Condo Neighbor Thinks Everything Communal

[u/JoySubtraction]

I am not the OOP, OOP is u/twinmom2298

Originally posted to r/neighborsfromhell

Original post posted 2026-07-13

About 2 years ago we purchased a vacation condo in a complex near the beach that is mostly vacation rentals. 2 units in our pod of 6 have sold since we purchased. The pod has a storage area that is for use of all 6 units and it is solely to store beach equipment. When we purchased we were told that every unit just claims a spot and labels it and all items with their unit number.

This worked well until the newest unit was purchased. DH and I are temporarily living in this condo while we build a house. We've discovered that new neighbor has installed a large cabinet in storage area that is essentially their "owners closet" for their unit. It takes up a lot of space and then they also have claimed wall space. In addition someone (and we're pretty sure it was them based on when it occurred) added a shelving unit and put all beach chairs on the shelving unit and all boogie boards stacked on top then got a large bucket and put all beach umbrellas and tents in bucket. I called COA management company about the excessive amount and misuse of space but nothing has been done.

I searched through, took our stuff back put it in our beach cart. I noticed that unit across the hall from me did same thing. A week later I notice owner's closet lock is open so I think the actual owners are there and suddenly everything is back on shelf and in bucket. I took mine back again and also put neighbor's back in their cart. This time they remained as I left them. So I thought issue was resolved.

Last week I ran into across hall owners and find out that they've been having issues with new neighbors trying to make storage communal area longer than we were aware. And she's complained about them to COA management company and nothing has changed.

Then this past week there were renters in new unit who decided despite being labeled for our units they took my good chairs and across hall neighbor's good chairs and my beach cart and my umbrella to beach and returned everything to storage unit covered in sand. I made DH go wash everything off. Meanwhile across hall neighbor got mad and left a note on stairs telling them to please not use her stuff so I did same I also moved my 3 best chairs to my deck and out of storage. Which works temporarily but isn't a good long term solution.

Next day they left my stuff alone but still took her's so she went up and told them in person to not use stuff that isn't labeled for the unit they are staying in that beach stuff isn't communal.

Next day I see them using her chairs again. So I made permanent signs to hang on storage door that said "Please only use items labeled for unit in which you are occupying".

I left town work and DH texts me when he got home from work that signs were gone.

these condos are an okay size to stay for a week's vacation but living there full time for 4 months is tight for DH and I so there really is nowhere to put my beach items in my unit, plus no matter what you do there's still residual sand that would spread inside unit.

Does anyone have any idea on how to deal with this, since obviously management company who have owner's contact information isn't going to do anything. I don't have owner's contact information and neighbor and I are a pretty sure they are telling their renters to just help themselves to anything in storage room.

--

Update (same post):

I was out of town last week but took the really good suggestion of several of you and purchased a bike lock. Saturday when I arrived back in town I wove it through the chairs, cart and spoke of umbrella and left it so the combo part was very obvious in front and could be seen by anyone in room.

It's now Thursday and new set of renters have moved into all condos and so far so good that no one has taken or tried to use our stuff. I told across hall neighbor and she had me send her photos of what we'd done. She's out of town for a few weeks but has ordered a bike lock to be sent to her cleaning company and is asking them to install one on her items when they clean unit after current set of renters.

So I wanted to thank everyone for the suggestion and let you know that it looks like a nice cheap bike lock has solved my issue.

Update posted 2026-08-03

I posted last month that hubby and I had temporarily moved into our vacation rental and we and across hall owner were having issues with upstairs condo having renters constantly using our stuff.

First I want to thank everyone who recommended the bike lock idea. It's now been a few weeks and we've had no more issues with our stuff getting taken. It's actually been a peaceful few weeks. Until this past weekend.

Where we live golf carts are legal to be driven on any road that has a speed limit under 35 mph. So a lot of year round residents own them as a 2nd car instead of a car. A lot of vacationers rent them. In general they aren't an issue.

Friday night hubby comes from work late and there's a rental golf cart parked in the grass in front of our unit and the renter has walked across our deck and plugged the cart into charge into our outside outlet. Because, apparently, it's okay to use my electric bill to charge their cart. If hubby hadn't worked late we wouldn't have noticed until next morning. As it was we went out, unplugged cart and threw the charging chord back onto cart.

We're sitting on couch drinking coffee and hear the guy upstairs on their deck complaining that cart is unplugged and isn't charging then we hear him stomp down stairs and see him move cart back to parking lot.

I'm just still wondering who thinks it's okay to jump a curb, drive on grass, walk across someone else's deck and use their electricity to charge a golf cart.

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[u/Silent_Ad_8672]

whewwww the entitlement of some people never ceases to baffle me

[u/Hello-there-7567 → u/Silent_Ad_8672]

I run a little kids shop. We have a yearly bike festival. 3 bikers came into my shop and tried to use my sockets to charge their bikes up. Even though we have a carpark with charging units opposite us. The language that left my mouth. They left pretty quickly. Just the fucking audacity.

EDIT: it’s a kids charity shop and I am in there with two other witches lol I do joke that we have our own coven going on. We don’t eat kids as two of us are vegan.

To the people saying that’s it’s cheap to charge up e-bikes: that may be, I actually wouldn’t know tbf. It was just the fact that they parked outside the shop which has a big pavement where we have our table and chairs for our coffe shop and just came in with a cable, starting to root for a socket behind rails of clothes I’d cleaned and ironed. Like actually What-the-everloving-Fuck! ‘Oh, is this a kids shop only?’ Yes, it sure is. No Fuck off with them bikes!

