A woman recently bought a house with her partner, only to find her neighbor’s kids using their pool, she has since banned them but asked for advice on Reddit…
The woman, who goes by the username Commercial_Motor394, took to Reddit to ask: “AITA for not letting the neighbor’s kids use my pool?”
The woman explained that she, a “32-year-old woman, and my wife who is a 33-year-old woman,” recently bought their dream house after years of renting.
“It took a lot of work but we got to do it and it’s a home we both love and plan to spend the rest of our lives in. It even has a pool which is just amazing and something I’d always wanted but never thought I’d have,” she said.
However, although everything is perfect with the house, there’s one thing that’s become a problem for the couple, and that’s the neighbors next door, particularly their kids, who seem to think they can use their private pool whenever they want.
“I keep finding their kids using our pool having hopped our fence and I keep getting them to leave, I’ve spoken to their parents about this issue and they have told me that the elderly couple we bought the house from would let the kids use the pool in exchange for cleaning it.
“So they’re just used to being able to use it, I told them that was fine when it was the last neighbor but it’s something my wife and I are not comfortable with as we don’t know them well enough plus if the kids were hurt we’d feel awful about it.”
She continued, explaining that she has repeatedly told both the kids and their parents that they don’t want them using the pool, but the parents weren’t having it. “They insisted their kids wouldn’t get hurt and asked if it’d be ok if the kids used it whenever we weren’t as they’re ‘Just kids’ […] I was getting annoyed at this point and told them they should get their own pool then and I’d already told them we weren’t comfortable with this.
She concluded her post, writing: “Ever since then I’ve had to chase the kids away a couple more times and their parents are constantly sending me dirty looks whenever they see me, I’ve since posted a sign stating it’s a private pool and can only be used with permission. Am I really being unfair here? Yes, it sucks the kids had an arrangement with the last owners but it’s our pool now.”
Her post was met with thousands of comments from people reassuring her she was doing the right thing and that it was her neighbors that were in the wrong. One Redditor wrote: “NTA, you know those parents would sue you into the next century if the kids got so much as a scrape.”
Another wrote: “Absolutely. NTA and this is a huge liability for you and your HO insurance. Post ‘no trespassing’ signs and if they still don’t get the message, pay a lawyer a couple of hundred bucks to write them a ‘stay out’ letter (delivered by Certified mail). That will cover your a** somewhat if, god forbid, an accident happens.”
What do you think?