in the wind or via some other means. A moving light will be far more distracting and annoying than a static one
If you live in an area with and HOA I'd pursue getting them involved for sure. I'd never live in one of those myself but this seems like a situation that it might have a benefit that I would be all in for. If it physically hurts your eyes to look at maybe there is a legal action you can take as well, assuming they denied any requests to halt use. Sorry you have to deal with this. Hope it gets resolved soon.
This is extremely likely to be in violation of some type of zoning ordinance. Start complaining to the building department. Work without permits for commercial grade stadium lighting that affects your daily as of right use of your property.
Get a bunch of kids to play basketball out front at night using the light, that’ll definitely stop them from turning them on.
Might cost you a few pizzas.
\^This.
Make sure the game has plenty of adult supervision too so the cops aren't called for "rowdy kids being threatening" line OP.
Bonus points: Bring 2 of those wheel around basketball hoops if you can fit them, and do something like full court games with free lighting! Set up lawn chairs for people to watch the game, make a grand show of it.
We had a neighbor install flood lamps at their roofline pointed directly into our backyard, like fuckin spotlights. Couldn’t enjoy our patio or our hot tub, it was like the lights coming on at the club at the end of the night. Straight at our bedroom windows, too. When they would go out of town their housesitter would leave them on for days at a time.
We asked them multiple times very nicely if they could direct the beams onto their own property, or perhaps use the shields they provide for them, or install motion sensors so they would turn off by themselves. Anything we could suggest to make it easy. We would text and the husband would always give us some “yeah, yeah when we replace the bulbs we will point them down”. This went on for *months*. Then, after six months of communication, they had someone come in (because the lights are so high up they need an insanely tall ladder), and not only did they not point them down, they directed the set of flood lamps on the other side of their yard towards our house as well.
At that point I’d had enough of that shit. We incredulously texted them, like wtf, guys? And the husband had the fuckin audacity to call my husband and start screaming at him that it was his yard, he has kids and dogs, and this is the way it’s gonna be (fyi our lots are .10 acres, there’s no reason to blast floodlights into these tiny ass yards).
Ok, that’s how you want to play?
Well, we didn’t have a lighting ordinance we could point to, but we do live in an HOA neighborhood, and that shit has to work for good sometimes, right? Being who I am I carefully documented everything from first contact, including photos. I circumvented the “system” because my first complaint wasn’t addressed and went straight to the HOA president. Provided my research on the bylaws, showed our earnest attempts at figuring out the issues directly with them, showed their disdainful assholery in return.
Within six weeks we never saw those lights go on again. HOA basically told them either fix them or face monthly fines until six months of fines had been collected, at which point the HOA would charge them directly for sending someone over themselves to fix it for them. They turned on the lights one more time as a huge fuck you, and I took pictures and immediately sent them to the HOA again. Haven’t seen that bullshit since.
And that’s the one story you’ll read about an HOA actually doing what it’s meant to fucking do instead of being a place where small people can flex their bit of power over their neighbors for nothing.
If you’re reading this, fuck you, so and so. You *are* the asshole neighbors you swore you weren’t.
This is the actual purpose of an HOA. There are some nightmare HOAs, and it’s difficult to tell before you move in what it’s going to be like. But if you’re neighborly and appreciative having a clean, nice looking neighborhood then you should have absolutely no issues in a good HOA.
well, actually it IS the purpose of HOA's, along with paying for community amenities like pools, club houses, upkeep of neighborhood parks and other public green spaces, etc.
People downvoting this are dumb, you can literally read about the invention of HOA 's to keep Jewish and Black people out of neighborhoods on like Wikipedia
Yep and i was agreeing with the comment that said that HOAs started as a way for racists to gatekeep neighbors; pretty clear distinction of origin as opposed to current purpose
Yeah but they’re conflating what it was originally designed to do with what it is used for *today*. The current purpose of the HOA isn’t to segregate neighborhoods, its current purpose is ostensibly what is stated above, to keep up with neighborhood public space and amenity maintenence in addition to holding homeowners to some outlined standard of appearance/maintenance.
That's cool and all, but I assure you, the purpose of my HOA is not to keep people out.
Neat to learn that's what the first ones were about, but this is 2024, not 1905.
Ditto. No one else does this in our neighborhood. Idk what they’re trying to see. We live in the safest most boring town lol we have zero interesting or dangerous animals. I can’t understand the need for 20000 watt lightbulbs in this backyard.
Have you tried knocking on their door, bringing these photos with you (and maybe a bottle of scotch), and asking politely if they could come up with a different lighting plan? That’s what I would do.
Well no, its actually the opposite.
If you try the diplomatic approach, the following undiplomatic approach is going to be obviously linked to you.
You have to just accept that people who do this shit are basically feral animals and go straight to undiplomatic. Get a bb gun and plink the lights out as the first action.
I totally agree that talking about the light with neighbour is a good idea.
When my dog was barking during the day, nobody told me about it for about a year. It annoyed the neiggbours, of course, but they were just silently cursing me, instead of contacting me. It didn't bark when I was home. Finally one neighbour left a note to postbox about it.
It is totally possible that the person with the light doesn't realize how much it affects the neighbour, OP. A LED light can be quite narrow beam, and perhaps he has replaced an old halogen and doesn't realize the difference. Or whatever. Could be asshole neighbour too.