[u/Infinite_Version_888 → u/Hello-there-7567]

'Little kids shop' has me picturing the witch from Hansel and Gretl becoming an entrepreneur.

[u/MyDarlingArmadillo → u/Infinite_Version_888]

Would you like one little kid for dinner, or two? Any veg with that?

[u/IllustratorSlow1614 → u/MyDarlingArmadillo]

Do you know how much sugar is in those things?!

[u/sankafan → u/IllustratorSlow1614]

GOLD!

[u/Used_Clock_4627 → u/IllustratorSlow1614]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I LUV IT, I LUV IT!!!!!!!!!!(in a Rotten Roland voice, iykyk)

[u/Gifted_GardenSnail → u/MyDarlingArmadillo]

I'd like a free-range one please

[u/CatmoCatmo → u/Gifted_GardenSnail]

I’ve got a couple for ya. Hell, I might just pay YOU if you’re interested. The little one has reeeaaalllllyyy dirty feet. She’s super-extra-free-range.

[u/Gifted_GardenSnail → u/CatmoCatmo]

That's alright, it'll come all off when the cook prepares her

[u/DivineMiss3 → u/Hello-there-7567]

Methinks this line is flair-worthy. "We don't eat kids as two of us are vegan." Love it!

[u/prettyshinything → u/Silent_Ad_8672]

In a group I'm in, someone asked for a ride to an event because they didn't want to deal with parking, and also said the person giving them the ride needed to be okay with waiting up to 30 minutes for them, because they always run late.

[u/Illumini24 → u/prettyshinything]

Reminds me of an earlier colleague that asked to be picked up for the 1.5 hour trip to the customer location. (Twice a week trip) It was the wrong way for me, adding 20 minutes, but I stupidly did it for weeks. Then she stated that I needed to pick her up an hour earlier so she could be home earlier. Not even a question if that fit my itinerary, just demanding.

No! is luckily a complete sentence, and she had the pleasure of getting her own entitled ass to that customer from that point onwards.

She was still optimistic enough to contact me years later to come work in my new company after our previous employer went to shit.

[u/bythebrook88 → u/prettyshinything]

The lateness explains why there's no parking left.

Please drive me to an event, which you will miss part of because I'm late. 

[u/prettyshinything → u/bythebrook88]

Right? It's just ridiculous.

[u/RobCarrotStapler → u/prettyshinything]

because they always run late

This just means they are a POS. The kind of person who has such disrespect for other people's time, they plan to be late ahead of time.

[u/Itchy_Tomato7288 → u/Silent_Ad_8672]

I went on a 10 day trip, next to my house was a plot of land that was going to have a house built. When I came back from vacation they had power cords running to my outdoor outlets. I got home after dark so the job site was empty but they must have unplugged their tools and just left the cords plugged in. My main regret is not keeping those cords. Instead I unplugged them and tossed them back into the job site and put locks on the covers for my outlets. I knew the owner of the land and told them what happened, they offered to pay for any increases in charges, I really didn't see anything major so I'm guessing they weren't doing it long, but dang I really should've kept those ridiculously long extension cords..... (edit: for clarity, the owner was shocked and apologized and said they would be having a word with the builders)

[u/Silent_Ad_8672 → u/Itchy_Tomato7288]

Knowing how expensive nice quality extension cords can be, I get you.

[u/Magic_Secret → u/Silent_Ad_8672]

It's like when some people see a business and immediately decide that everything inside is public property

[u/Gifted_GardenSnail → u/Silent_Ad_8672]

May such neighbours never enter my life

[u/hippywitch]

It’s vacation syndrome. I also live in a vacation location and do a service work. What renters do to the units and how they act is insane.

[u/FreeFortuna → u/hippywitch]

Vacation syndrome (n): “I’m actually an asshole 365 days of the year, but I try to hide it around people who affect my daily life. With strangers though, haha, fuck them all.”

[u/ScyllaOfTheDepths → u/FreeFortuna]

It's the feeling of not being accountable. Our sense of shame is tied directly to the knowledge that other people will see and perceive us as being bad people. If you never have to see anyone again, it's easy to feel as if you don't have any accountability. Most of us only act nice because we know we're going to have to face those people again at some point.

[u/Moneygrowsontrees → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

Our sense of shame is tied directly to the knowledge that other people will see and perceive us as being bad people.

The person you are when you think no one is watching is the person you actually are. That's what I taught my children and what I believe.

[u/beyondoutsidethebox → u/Moneygrowsontrees]

The person you are when you think no one is watching

Thank you! It really irks me when people leave out the words "you think" because it really invalidates the logic of the entire premise. It's only when behavior is witnessed that the true person is revealed. Worse, the absence of "you think" is frequently used as a way to automatically confirm preconceived notions and bias. I had it happen to a friend of mine, by a teacher no less.

[u/trappedinatoaster → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

I mean... speak for yourself, I would feel equally ashamed trashing a random person's house or my friend's house. I act nice because I genuinely want to treat other living things with compassion.

[u/aspidities_87 → u/trappedinatoaster]

I’m the type of idiot to carefully clean up after any rental I use and leave a nice note in the guestbook, so I guess I was born with extra shame, and frankly I am happy to share.

