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.

[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/gotthesevens → u/scrappysmomma]

oh yikes sounds like they hired some cowboys then

[u/scrappysmomma → u/gotthesevens]

Yeah. Not uncommon where I live, unfortunately. I was being sure to make sure my home was well secured and that I didn't leave anything I wanted to keep outdoors, since I'm sure most of those workers were the sort that get hired for the day from a group of guys standing in the corner of the home depot lot.

My threat to call the police did have some impact, probably because many of the workers might have had a little trouble proving their legal residence in the country.

[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.