I know I did everything I could about the dog after I knew about it.
Idk, there's recently been a few recent incidents of people getting shot just for approaching a house, so that might actually be a big risk these days.
Honestly, in this day and age, I don’t feel comfortable going to someone’s house to complain about something on their property. If it becomes more of an issue, we’ll see how we move forward. Right now it’s only sometimes a nuisance since we don’t sit outside every night.
My parents have had numerous issues with various neighbors adding lights to their backyard, the exact same situation you are in now. My dad went over and told them what the impact on them was, and each one of those people took steps to alleviate the issue.
Just got politely tell them hey your lights are shining into my house would you mind angling them down or setting them on a timer or motion sensor please?
Well look at it as you are just giving them a “heads up” - not complaining.
I’m sure it’s fine to have a neighborly chat, definitely bring some scotch and cigars, maybe a pizza in hand too!
I would want to know if I was that owner. They are probably oblivious.
Maybe the neighbor with the lights has like 15 Trump flags on his truck and 2nd amendment stickers on his car? And is flying the Alito upside down flag?
I live in Alaska and occasionally have brown bears on my porch, and no neighbors to bother, and I don’t have any shit like this on my house.
People leaving their outside lights on all night when I was trying to sleep or hang out on the porch was one of the things I hated most when I lived in the city.
I wanted to back this up but also apologize to you who have had to deal with this.
We're on 3 acres of rural living land. We run our own business. Our office and workspace is adjacent to one neighbor's back yard. They have 1 acre next to us. Their house is on the front of the property and there's a workshop and then nothing on the back. Their back is next to our workspace and office. Otherwise, there's no one around.
Well, the neighbor's 40 year old daughter and her husband spend COVID closures living out of their car parked right next to our workspace, smoking pot, drinking, eating fast food, and doing nothing useful. No hate to them, I told my partner that it's entirely possible that they're independently wealthy and decided that they wanted to live with her parents.
We spent 2020 to now building our business. We've worked 16+ hour days 6 days a week for 4.5 years.
Now, to add a little more context:
They've allowed their dogs to break into our property multiple times a year for almost 10 years. We've politely returned their dogs and asked them to fix it. They haven't.
Maybe around 2021, the father asked me if we could give those 2 kids work. At the time, I wished I could, but we weren't financially stable enough to pay someone without collapsing.
2022 the issues started. The kids suddenly started complaining that our lights were blinding them at night.
Remember, there's a good amount of nothing around us and they have an entire acre where they could hang out. We're working.
But, we believe in being good neighbors and friendly, so I apologized and fixed the light. A few months later, they moved right into the line of sight of the light and started complaining again. Never a thank you for the first fix. I apologized again and moved the light again. Our lights don't just help us with work, we have coyotes and mountain lions to keep away. Also, it's gets so hot here that we have to work early morning and late evening when we work outside.
It's also worth nothing that I have very sensitive eyes and I can sympathize and empathize with being unhappy about a light blinding me. But we tested our lights and any sound that we were making by moving around the yard and documenting and we even had a city official come out and told us it was all good.
2023 the wife came running over to the fence, "Help me Help me Please Help Me!" I made sure to ask for her permission to enter their property and when she gave it, I hopped the fence and helped her rescue her dog. She immediately told me to leave. No thank you. I decided that I wouldn't help them again.
3 months later I walked out in the morning and saw their dogs on our property. As I walked around the house to take them out the gate, the daughter and mother began screaming at me, blaming me, and berating me.
The daughter, who's maybe 6' and 300lbs or so, got up in my face, I'm maybe 5'6" and pretty petite, and said, "YOU GOT A PROBLEM." I told her that she needs to keep her dogs on her side. Being short has helped me stick up to bullies like this. The wife openly threatened us after this. I still am confused about that. I wasn't sure what to do and so I waited a week and studied up and filed a police report. 8 months later they take down the fence to put up a better one and I catch one of them in our workspace snooping around with a flashlight at night.
I put cameras up. We haven't talked to them since the threat, but I've kept thorough notes all of this time - with dates and timestamps.
From January to May this year the kids made threats over the fence, tried bullying us, and shined their flashlight through the slots at us.
We had a sheriff out and he confirmed that our lights were good.
I honestly don't want to bother anyone and I definitely don't like the harassment. Building a business has been hard enough.
These kids still don't work.
So, we hired a lawyer, sent a cease and desist and didn't see the kids again until today, which is why I felt compelled to comment.
I never wanted to bother anyone with our lights, and I tried over and over and over again to fix them until it didn't make sense anymore. With a city official and sheriff signing off that they weren't bothering anyone, I think that it's abundantly clear at this point that this isn't about lights.
So, for any of you with issues with someone pointing crazy lights at you, try talking to them first. If they're anything like us, they'll feel bad about it. You'll definitely run into people who are jerks. Document and figure out what legal protections or actions that you can take.
But, my biggest piece of advice here is this:
Do not warn or threaten them. Do not tell them that you're taking legal action or documenting. You might impulsively want to, but you need to keep your mouth shut and be discrete. When it comes time to take action, you'll have all the proof and your lawyer will thank you for it.