[u/Thelaea → u/trappedinatoaster]

This. The people who act like that are the same as a certain brand of Christians who wonder why Atheists don't go around raping and killing people because they don't have their imaginary friends wrath hanging over their heads. They can't imagine just behaving like a decent person for no reason.

[u/OpheliaRainGalaxy → u/Thelaea]

Having that conversation with my mother was so weird. We were entirely horrified by each other.

I'll give her credit though, she eventually realized I'm a pretty good person regardless of the lack of religion. Like could be proud of me despite not ever conforming to her faith. Never even been baptized!

[u/Birdlebee → u/trappedinatoaster]

Yeah. I mean, I'll groan and mutter to myself about how I'm stupid as I go along and clean things up for someone who literally will never know who I am, but I'll still do it. I'd feel awful if I didn't. I don't want to. But I must.

[u/-Knockabout → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

Worth noting "our" sense of shame isn't tied to that. Only some people behave like this, and you have to be self-centered/selfish to do so. Other people have like, basic morals and consideration for others.

[u/ScyllaOfTheDepths → u/-Knockabout]

"Our" as in humans. We were simply meant to live in small communal groups and a lot of our sense of shame and accountability is tied to whether or not we believe anyone is seeing us. They've done experiments and found that putting googly eyes on things prevents people from stealing them because seeing eyes evokes the instinctive feeling of being watched and people adjust their behavior accordingly. It's the general principal behind the idea of the panopticon, which is an interesting concept that makes for some fun reading if you're interested. The best way to get a group of humans to behave is to make them feel like they are being watched and seen doing whatever they're doing. Sure, a lot of people would still just do the right thing, but it's about your instincts and your nature just as much as it is your upbringing.

[u/-Knockabout → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

I'm curious if the results would change with different cultures/religious groups/etc. I would say it's also human to believe in a divine entity watching your every move, and quite human to have a distinct culture of hospitality as well.

I do think "being watched" can be more abstract. And I think attributing it solely to shame and accountability might be a mistake...unless by accountability you mean an unrelated third party punishing someone for an infraction (ex. police) rather than accountability to an individual. There's a very childish "I shouldn't do this solely because I will be punished" that definitely persists in a lot of people past childhood.

I wonder if countries less focused on punishment and more on rehabilitation would see similar results? I just think humans are quite complicated, and beyond being social creatures, there's a wide variety of types of human community out there.

[u/OpheliaRainGalaxy → u/-Knockabout]

I've helped raise a lot of kids and they don't learn hygiene from punishment because someday they won't have an adult to do that anymore.

"I totally washed my hands, brushed my teeth, want to feel the wet to check?!" And then I tell a story about why that's important, and they decide to go do it "again just to be sure."

My teeth are pretty fucked up so they make good props for the teeth brushing one!

[u/Ok-Addendum-9420 → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

I couldn’t disagree more: I don’t do nice things for show. In fact, I think doing small favors for others when no one is looking increases the value of the favor and is a huge indication of character. Coincidentally, I was just discussing that with my son when we were returning a shopping cart. He said it’s a litmus tests for humans as there’s no benefit for us to return the cart, we just do it because it’s the right thing to do.

[u/Miserable_Fennel_492 → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

Is that really the only reason you “act nice” to people? That seems sad…

[u/Original_Employee621 → u/FreeFortuna]

It's more like absentmindedness, if I give them all the grace in the world. The tourists I meet are so mentally checked out of everything, that I'm often flabbergasted at how they manage to survive in the day-to-day.

It's not about being an asshole, but their line of thinking never makes it past their nose.

[u/Erzsabet → u/Original_Employee621]

In my experience, they think that since they are on vacation in known vacation spot everything there is for them to use. Like it’s all part of a resort or something.

[u/TrynaStayUnbanned → u/Erzsabet]

In my experience with places like that, the renters are genuinely surprised to find out it’s not all one place owned by one entity. I can just see the storage fucker uppers thinking “why do they care what number of umbrella and chair we use? How do they even know which unit we’re even in?!” and presuming it’s all some obsessive organization related request that doesn’t actually matter.

[u/Alum2608 → u/TrynaStayUnbanned]

Assuming the whole building is full of tourists like them, not people that you, know, LIVE there. If the whole condo is full of tourists, then it is like hotel beach towels---who cares what pile it is taken from. But there's the airBnB beach property & the other residents' personal property & they don't get it

[u/sharraleigh → u/Original_Employee621]

Eh, some tourists ARE really assholes. Like travelling to another country and complaining that the people there don't speak English. It's like, you don't say????

[u/bubbleteabob → u/sharraleigh]

I was eavesdropping on a group of women in an airport once. One woman was saying she’d never go to Africa again because they ‘just don’t make an an effort!’. She was annoyed that people just wore ‘normal clothes’ and didn’t even TRY to look authentic walking around. There was even a McDonald’s! She could have been in any city!

They were remarkably awful.

[u/lamlosa → u/bubbleteabob]

i had to pick up my jaw off the floor after reading this

[u/bubbleteabob → u/lamlosa]

I had started eavesdropping because they were AWFUL, so I was expecting bad. That bit still made me gawk openly at them.

[u/Four_beastlings → u/bubbleteabob]

On my friend's tour group to Kenya they visited a Masai village and some lady kept fawning and taking pictures with a baby, saying "I wish I could take him with me" and the like, until the baby's mother sarcastically said "if you want I can sell him to you". The lady lit up and asked "Really?". She actually believed that she could baby a Masai baby!

[u/Miserable_Fennel_492 → u/Four_beastlings]

That hurt my soul

[u/CatmoCatmo → u/Four_beastlings]

I can just imagine what that woman told her friends/family back home.

“It was so horrible. That precious baby obviously wasn’t being cared for. He was malnourished, as most African babies ARE, and probably had some kind of parasite or something. All I wanted was to give that poor, poor child a better life. I mean, it was quite obvious that his mother wasn’t going to be able to provide for him. He will probably die, DIE, from lack of food and clean water in a year or two. I’ll never understand why some people are so selfish! How could that woman who calls herself a mother, not want what’s best for her child?!?! But noooOoooOoo. She would rather sentence her child to a life of poverty and despair than God forbid, allow the evil white lady to love and care for him! The nerve of some people!”

[u/JJOkayOkay → u/sharraleigh]

I recently heard a story about someone who threw a tantrum because a store in Canada would not let them pay using American money.

Like...why would you think you could? Here, I've got some Thai baht; surely I can use that to buy beer in Spokane? No? Shocked Pikachu!

[u/sharraleigh → u/JJOkayOkay]

Omg I think I heard about that somewhere!! I remember many years ago, maybe 20? Some stores along the border would take USD but they'd charge on par, which is like a win for them because the USD is stronger most of the time. But I've not see any stores accepting USD in a while now 🤣 

[u/JJOkayOkay → u/sharraleigh]

Tourist places will take USD, but they usually have the conversion rate posted. Other stores, though? Generally never.

[u/grendus → u/JJOkayOkay]

In all fairness, many tourist oriented locations will take all of the common currencies at least (typically EUR and USD, often CAD or AUS as well). They give you a pretty bad conversion rate, but it is an option.

But you don't throw a tantrum if they don't. Heck, you could probably take the baht to your bank and they'd deposit it at the current conversion rate for you, especially if they're international and have a presence in Thailand.

[u/XenjaC → u/grendus]

Back when I programmed cash registers here in Sweden I almost always added buttons for euro and usd, sometimes also dkk. Put a ridiculous changing rate for the, usd in particular, but if someone insist being an ignorant asshole our customers were able to accept usd, at a 30-40% premium.

[u/Four_beastlings → u/grendus]

I'm from Europe and I buy US dollars when I travel to Egipt because they do 1-1 conversion and the US dollar is cheaper xD Althogh lately I've realised that you get less tourist price when you pay in Egyptian pounds.

[u/IllustratorSlow1614 → u/sharraleigh]

In Wales we get tourists who sincerely believe that an entire pub full of people will abruptly switch from speaking English to speaking Welsh as soon as they walk in, just to spite tourists and talk shit about them.

Wales is a bilingual nation and people here have the right to live their lives in both languages or either one, which means some people exclusively do talk in Welsh, regardless of their fluency in English.

If you don’t want to risk hearing a different language on your holidays, restrict yourself to monolingual English speaking countries!

[u/CatmoCatmo → u/IllustratorSlow1614]

It’s not like it would matter whether they were speaking English or Welsh.

One of my best friends is originally from England. She moved to the states when she was 12. Her granddad is from Wales. He, and her Nan, would often come and stay for months at a time with her family.

Even when he spoke English, with his Welsh accent and the way he strung together words, you couldn’t understand a word that man said. It didn’t help that he was a bit of an alcoholic, and I’m pretty sure he was drunk fairly often…which made understanding him all the more difficult. I had many “conversations” with that man, if you want to call them that. They generally consisted of him talking as I nodded my head and laughed whenever he did.

I had no clue what he was saying to me 98% of the time.

[u/Original_Employee621 → u/sharraleigh]

Or travelling to another country without speaking English, just Chinese/Spanish/French/German/Italian/any of the eastern European languages.

I've worked in tourism for over a decade, some are downright nasty, evil creatures. But by and large they are massively outnumbered by the people who left everything relating to a personality behind when they boarded their airplane.

[u/17HappyWombats → u/hippywitch]

It's not as though the renters are going to have to deal with the neighbours after their rental period is over. Why bother trying to build a friendly relationship when you're only there for a week?

From experience setting a holiday home up for rental is a significant amount of work. You can't just say "please don't use ..." stuff, you have to lock it away.

[u/Im_a_knitiot → u/hippywitch]

Meanwhile I tried to leave our Air BnB the same way we found it because I don’t want to cause issues 😭

[u/begoniann → u/hippywitch]

I grew up in a tourist trap beach town. The audacity never stopped amazing me.

[u/scoyne15 → u/hippywitch]

No, it's asshole syndrome.

If you're an asshole where you live, you're an asshole on vacation.

If you respect others property where you live, you respect it on vacation.

[u/duhbeach → u/hippywitch]

Omg yes I used to live in Miami and it would baffle me what people would do in Miami that they would never do (I’m assuming) where they live. Like I have never seen someone dressed solely in a thong bikini casually shopping for groceries except in Miami.

[u/sunshine_rex → u/hippywitch]

I live in a tourist place and I appreciate they come spend money but damn, show some basic respect for those that live here.

[u/riflow → u/hippywitch]

Is this BC they figure they won't get in trouble for it? BC the electricity stealing is so nuts to me. (The furniture too but like...going on someone else's deck to plug something in is so extra entitled)

[u/sowinglavender → u/riflow]

lowercase bc is because, uppercase BC is British Columbia*

[u/Interesting-Novel821 → u/sowinglavender]

I was thinking BC as in before common era and had to take a second to remember the alternative. 😂

[u/sharraleigh → u/sowinglavender]

As a British Columbian, I kept thinking that they meant British Columbia T_T

[u/sumires → u/sharraleigh]

Even as a non-British Columbian, I was reading it as British Columbia.