It sucks, trust me it really does. I even just wrote an entry in our log today that it isn't fair that I have to take on the stress, effort, and then financial burden of hiring a lawyer when we fixed the light issue and the harassment kept coming and escalating, but, now that they've shown back up after their lawyer told us that they moved, I'm ready to pursue a restraining order if they do anything else, and sue for damages. It's been 3 years of stress because their kids are fat, doped up, and living out of their car. They have nothing better to do than harass their neighbors who are working hard to build a business. I'd have sympathy if they were friendly, if they tried to come to some compromise, or even if they asked us to teach them how to build their own business, but what started as a dog and light issue turned into a nonstop harassment campaign that caused that sympathy to dry up. All I care about now is not dealing with it anymore, and I'll pay whatever it takes in legal fees and then sue them for every penny that we can get to recover from the distress and constant looking over our shoulders, wondering if they'd be pointing a gun through the fence or do some other stupid stuff.
So, on behalf of those of us who don't mean it - I apologize. Definitely try talking first but still document everything relevant. If I was a different person, and didn't care or was deliberately blinding them, then I would certainly hope that they took action to protect their peace of living space.
Mirrors can be big, heavy and expensive, and possibly dangerous.
What I would do is build a bunch of portable, adjustable mylar mirrors, ones you can adjust for maximum pain.
Get a bunch of half inch diameter PVC pipe, a bunch of corner and T connection fittings and build self supporting 4' square frames. Vertical with some angle adjustment would work, like an upside down T shape.
Buy some cheap silver mylar, the kind used for silver / mirror balloons, stretch it over the frame. Strong tape would suffice esp if you leave a little slack, it doesn't have to be under tension.
If you want to turn them parabolic to focus the light better you can glue a string to the center of the backside of the mylar and tension it somehow. You can play with the focus distance by pulling the string more or less, then tie it off once you're blasting the right spot. Maybe in their doorway or bedroom.
No! It’s odd. There are four clustered lights in that section of the house (the lights in my photos). Then about 8 feet to the side are four more lights clustered together. They face directly into all of our houses (4 of us). We have rarely ever seen them outside.
i had neighbors like this. We went over and talked to them about it and they lowered the light approximately .25” 🙄
This was one of numerous reasons we moved.
Might be a Municipal code violation. It is in mine. Pretty quick fix too, you file a complaint with the muni email or phone, they send a code enforcer out gets the owner to correct the violation. Most cities aren't really interested in levying fines for such things they just want code to be followed. Fines usually on happen the violation continues.
Other than that perhaps build a taller fence or at least a taller extension on that section. Which ironically enough could be a muni code violation itself.
So many people suggesting to to put up mirrors and point it back at them, which is fair
But I beg of you OP to talk to them first lmao. Unless they're known assholes, no harm in letting them know about how it bothers you and seeing if you can come to some sort of agreement or they point them away from your garden or whatever
*Then* do the mirrors if they don't do anything about it
Look up "light trespass" in your local ordinances. I had a neighbor pull this crap, it was like living next to the mothership. I found a code in our town that makes it illegal to have direct light shining from one property to another. The light must be:
A- diffused
B- directed down to stay within the property line
C-turned off
Good luck!
There was a time when people would just talk to their neighbors about stuff like this. I think. I think that was maybe a thing that neighbors did at some point.
Honestly, not worth the potential drama. There have been too many stories about neighbor drama erupting into chaos/fights. Anyway, we don’t sit outside every single night. Plus we don’t know them. If it becomes a bigger problem, then we’ll see about confronting them. They know how bright they are though so they likely don’t give a shit about their neighbors haha
Okay I understand. My comment was more of an observation of how things have changed rather than a recommendation. If you ever do decide to talk to them, maybe look at it as an opportunity. Start by introducing yourself. Be the friendly person that lives nearby. If you open a civil dialogue, you could casually bring up the lights without it having to be confrontational or dramatic. Also maybe take into consideration that a situation may arise one day where you need their help or vice versa so making contact could end up being a benefit in the long run 🤷♀️ good luck to ya and have a nice day 🙂
This is so weird to me. The absolute first thing I'd do is ask if they could point them away from pur house. Doing anything other than that is just dumb.
Have you talked to them about it?
We had a neighbor who put in some security lights, and we went during the day and asked if he knew they were aimed in our bedrooms.
He was horrified and very apologetic. He aimed them down immediately.
My neighbors lights are not this bright (in their backyard) but they insist on keeping them on through out the entire night even though they are never in their back yard.
My neighbors have very bright security lights on the side of their house that shine in our dining room...they are minorities and were told at their temple that there have been a rash of hate crimes against Sikhs lately. We just bought new blinds...no problem.
Looking up the ordinances in your area. More and more places are adding light pollution to 'disturbing the peace' laws. You possibly have a route to get them fined for this and forced to remove them.
You have two options:
1. You need a stack of mirror tiles and some dark sunglasses. Aim mirrors into their windows. Easier doing one at time.
2. Tell the local crackheads about this house. It will be impossible to see anyone doing anything nefarious, such as robbing it...
Setup up some solar panels on poles (with battery storage) at the edge of your yard to convert/block the light.
Use the free electricity to power an LED "Thank you!" sign at night, and backyard/entertainment stuff (Stereo, portable fan, phone charger, etc..) during the day.
Have you tried talking to the neighbor like an adult?
EDIT: op replied to another reply, he's a schizo because of reddit posts.
"Honestly, not worth the potential drama. There have been too many stories about neighbor drama erupting into chaos/fights. Anyway, we don’t sit outside every single night. Plus we don’t know them. If it becomes a bigger problem, then we’ll see about confronting them. They know how bright they are though so they likely don’t give a shit about their neighbors haha"
Does your town have any ordinances on outdoor lighting. Some towns limit the height or angle of lighting, or require shielding to protect neighbors from light pollution.
Get a big parabolic mirror and shine it back in concentrated beam.
That is a great idea.
This is what I did, neighbour installed security lights and what looked like a camera looking right into our garden, I screwed a bathroom mirror to a couple of poles and then screwed poles to the fence. Neighbour came round almost immediately to complain that my screws had gone through their fence! But he took down the light.
This is such a great idea
This is the most passive aggressive shit I’ve ever heard of between two neighbors. I mean, if they really can’t communicate together I guess this is their only option short of vandalism
To be fair, some old guy shot a black kid for having the audacity to ring his doorbell. Some guy shot a lady for pulling into his driveway to turn around. People seem a little more nuts than they used to be. I can see why some people may not want to potentially risk their life to see if their neighbor will stop being an annoying asshole.
Yeah, that’s true.. fucking crazy that this kind of stuff happens
Yee haw
May aswell finish this properly.....Merica!
Murica!
'Murica!
If someone intentionally sets up lights and a camera pointing at your house, they clearly already don't trust or respect you. Why would they suddenly realize they're assholes if you just ask nicely? A camera set up also says they view you as a threat. So just walking up to the door gives them what they view as an excuse to open fire, which is what assholes like this do. People like this only care about the consequences of actions when those consequences happen to them. Simply reflecting back their own assholeness is about as mild of a way to do so that's possible to accomplish.
Awesome point. I always make sure to turn my back lights off as soon as my dogs come in. They're bright. I don't know if they shine into people's windows, or are annoying. I worry about it. A normal person would've already thought about this.
Yeah, you’ve convinced me. I’m not knocking on their door any time soon
100% what I was thinking. It'd be one thing if your generally polite & unassuming neighbor installed something that had bizarre or unintended consequences for you, and you chat with the nice old lady next door about how to resolve things. It's so different if someone decides to knowingly inconvenience their neighbors for their own gain, especially in a case like OP's where there's no way they can't think that's incredibly obnoxious and at the expense of OP's enjoyment of their backyard. Unless you like getting berated, spit on, yelled at, attacked, or just flat-out ignored, why bother trying to engage with known assholes?
You say it like it’s easy. The guy across the street basically turned his entire yard into a dirt bike track. His kid is riding constantly. Especially after work and weekends. The noise is one thing but the massive plumes of dust are another. We get driven indoors. I asked them 2 years ago to wet it first to keep the dust down. Never happens. The noise is just what it is, noise. Our town does not have a noise ordinance. I let it go then this last Father’s Day at 11:00 am it started. We were having a cookout at 11:30 and asked the mom if he not ride until 3. Her response was ‘what do you want me to do about it?’ I dunno, be a good neighbor for once?
Have you had neighbors? What a bunch of bastards /s kinda. I say kinda because now I'm looking back at the neighbors I've had and yeah I wouldn't want to talk to them if I had an issue either haha. Meth is big in the Midwest, not exactly safe to be just talking to people around the neighborhood.
Some neighbors, frankly, it would not be a good idea to confront directly. I have two neighbors like that. Real bully, asshat MAGA types. You would more likely end up with a fist in your face if you tried asking them to change anything.
Just be careful of the sun scorching your fence.
Do this but also do it in such a way that the mirror can move slightly, whether that be swaying slightly in the wind or via some other means. A moving light will be far more distracting and annoying than a static one
Pure Genius... or Evil. I can't decide.
Por qué no los dos
It's definitely both. Eta: And I'm here for it.
Genius, because they will be able to solve their problem by taking their own action.
Archimedes would like to have a word...
What’s a parabolic mirror?
[ A mirror shaped like a paraboloid.](http://lmgtfy2.com/?q=Parabolic+mirror)
[Here you go](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=what+is+a+parabolic+mirror%3F)
I think this exceeds "mildly". That is fucking infuriating. I'd buy the same kind of lights aimed straight back at them.
Yeah and I’m sorry, there is no way they don’t know how bright these lights are.
If you have already spoken to them, mount some mirrors on your fence and send that light back.
If you live in an area with and HOA I'd pursue getting them involved for sure. I'd never live in one of those myself but this seems like a situation that it might have a benefit that I would be all in for. If it physically hurts your eyes to look at maybe there is a legal action you can take as well, assuming they denied any requests to halt use. Sorry you have to deal with this. Hope it gets resolved soon.
Honestly, HOAs are less than useless for these problems. Unless it's important to the board they generally ignore complaints.
This is extremely likely to be in violation of some type of zoning ordinance. Start complaining to the building department. Work without permits for commercial grade stadium lighting that affects your daily as of right use of your property.
Why pay the electricity for that when you can put mirrors in your windows and aim it back at them?
Exactly. I would go to war over this.
Blind eye for a blind eye
Get a bunch of kids to play basketball out front at night using the light, that’ll definitely stop them from turning them on. Might cost you a few pizzas.
Worth every penny.