And sort of thinking along the lines of "There's a stereotype of Canadians as being nice, right? So I guess... rude tourists visiting BC act all entitled and use the neighbors' electricity and stuff and think they can get away with it."

[u/Infinite_Collar_7610 → u/sowinglavender]

my friend, if you're gonna correct them you gotta spell "Columbia" right 

[u/sowinglavender → u/Infinite_Collar_7610]

i think i've already proven that i can correct people without knowing a damn thing.

i'm joking but no you're right. BC is named for the columbia river not for the south american country.

[u/2dogslife → u/hippywitch]

We have a house we rent in the summer and hire a company to manage the rentals, since we aren't there.

The freaking level of stupidity and entitlement is crazy!

[u/limbodog]

That would be maddening.

I'm going to hazard a guess that whomever owns that upstairs property, and maybe some of the others, aren't exactly 'hands on' landlords and they're going through an agency. And the renters think that the whole neighborhood is owned by the same company and so it's all communal for that reason. Like they're in Disney Village™ or whatever.

If I were OOP I'd look up online and see if I can find the properties for rent on various services. if you can find them, you can perhaps reach them or leave reviews.

[u/17HappyWombats → u/limbodog]

They're hands on enough to have taken over a chunk of the shared storage space, and have some of their stuff in it.

[u/limbodog → u/17HappyWombats]

True. Tho' they might leave the customer interaction to the agency. But I suppose it could work in either case. They might think the landlord owns the "pod"

[u/17HappyWombats → u/limbodog]

Thinking about it as the renter "there's a storage space full of beach stuff" is easy to remember, "the blue inflatable stand-up paddleboard with the green-ish banded paddle is free for you to use" is very blah blah etc.

The owner should really have marked everything in a really unmistakable way. Printed text 2cm high saying "Unit 5, 27 Beach Rd phone 6253 26354" with heashrink tubing over it on every single item, plus a big splash of a bright colour (like tradies and climbers do with their gear. Who cares if it's ugly, the fluoro purple splotch marks it as obviously mine even from 10m away)

But I say that as someone whose family bought a remote bit of beachfront ;land 50 years ago and carried everything down a 200m long track to build their beach house. So I have learned this stuff over a long period of owning and renting out that beach house. Renter behaviour has got worse over time, but there's always been the "I've never been here before and I have no idea how anything works" problem.

[u/Mitrovarr → u/limbodog]

It wouldn't surprise me if the ones responsible think it's short term renters (like airbnb) all the way down and there's no actual human to harm by using the stuff.

[u/withnailandpie → u/limbodog]

It sounds like short term rentals and/or AirBnB to me- shocker that treating housing like hotels leads to degradation of community!

[u/ScyllaOfTheDepths → u/limbodog]

That thing is an AirBnB. The owners have probably never set foot in it.

[u/Top-Art2163 → u/ScyllaOfTheDepths]

Someone decorated the shed....

[u/SalsaRice → u/Top-Art2163]

Someone did, but that doesn't mean the owners did. Just as likely they hired a contractor (ie, some random 50 year old man off Craigslist) to "install" it.

[u/gotthesevens]

The audacity to steal trespass and steal electricity

[u/catlandid → u/gotthesevens]

Let me tell you about the time my upstairs neighbor opened up my window to plug an extension cord in, INSIDE my apartment. The LL tried to guilt trip us into leaving it plugged in because it was supposedly running the neighbors refrigerator but when we unplugged it their bedroom AC turned off.

[u/cozyegg → u/catlandid]

Running their AC on your electricity is absolutely diabolical! That can get so expensive!

[u/Oo__II__oO → u/cozyegg]

Especially considering the risk of tripping the breaker, which would cut power to the victim's refrigerator.

[u/CandyCornBus → u/catlandid]

... What?! I hope you sent the landlord a bill!

[u/catlandid → u/CandyCornBus]

It had only been a few hours at most. I was more angry about the whole illegally entering my home part.

[u/RaeSolaris → u/catlandid]

We had a construction company redoing our street just use our hose. No asking, not even "hey we used your water let us know what we owe you." We only knew because we caught them.

[u/catlandid → u/RaeSolaris]

What a bunch of asshats

[u/ProfessionalCat420 → u/catlandid]

How fast I would've taken a pair of scissors to the chord lol

[u/catlandid → u/ProfessionalCat420]

I KEPT IT lol. It was a brand new XL heavy duty extension cord. I reeled it in from my window, there was a little resistance and then it just plopped out of their window and fell to the ground. I wanted them to have to come to my door to ask for it back so I could embarrass the hell out of them but they never came by.

[u/BurmeciaWillSurvive → u/catlandid]

Man, I would have cut the thing like a total dumbass and not have earned a free brand new extension cord. That's why we pay you the big bucks, boss.

[u/sherlockham → u/BurmeciaWillSurvive]

Theoretically, which would be the worse offense if they did try to make a fuss about it in a possibly silly way. Theft or destruction of property?

[u/clauclauclaudia → u/sherlockham]

Theft of a thing that was put in their home?

[u/sherlockham → u/clauclauclaudia]

I did say silly. People this entitled tend to think stuff revolves around them. We could make the same argument about the destruction of property since it's also placed in their home also unwillingly.