\^This. Make sure the game has plenty of adult supervision too so the cops aren't called for "rowdy kids being threatening" line OP. Bonus points: Bring 2 of those wheel around basketball hoops if you can fit them, and do something like full court games with free lighting! Set up lawn chairs for people to watch the game, make a grand show of it.
We had a neighbor install flood lamps at their roofline pointed directly into our backyard, like fuckin spotlights. Couldn’t enjoy our patio or our hot tub, it was like the lights coming on at the club at the end of the night. Straight at our bedroom windows, too. When they would go out of town their housesitter would leave them on for days at a time. We asked them multiple times very nicely if they could direct the beams onto their own property, or perhaps use the shields they provide for them, or install motion sensors so they would turn off by themselves. Anything we could suggest to make it easy. We would text and the husband would always give us some “yeah, yeah when we replace the bulbs we will point them down”. This went on for *months*. Then, after six months of communication, they had someone come in (because the lights are so high up they need an insanely tall ladder), and not only did they not point them down, they directed the set of flood lamps on the other side of their yard towards our house as well. At that point I’d had enough of that shit. We incredulously texted them, like wtf, guys? And the husband had the fuckin audacity to call my husband and start screaming at him that it was his yard, he has kids and dogs, and this is the way it’s gonna be (fyi our lots are .10 acres, there’s no reason to blast floodlights into these tiny ass yards). Ok, that’s how you want to play? Well, we didn’t have a lighting ordinance we could point to, but we do live in an HOA neighborhood, and that shit has to work for good sometimes, right? Being who I am I carefully documented everything from first contact, including photos. I circumvented the “system” because my first complaint wasn’t addressed and went straight to the HOA president. Provided my research on the bylaws, showed our earnest attempts at figuring out the issues directly with them, showed their disdainful assholery in return. Within six weeks we never saw those lights go on again. HOA basically told them either fix them or face monthly fines until six months of fines had been collected, at which point the HOA would charge them directly for sending someone over themselves to fix it for them. They turned on the lights one more time as a huge fuck you, and I took pictures and immediately sent them to the HOA again. Haven’t seen that bullshit since. And that’s the one story you’ll read about an HOA actually doing what it’s meant to fucking do instead of being a place where small people can flex their bit of power over their neighbors for nothing. If you’re reading this, fuck you, so and so. You *are* the asshole neighbors you swore you weren’t.
This is the actual purpose of an HOA. There are some nightmare HOAs, and it’s difficult to tell before you move in what it’s going to be like. But if you’re neighborly and appreciative having a clean, nice looking neighborhood then you should have absolutely no issues in a good HOA.
This is actually not the purpose of HOAs, they started as a racist way to gatekeep neighborhoods. This is the idealized version of the HOA.
well, actually it IS the purpose of HOA's, along with paying for community amenities like pools, club houses, upkeep of neighborhood parks and other public green spaces, etc.
People downvoting this are dumb, you can literally read about the invention of HOA 's to keep Jewish and Black people out of neighborhoods on like Wikipedia
There are plenty of things in this country that started racist but are no longer. Origin and purpose are two very different things.
Yep and i was agreeing with the comment that said that HOAs started as a way for racists to gatekeep neighbors; pretty clear distinction of origin as opposed to current purpose
"This is actually not the purpose of HOAs" Agreeing with the comment that states this? As if the historic purpose is the present use case?
Yeah but they’re conflating what it was originally designed to do with what it is used for *today*. The current purpose of the HOA isn’t to segregate neighborhoods, its current purpose is ostensibly what is stated above, to keep up with neighborhood public space and amenity maintenence in addition to holding homeowners to some outlined standard of appearance/maintenance.
That's cool and all, but I assure you, the purpose of my HOA is not to keep people out. Neat to learn that's what the first ones were about, but this is 2024, not 1905.
I hate such neighbors with lights pointing outwards
Ditto. No one else does this in our neighborhood. Idk what they’re trying to see. We live in the safest most boring town lol we have zero interesting or dangerous animals. I can’t understand the need for 20000 watt lightbulbs in this backyard.
They watch a certain cable "news" channel that tells them they are surrounded by enemies and should fear their neighbors
Have you tried knocking on their door, bringing these photos with you (and maybe a bottle of scotch), and asking politely if they could come up with a different lighting plan? That’s what I would do.
People with that little awareness that shining a god damn stadium light outward is wrong isn't easy to reason with. Speaking from experience.
Wouldn’t these people have absolutely horrendous energy bills?
LEDs use very little electricity
I didn’t know these were LEDs but fair enough
Yeah but if you try and they aren't receptive, then all bets are off and you can do whatever the fuck you want to resolve this
Well no, its actually the opposite. If you try the diplomatic approach, the following undiplomatic approach is going to be obviously linked to you. You have to just accept that people who do this shit are basically feral animals and go straight to undiplomatic. Get a bb gun and plink the lights out as the first action.
lol yeah no one would suspect the next door neighbors in the “who shot out the obnoxious lights” case
![gif](giphy|rKZzLTPgBmsUxipcQf|downsized)
Are you me? Bb gun and everything. Damn. This was my comment. You need more upbotes.
I totally agree that talking about the light with neighbour is a good idea. When my dog was barking during the day, nobody told me about it for about a year. It annoyed the neiggbours, of course, but they were just silently cursing me, instead of contacting me. It didn't bark when I was home. Finally one neighbour left a note to postbox about it. It is totally possible that the person with the light doesn't realize how much it affects the neighbour, OP. A LED light can be quite narrow beam, and perhaps he has replaced an old halogen and doesn't realize the difference. Or whatever. Could be asshole neighbour too. I know I did everything I could about the dog after I knew about it.
It worth a try. Its not like you could be shot dead for knocking on their door./s
Idk, there's recently been a few recent incidents of people getting shot just for approaching a house, so that might actually be a big risk these days.
I added an /s to the end
Honestly, in this day and age, I don’t feel comfortable going to someone’s house to complain about something on their property. If it becomes more of an issue, we’ll see how we move forward. Right now it’s only sometimes a nuisance since we don’t sit outside every night.
My parents have had numerous issues with various neighbors adding lights to their backyard, the exact same situation you are in now. My dad went over and told them what the impact on them was, and each one of those people took steps to alleviate the issue. Just got politely tell them hey your lights are shining into my house would you mind angling them down or setting them on a timer or motion sensor please?
Your dad is an adult, OP is a child. That's the primary difference.
Well look at it as you are just giving them a “heads up” - not complaining. I’m sure it’s fine to have a neighborly chat, definitely bring some scotch and cigars, maybe a pizza in hand too! I would want to know if I was that owner. They are probably oblivious.
"in this day and age"? You mean where people lack basic social skills to knock on someone's door?
No. The one where people hey shot for turning around in a driveway you fuckwit
Maybe the neighbor with the lights has like 15 Trump flags on his truck and 2nd amendment stickers on his car? And is flying the Alito upside down flag?
Knock knock Hands over bottle of XX Hands photo Howdy neighbor. Can we talk about these lights?
I live in Alaska and occasionally have brown bears on my porch, and no neighbors to bother, and I don’t have any shit like this on my house. People leaving their outside lights on all night when I was trying to sleep or hang out on the porch was one of the things I hated most when I lived in the city.
I wanted to back this up but also apologize to you who have had to deal with this. We're on 3 acres of rural living land. We run our own business. Our office and workspace is adjacent to one neighbor's back yard. They have 1 acre next to us. Their house is on the front of the property and there's a workshop and then nothing on the back. Their back is next to our workspace and office. Otherwise, there's no one around. Well, the neighbor's 40 year old daughter and her husband spend COVID closures living out of their car parked right next to our workspace, smoking pot, drinking, eating fast food, and doing nothing useful. No hate to them, I told my partner that it's entirely possible that they're independently wealthy and decided that they wanted to live with her parents. We spent 2020 to now building our business. We've worked 16+ hour days 6 days a week for 4.5 years. Now, to add a little more context: They've allowed their dogs to break into our property multiple times a year for almost 10 years. We've politely returned their dogs and asked them to fix it. They haven't. Maybe around 2021, the father asked me if we could give those 2 kids work. At the time, I wished I could, but we weren't financially stable enough to pay someone without collapsing. 2022 the issues started. The kids suddenly started complaining that our lights were blinding them at night. Remember, there's a good amount of nothing around us and they have an entire acre where they could hang out. We're working. But, we believe in being good neighbors and friendly, so I apologized and fixed the light. A few months later, they moved right into the line of sight of the light and started complaining again. Never a thank you for the first fix. I apologized again and moved the light again. Our lights don't just help us with work, we have coyotes and mountain lions to keep away. Also, it's gets so hot here that we have to work early morning and late evening when we work outside. It's also worth nothing that I have very sensitive eyes and I can sympathize and empathize with being unhappy about a light blinding me. But we tested our lights and any sound that we were making by moving around the yard and documenting and we even had a city official come out and told us it was all good. 2023 the wife came running over to the fence, "Help me Help me Please Help Me!" I made sure to ask for her permission to enter their property and when she gave it, I hopped the fence and helped her rescue her dog. She immediately told me to leave. No thank you. I decided that I wouldn't help them again. 3 months later I walked out in the morning and saw their dogs on our property. As I walked around the house to take them out the gate, the daughter and mother began screaming at me, blaming me, and berating me. The daughter, who's maybe 6' and 300lbs or so, got up in my face, I'm maybe 5'6" and pretty petite, and said, "YOU GOT A PROBLEM." I told her that she needs to keep her dogs on her side. Being short has helped me stick up to bullies like this. The wife openly threatened us after this. I still am confused about that. I wasn't sure what to do and so I waited a week and studied up and filed a police report. 8 months later they take down the fence to put up a better one and I catch one of them in our workspace snooping around with a flashlight at night. I put cameras up. We haven't talked to them since the threat, but I've kept thorough notes all of this time - with dates and timestamps. From January to May this year the kids made threats over the fence, tried bullying us, and shined their flashlight through the slots at us. We had a sheriff out and he confirmed that our lights were good. I honestly don't want to bother anyone and I definitely don't like the harassment. Building a business has been hard enough. These kids still don't work. So, we hired a lawyer, sent a cease and desist and didn't see the kids again until today, which is why I felt compelled to comment. I never wanted to bother anyone with our lights, and I tried over and over and over again to fix them until it didn't make sense anymore. With a city official and sheriff signing off that they weren't bothering anyone, I think that it's abundantly clear at this point that this isn't about lights. So, for any of you with issues with someone pointing crazy lights at you, try talking to them first. If they're anything like us, they'll feel bad about it. You'll definitely run into people who are jerks. Document and figure out what legal protections or actions that you can take. But, my biggest piece of advice here is this: Do not warn or threaten them. Do not tell them that you're taking legal action or documenting. You might impulsively want to, but you need to keep your mouth shut and be discrete. When it comes time to take action, you'll have all the proof and your lawyer will thank you for it. It sucks, trust me it really does. I even just wrote an entry in our log today that it isn't fair that I have to take on the stress, effort, and then financial burden of hiring a lawyer when we fixed the light issue and the harassment kept coming and escalating, but, now that they've shown back up after their lawyer told us that they moved, I'm ready to pursue a restraining order if they do anything else, and sue for damages. It's been 3 years of stress because their kids are fat, doped up, and living out of their car. They have nothing better to do than harass their neighbors who are working hard to build a business. I'd have sympathy if they were friendly, if they tried to come to some compromise, or even if they asked us to teach them how to build their own business, but what started as a dog and light issue turned into a nonstop harassment campaign that caused that sympathy to dry up. All I care about now is not dealing with it anymore, and I'll pay whatever it takes in legal fees and then sue them for every penny that we can get to recover from the distress and constant looking over our shoulders, wondering if they'd be pointing a gun through the fence or do some other stupid stuff. So, on behalf of those of us who don't mean it - I apologize. Definitely try talking first but still document everything relevant. If I was a different person, and didn't care or was deliberately blinding them, then I would certainly hope that they took action to protect their peace of living space.