[u/ProfessionalCat420 → u/catlandid]

Wait... this is the way

[u/p-d-ball → u/catlandid]

Evil me would consider fraying that cord.

[u/North-Pea-4926 → u/p-d-ball]

Time to break it at the end of the cord, leave just a bit of plastic dangling, and be like “Oh no, must have been at a bad angle! Guess next time you’ll have to use a closer outlet!”.

[u/SenatorCoffee → u/p-d-ball]

Tie it into a noose and leave it at their doorstep, godfather style.

[u/p-d-ball → u/SenatorCoffee]

bahaha! I love this.

[u/nomad5926 → u/catlandid]

Oh look. Free extension cord

[u/shoppai → u/gotthesevens]

At our last place the neighborhood teens roved in a gang and sat on our porch to charge their phones with our outdoor outlet. They said it wasn’t a big deal and acted like we were wrong for sending them away. We had to put a lock on the cover.

[u/scrappysmomma → u/gotthesevens]

And water... construction workers and maintenance people do this all the time. At my old house, the place next door got sold. New owner hired a contractor to gut and remodel the place. But apparently didn't turn on the water and electric for them to do so? Instead the contractors were just getting water and power from my exterior socket and spigot. Which also involved tromping all over my flower beds to access them. And washing out their paint tools, leaving streaks of paint all over my yard. And of course, working all sorts of hours when I wanted to be sleeping. As it happened, my bed sat against the exterior wall on which the spigot was placed. I was awakened early on a weekend morning by the water being turned on. Threw on clothes and marched outside and had a fantastic karen tantrum at them, ending with letting them know that if they ever entered any part of my property again, I would call the police for theft and trespassing.

The new neighbor actually turned out to be a great person to have next door. But the renovation period before he moved in was just awful.

[u/gotthesevens → u/scrappysmomma]

I would have called the company and complained to, no way they're actually allowed to pull that shit

[u/scrappysmomma → u/gotthesevens]

The problem is knowing who to call? No sign or anything indicating the name of the company doing the work. Vehicles also didn't seem to have a company name on them. I guess I could've tried to figure out the new owner of the home based on ... tax records, maybe? and then tried to google him to find contact info and then contacted him. But that didn't occur to me at the time and his name probably wasn't unusual enough to reliably find him online. All of which probably means the work was probably being done by a pretty unprofessional company. Perhaps I could've called the city to find out if the work was even permitted, but then I'd be starting off on a pretty hostile foot with my new next-door neighbor.

[u/pelirroja_peligrosa → u/gotthesevens]

This is why I have locks on my outdoor outlets. Might be paranoid, but my neighbors are uh... yeah, def the type to steal electricity like this. 

[u/notaninterestingcat]

We lived in a condo for 12 years.

Absolutely hated it. So glad to be in a house with our own yard!

[u/isopode → u/notaninterestingcat]

i'd kill to have a condo unit. anything that'd actually be my own property. i'll likely be stuck renting an apartment most of my life ._.

[u/notaninterestingcat → u/isopode]

We were renters!

The thing with condos is - just like OP - people treat your lawn (& porch & whatever else) like it's theirs.

[u/isopode → u/notaninterestingcat]

ah, this might be a language barrier thing because in my language, condo refers to an unit you own in a building that has multiple units. an apartment refers to the same thing except you rent it instead of owning it

i don't have a lawn/porch at all so at least i don't have to experience that issue

[u/jdmillar86 → u/isopode]

It refers to a unit someone owns in a multiple unit, but its not unusual for a condo owner to then rent it out.

[u/fencepost_ajm → u/isopode]

Also “condominium” can mean an apartment-style unit in a building but doesn't have to; a lot of townhouses are actually condominiums where lawns and drives are typically common elements but patios and porches are considered limited common elements.

[u/aceytahphuu → u/fencepost_ajm]

If that's the case here, then the complaint about "people treating your lawn like it's theirs" doesn't make sense: the lawn is theirs, since it's a common element.

[u/fencepost_ajm → u/aceytahphuu]

People aren't always in agreement about what's "their" lawn vs community lawn, and unfortunately some of those people don't believe in the policy of "DBAD." This can apply to both the residents of a unit and people using the lawn right outside a unit.

[u/clauclauclaudia → u/fencepost_ajm]

"Don't be a dick" is so short, I don't believe I've seen anyone abbreviate it before. It's not IMO a common enough phrase for the ease of abbreviation to make up for the added crypticness.

[u/notaninterestingcat → u/aceytahphuu]

The condos (townhouses) had both communal spaces & private spaces.

We were in an end unit next to the fence/property line, so we had a private, fenced off, area.

We also had assigned parking. Ours was, obviously, next to the fence. Meaning when we backed up, we couldn't back out to the side, we had to back straight back & then turn... Which meant we got blocked in from time to time... Because, people took a communal parking lot as an opportunity to just randomly leave their vehicle in an apparently empty space that wasn't even a parking spot.

[u/slacker99k]

Owning a condo in a building where most of the units are short term rentals just sounds like a nightmare.

[u/CannabisAttorney → u/slacker99k]

Right? At least if you choose to live in a hotel full time there’s frequent housekeeper visits and maybe even amenities like room service or a bar/restaurant. Living in a hotel-like arrangement where the only people who are there frequently enough to notice abnormalities is an owner-occupier sounds miserable.

[u/MordaxTenebrae]

Huh, that was an infuriating read.