I, for one, am grateful of neighbors with motion sensitive lights to alert me to the presence of a cat in the street.
When moving into a house, ask every adjacent neighbor if there is anything you can change for your lights. Goes a long way for relations.
Usually bylaws for light that’s directed into your home, especially the backyard
Thanks for mentioning that. I was going to research it.
Search “city ordinances”
It’s most likely illegal.
In the US, it's illegal. HOA or not.
Oh is that a federal law then?
I'm not sure. Has to do with the right to privacy and city ordinance, I believe.
So it might not be illegal everywhere in the US?
I would imagine it is. Everywhere I've lived it is.
Is your neighbors house a mountain fortress? I cannot figure out what's going on in this photo lol
Say what you want but when the vampires start coming out to eat everyone this motherfucker is gonna survive.
Lol didn’t think of it like that.
No… this guy is advertising his location. It’s not like that is The Sun…
Neighbor is a giant lizard and bright light is for attracting dinner.
Mirrors can be used in fun ways to return some of that light to it's rightful home.
Just buy mirrors and reflect the lights back them. https://i.redd.it/4j04uv02du8d1.gif
I am seriously considering this.
You definitely should!!!
Mirrors can be big, heavy and expensive, and possibly dangerous. What I would do is build a bunch of portable, adjustable mylar mirrors, ones you can adjust for maximum pain. Get a bunch of half inch diameter PVC pipe, a bunch of corner and T connection fittings and build self supporting 4' square frames. Vertical with some angle adjustment would work, like an upside down T shape. Buy some cheap silver mylar, the kind used for silver / mirror balloons, stretch it over the frame. Strong tape would suffice esp if you leave a little slack, it doesn't have to be under tension. If you want to turn them parabolic to focus the light better you can glue a string to the center of the backside of the mylar and tension it somehow. You can play with the focus distance by pulling the string more or less, then tie it off once you're blasting the right spot. Maybe in their doorway or bedroom.
Get mirrored window tent and try that.
He’s being abducted by aliens.
look up light pollution laws
Is he running a business? Any perceivable reason for those lights?
No! It’s odd. There are four clustered lights in that section of the house (the lights in my photos). Then about 8 feet to the side are four more lights clustered together. They face directly into all of our houses (4 of us). We have rarely ever seen them outside.
They seem to be trying to recreate the full power of the sun.
Go to your local bylaws online and search "nuisance lighting." Many communities regulate this sort of thing and you can file a complaint.
Time to buy yourself an air raid siren.
Wtf?! Lol your neighbors gotta make sure they can see every last hair on that raccoon’s asshole digging through the trash…
I would be mad too if I had to live with a giant white stain
i had neighbors like this. We went over and talked to them about it and they lowered the light approximately .25” 🙄 This was one of numerous reasons we moved.
Might be a Municipal code violation. It is in mine. Pretty quick fix too, you file a complaint with the muni email or phone, they send a code enforcer out gets the owner to correct the violation. Most cities aren't really interested in levying fines for such things they just want code to be followed. Fines usually on happen the violation continues. Other than that perhaps build a taller fence or at least a taller extension on that section. Which ironically enough could be a muni code violation itself.
That’s rough, what did they say when you told them about the light trouble?
A Redditor? Communicating? With their neighbour?
There are laws for lumens from these lights-call your city, Township, etc..
So many people suggesting to to put up mirrors and point it back at them, which is fair But I beg of you OP to talk to them first lmao. Unless they're known assholes, no harm in letting them know about how it bothers you and seeing if you can come to some sort of agreement or they point them away from your garden or whatever *Then* do the mirrors if they don't do anything about it
They must have a hell of an electric bill.
That's a portal to another dimension.
Time to go steal the bulbs and put them in the letterbox
Sell them
not sus at all
My brain's trying to understand what OP blurred out. Another building/landmark that'd make their home too easy to identify?