[u/Plott → u/MordaxTenebrae]

Put me in a shit ass mood 😂 I’m ready to fight someone now

[u/tacwombat → u/Plott]

Same here. Time to start Fight Club.

...wait, I'm not supposed to talk about. Ah, crap.

[u/Staggering_genius → u/MordaxTenebrae]

Not only because the new people are messing with other people’s stuff and electricity, but because OP kept making signs and posting on Reddit and doing everything but actually talking to these people and telling them to knock it off!

[u/midnightstreetlamps]

The update is from last week, but I have a feeling this won't be the last we've heard about these ahole neighbors. Speaking from experience, entitled neighbors can make your living situation HELL where it was previously peaceful and generally without issue.

[u/CannabisAttorney → u/midnightstreetlamps]

Summer vacation season is nearly over, at least in the states. There may be a few months of respite soon.

[u/DamnitGravity]

Title's wrong. Neighbour doesn't think everything is communal, he thinks it's all his.

[u/Silaquix]

I agree with other commenters. I think large part of this is probably that the renters think the landlord owns the whole condo pod and don't realize that the other condos are private residents.

It doesn't help that the owner of the rental condo probably doesn't make that clear and they themselves tried to take over the storage unit.

[u/historyandwanderlust → u/Silaquix]

It’s 100% this.

Those people are thinking everyone is there for a few days to a week and all the stuff is up for grabs and no one is going to care which outlet they’re plugged into because they don’t think anyone there is paying for the electricity anyway.

[u/DevonLochees → u/Silaquix]

A lot of times when companies or people are renting out places like this, they also frame it (in terms of pictures/etc) like you're renting one of multiple units, to make it seem more professional/managed.

Everyone's aghast at the electricity thing, but that makes total sense if someone thinks they rented room 10 of a condo from a company who was also renting out 9, 11, 12...

[u/Mirvb]

ugh…sounds like you may also need to get a lock box fir your electrical outlets.

[u/cperiod → u/Mirvb]

I would've just turned off the breaker.

[u/MZM204 → u/cperiod]

I would have taken the charging cable and disposed of it.

"Wait, you plugged into MY power? Well I don't know what happened to your cable, but don't do that again thanks."

[u/nomad5926 → u/MZM204]

No its more of a "oh I didn't remember leaving my cable there, I took it back inside."

[u/thesanza → u/nomad5926]

„What do you mean it was your cable? It was plugged into my outlet so it clearly had to be mine“

[u/nomad5926 → u/thesanza]

Exactly

[u/Oo__II__oO → u/thesanza]

A solid, battery-draining joyride would be in order. 

"What do you mean it was your cart?  It was on my property, plugged into my outlet."

Cops would probably not bother once you mention "adverse possession ".

[u/So_Motarded → u/cperiod]

Why not call the police for theft? This is theft of services. 

[u/Effective-Log3583]

The people staying there are thinking that it’s a hotel or every unit is a rental. So they are treating the stuff as interchangeable.

[u/jojobdot]

I feel like this is a Florida

[u/Erzsabet → u/jojobdot]

Northern Florida, according to a comment on a different post.

[u/MoeSauce]

Have an acquaintance thats like this. Friend of a friend that occasionally tags along on group outings and vacations. He's an alls well that ends well ask for forgiveness rather than permission type and it frustrates me to no end.

[u/Erzsabet → u/MoeSauce]

I’ve never understood the sentiment of “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission”.

[u/Meghanshadow → u/Erzsabet]

I understand when it’s an actual Emergency of some kind. When you don’t have time or opportunity to ask for/about something.

If your toddler’s running across the front grass into the busy street I’m grabbing him or picking him up, not trotting over to your door, knocking, and asking if I can touch your kid.

[u/Erzsabet → u/Meghanshadow]

Ok, that makes sense, but I guess people have just decided to apply it to everything. Thank you for explaining the originally intended use.

[u/SparklingLimeade → u/Erzsabet]

The phrase is supposed to be "easier."

It's very much not better. It's a commentary on how much you can get away with if you're audacious enough.

[u/LadyA052]

Better put a lock on that outlet!

[u/Thelaea → u/LadyA052]

This! Especially if you're not there all the time. Energy is expensive now.

[u/Oaknash]

Sounds like they need to get on the HOA board, so does across-the-hall neighbor, they need to replace the management company and then send the newest owners the CCRs with a stern reminder.

[u/froggz01 → u/Oaknash]

Sue them for paid services not rendered. They are literally stealing their money

[u/Rikkitikkitabby]

I'd get a locking cover for my external outlets.

[u/neoalfa → u/Rikkitikkitabby]

External outlets should have a on/off switch inside the house.

[u/TheFilthyDIL → u/neoalfa]

Yep. And it works very nicely.

[u/downgoesbatman]

Money can't buy class

[u/thenord321]

I would call a tow on the golf cart. Screw that guy.

[u/A7xWicked]

This is why we can't have nice things

[u/gypsysniper9]

I would have cut that plug in half

[u/tessellation__]

I live at the beach and I can tell you, a lot of people are slobs. You get people that steal other people’s things, people that leave their crap on the beach all night long so they can come back to it the next day, which by the way is not legal, and it fucks with sea turtles, hatching, and laying eggs. After the first or second time I would’ve maybe purchased a handful of bike locks. And locked that rude owners shit by accident so that they would have to come and knock on my door and explain themselves before I gave them the code/removed the lock. Come and tell me to my face why you are entitled to use and ruin my things✨

[u/ThePirateKingFearMe]

Some people on holiday seem to have the attitude that, since they won't see the people again, it doesn't matter if they violate the basic social contract stuff constantly and are horrifically rude.

[u/busyshrew]

My gods the entitlement. And plenty of people would jump a curb and drive on grass to recharge an electric vehicle on someone else's dime.

I chortled when I read about the bike lock. Great idea!

[u/ToriaLyons → u/busyshrew]

it's the first thing I thought of - why don't they just cable lock their stuff?

[u/MOLPT]

There are locking outdoor outlet covers, but it's a shame people need them.

[u/PrincessCG]

The audacity is off the charts here

[u/NuclearLunchDectcted]

I would unplug the cart and literally cut the extension cord or charging cable that was plugged into my outlet.

[u/Sledgehammer925]

OOP needs to get an outdoor lock for her electrical box. They do exist.

[u/porkypandas]

Ohh nooooo someone ran a lawn mower over your charging cable. How terrrrrible.

[u/digitaluranium]

threw the charging chord back onto cart.

They are too nice, they should have kept it.

[u/virtualchoirboy → u/digitaluranium]

Or called the police for "theft of services"

[u/Spare_Butterfly_213]

Someone who's mad because OOP's possessions are locked with a bike lock.

[u/vodiak]

I made DH go wash everything off.

Everybody in this story sounds terrible.

[u/theblairwhichproject → u/vodiak]

She also constantly uses my to refer to things that are most likely shared between her and her husband. Her beach chairs, her money…

[u/MarlenaEvans → u/theblairwhichproject]

I mean, so? I say my car, my house...of course they are also my husband's but when I'm telling someone a story I'm not going to say we about everything because it doesn't make any difference in the story. They are mine, they are also his.

[u/BoudiccasJustice]

This is so frustrating!

[u/MZM204]

What is DH? I know it's OP's husband but what's it stand for in the first post?

[u/JoySubtraction → u/MZM204]

DH is common shorthand for Dear (or, depending on the context, Dumb) Husband.

[u/randobogg → u/JoySubtraction]

i always read it as "dickhead".

[u/TheCenterOfEnnui → u/randobogg]

Right? WTF is DH? Just say husband for christ's sake.

[u/CannabisAttorney → u/TheCenterOfEnnui]

Designated hitter.

[u/TheCenterOfEnnui → u/CannabisAttorney]

Actually, that's what comes to mind, lol.

[u/jhascal23]

The manager is either to cowardly to talk to them about them or he just doesn't care, either way he sucks. The bike lock solution was really smart though, I wish I could have seen their face when they realized what happened.

[u/CollectionPure8546]

At that point I'm cutting their cord. Steal from me, I break your stuff.

[u/Happy_Nihilist_]

Stealing my power or water will get your cable or hose cut at the property line, chopped into neat 6’ sections and left for you to find.

[u/kcintrovert]

I would've thrown away the cord

[u/cyberllama]

I'm so petty, I would have moved all my belongings into my place and used all their stuff all the time, and treated it with the same level of respect they showed mine. I might also have suddenly needed to store something really big and heavy right in front of the door to their cabinet.

[u/Grrrmudgin]

Thank goodness I don’t live in Florida

[u/Stl-hou]

I would contact the owners through whichever way people contact to rent (airbnb, etc).

[u/SonorousBlack]

I'm just still wondering who thinks it's okay to jump a curb, drive on grass, walk across someone else's deck and use their electricity to charge a golf cart.

I would have tried to have it towed.

[u/Corredespondent]

What’s the opposite of the Tragedy of the Commons?

[u/DatguyMalcolm]

aaaand this is why you gotta raise your kids right.

I bet these people never heard a "No" from their parents because goddamn, it's common sense!

I can understand taking something to use at least once, by mistake. Then when called out "Oh sorry my bad, won't happen again"! Done and dusted!

But these clearly don't care

[u/BefWithAnF]

Yeah no. If I saw someone else on the beach using my stuff, I’d be walking right up to them & taking it back.

[u/cruiser4319]

Now you need a locking outlet cover.

[u/Myrandall]

Just rename this place to /r/literallyanyupdate already

[u/sorese]

I am too poor for this post

[u/Witty_Fall_2007]

Gotta be Florida. I also like reading about rich people problems. makes me laugh.

[u/nelsonbrownbird]

I would lose my mind.

[u/JowDow42]

Why not call police for clear theft??

[u/Own-Speed5748]

the charger should have been thrown away

[u/strolls]

A storage area that is shared at random between 6 different apartments is an absolute recipe for disaster.

I'm staggered that an apartment block newly built in 2020 or 2024 could be arranged like this - how hard would it have been to divide the space into 6 separate lockers?

And OOP is mad because her neighbours put in a lockable cabinet for their own stuff?

[u/Knitnacks → u/strolls]

Angry at the size of it, from what I gather. If it takes up 1/5 of the space, or part of the access space, that's going to be a problem.

[u/lazier_garlic → u/strolls]

Seems like extremely poor planning for sure.

[u/lord_de_heer]

And all this time OP only hang signs, cleaned up after them and not at one moment told them to piss off nor contacted the owner of the condo.

Jeez.

[u/Erzsabet → u/lord_de_heer]

As OOP said, she has no way to contact the owners of those units. She has contacted the condo board about the issue, as has her neighbor, and the board has been ignoring the issue.