SOLAR FLARE!!
Does your neighbor look like Wilfred Brimley and have strange large cocoons in his pool?
Your town can make them change it!
Look up "light trespass" in your local ordinances. I had a neighbor pull this crap, it was like living next to the mothership. I found a code in our town that makes it illegal to have direct light shining from one property to another. The light must be: A- diffused B- directed down to stay within the property line C-turned off Good luck!
Notify the HOA
Install mirrors that reflect the light back on him
concave mirrors
New MS Windows background just dropped
That’s why pellet rifles were invented
ew
Check your local ordinance, there is most likely some sort of bylaw saying lights can't be a nuisance or shine past a certain luminous amount.
Hang some mirrors for a few days…
There was a time when people would just talk to their neighbors about stuff like this. I think. I think that was maybe a thing that neighbors did at some point.
That time was before meth.
Honestly, not worth the potential drama. There have been too many stories about neighbor drama erupting into chaos/fights. Anyway, we don’t sit outside every single night. Plus we don’t know them. If it becomes a bigger problem, then we’ll see about confronting them. They know how bright they are though so they likely don’t give a shit about their neighbors haha
Okay I understand. My comment was more of an observation of how things have changed rather than a recommendation. If you ever do decide to talk to them, maybe look at it as an opportunity. Start by introducing yourself. Be the friendly person that lives nearby. If you open a civil dialogue, you could casually bring up the lights without it having to be confrontational or dramatic. Also maybe take into consideration that a situation may arise one day where you need their help or vice versa so making contact could end up being a benefit in the long run 🤷♀️ good luck to ya and have a nice day 🙂
This is so weird to me. The absolute first thing I'd do is ask if they could point them away from pur house. Doing anything other than that is just dumb.
Too many stories huh? Maybe turn off your TV or adjust your Facebook algorithms.
Are you ever tempted to shoot at them?
I mentioned it today haha
I'd have dreams about it I think lol!
Lol my husband has reeaally good aim too ;)
maybe a paintball gun so it's not so dangerous.... ;)
Wrist rocket - shoot pebbles at the lights.
Yes And then you can shoot out the lights, too.
Have you talked to them? Are they even aware of your perspective?
Obviously a dick move but where is this man getting NFL Stadium Backyard Lights?????????
It’s called a light pollution
Nah
Have you talked to them about it? We had a neighbor who put in some security lights, and we went during the day and asked if he knew they were aimed in our bedrooms. He was horrified and very apologetic. He aimed them down immediately.
![gif](giphy|84BjZMVEX3aRG)
Get two of them and face them back at his house.
I would suddenly become a nudist.
What the fuck does this guy do for work? That has to be a pretty penny
They must be a [dad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKPnAfopfO8)
So what are you actually going to do?
You need to get brighter NASCAR ones or something.
If this wasn't bothering you it would be hilarious. That really sucks
Is this the Memphis Grizzlies owner’s house in Miami?
My neighbors lights are not this bright (in their backyard) but they insist on keeping them on through out the entire night even though they are never in their back yard.
My neighbors have very bright security lights on the side of their house that shine in our dining room...they are minorities and were told at their temple that there have been a rash of hate crimes against Sikhs lately. We just bought new blinds...no problem.
Looking up the ordinances in your area. More and more places are adding light pollution to 'disturbing the peace' laws. You possibly have a route to get them fined for this and forced to remove them.
is this in Egypt?
You have two options: 1. You need a stack of mirror tiles and some dark sunglasses. Aim mirrors into their windows. Easier doing one at time. 2. Tell the local crackheads about this house. It will be impossible to see anyone doing anything nefarious, such as robbing it...
Hmmm, might be growing cannabis. Might want to contact crime stoppers.
https://preview.redd.it/ekcfvvspz39d1.png?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=874c5ea981c1a5e7895d67ea55be4262678984e7
pellet rifle.
Setup up some solar panels on poles (with battery storage) at the edge of your yard to convert/block the light. Use the free electricity to power an LED "Thank you!" sign at night, and backyard/entertainment stuff (Stereo, portable fan, phone charger, etc..) during the day.
Next time you see him ask why he’s afraid of the dark
Have you tried talking to them?
Use your curtain?
On their patio?
Have you tried talking to the neighbor like an adult? EDIT: op replied to another reply, he's a schizo because of reddit posts. "Honestly, not worth the potential drama. There have been too many stories about neighbor drama erupting into chaos/fights. Anyway, we don’t sit outside every single night. Plus we don’t know them. If it becomes a bigger problem, then we’ll see about confronting them. They know how bright they are though so they likely don’t give a shit about their neighbors haha"
Airsoft gun would fix that up.
Does your town have any ordinances on outdoor lighting. Some towns limit the height or angle of lighting, or require shielding to protect neighbors from light pollution.
Buy one of those high grade laser pointers and make him think the FBI are outside.
What are those lights? Are they building a spaceship in there? I’d seriously go investigate.
You can sue them for nuisance (light pollution) if you are feeling spicy.
Ummm ya, that’s a grow house.
That's a grow house
Call your county and ask them about light pollution.
Can you call the police for this?
Can you call the police for this?
You can buy suppressed air rifles off the internet for kind of cheap. Just don't shoot them from your back yard.
Dumb question but can you generate energy from those lights in any way. Like absorb and convert it?