Built in 2006, this four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Orlando, or more accurately, its yard, was the centre of a “Goliath vs Goliath” battle during the late 2010s.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the house sits on a triple lot. A previous owner sowed the seeds for the future real estate feud by taking out two mortgages from two different banks for the three parcels. When the market crashed in 2008, both loans were foreclosed. Then, in 2016, business mogul Craig Mateer snapped up one of the empty lots for £74,800 ($100k) via his RMS Investments firm.
Mateer wanted to build a home on the vacant lot but was unable to do so given parts of the garage and pool were situated in one of the other lots owned by Deutsche Bank, which included the site's existing house. A fence was erected bisecting the garage and pool to mark out who owned what, angering local residents no-end, who were already furious that the house had been left empty for years and was attracting squatters.
You can see exactly where the fence falls over the pool cover in this snapshot from coverage by Florida TV station WFTV Channel 9.
Mateer's offer to purchase the house was turned down and the two parties reached an impasse. Due to the boundary dispute, Deutsche Bank was unable to sell the home, while Mateer couldn't build on his plot. With both sides unwilling to compromise, the feud culminated in a showdown at Orlando City Hall in 2020.
Mateer proposed to sell off the sliver of his land that included part of the garage and pool. Orlando City Council agreed this was the best solution and gave him the green light.
The house sold later in 2020 for £261,700 ($350k) and looks to have had a makeover. Best of all, the weird fence cutting through the yard has been removed, though there haven't been any signs of building work on Mateer's plot.
In 2012, real estate developer Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring splurged £15 million ($20m) on this white, three-storey mews property in London's upmarket Kensington, with the hope of replacing it with a luxe two-storey home boasting a double basement and swimming pool. But when neighbours got wind of the project, they lodged an objection with the local council and the plans were rejected.
Lisle-Mainwaring promptly had the townhouse painted in red-and-white stripes in March 2015. The neighbours were up in arms, aghast at the garish makeover, while the property developer denied she did it out of “spite”, saying that her desire was to “add to the gaiety of the nation.”
The paint job certainly had the desired effect of riling local residents if that were its true intention. Claiming to be “horrendously unhappy” with it, Lisle-Mainwaring's neighbours slammed the “hideous and tacky” revamp for looking like “a cross between a beach hut and a circus”, labelling it an “absolute monstrosity” in an interview with MyLondon.
The local council then intervened, ordering Lisle-Mainwaring to repaint the façade white, but she fought back to keep the stripes, taking the battle all the way to the UK High Court. In 2017, the court ruled in her favour and she was also finally granted permission to redevelop the townhouse, which lost the stripes at long last when it was demolished and replaced in 2019.
The victory came at a heavy cost, however: Lisle-Mainwaring later said she racked up £1 million ($1.3m) in legal costs to get her own way.
Many of us yearn for a slice of the good life – perhaps a smallholding in a countryside idyll with land to raise animals. But for the Hemberger family, their dream of rural life soured in 2021 when their neighbours in the French department of Territoire de Belfort lodged formal noise complaints against their two roosters for crowing too loudly.
Laetitia Hemberger, pictured here in coverage by regional French news channel France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and her husband Olivier, said the family had lived in the area for two years and had never had any objections to their feathered friends before.
The Hemberger home is located in the picturesque town of Fontaine, near the eastern border of France. The couple live at the property with their children and pets – the large mesh coop where the bantam roosters are kept is visible here.
"Until now, our relations with the neighbours were cordial, we gave them eggs, we exchanged advice. Suddenly, we received anonymous letters mentioning the legislation on noise pollution, we were threatened, in front of our daughters, with having a barbecue with our chickens," the couple said in a translated interview they gave to local French news publication L'Est Républicain.
The Hembergers' neighbours claimed that the family were uncooperative, forcing them to contact the local mayor, who in turn contacted the rural guard. Complaints were then filed by both sides with the gendarmerie, the law enforcement branch of the French armed forces.
“These neighbours raised show roosters, with repetitive noises and crowing all day long, at any time, and it’s annoying," one local resident explained to reporters from France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. "When we started to get bothered, I talked to them about it and they told me that if I didn’t like hearing the roosters crowing, I should just go to a retirement home."
Since January 2021, the roosters' crowing has been protected as a part of the sensory heritage of France's rural regions under the country's Environmental Code. However, the Hembergers' neighbours claimed that the excessive noise should be classed as an "abnormal disturbance".
While it doesn't appear that French law enforcement has taken legal action, a meeting with a mediator was set up between the warring residents by the local authority. Unfortunately, it appears to have failed to quash the disagreement. It's unclear if a resolution has since been reached.
The quaint Italian village of Petralia Sottana on the island of Sicily is famed for its breathtaking mountain scenery, meandering streets and beautiful medieval buildings. It's also known for an enduring property dispute between neighbours, which resulted in a rather unique addition to the enclave's architecture...
Glancing down one of the village's winding streets, there's nothing immediately unusual about this home and its traditional red-brick exterior. Yet despite its seemingly ordinary front façade, the residence has one defining feature that makes it stand out amongst the surrounding properties: it's only three feet (1m) wide, making it one of the narrowest properties in the world.
Filmed here for the local Sicilian newspaper Giornale di Sicilia, the house is known as Casa del Dispetto – or Casa du Currivu in the Sicilian dialect – which translates to House of Spite.
The construction of the bizarre building was fuelled by a dispute with a neighbour dating back to the 1950s. At that time, residents of Petralia Sottana would add an extra storey to their homes when they were in need of more living space. This kind of expansion required permission from the owners of the surrounding properties. Following the village's tradition, one particular resident sought to expand the height of his home, however, his neighbour refused to grant him permission.
Unable to extend his property, the resident decided to enact lawful retribution. While he needed his neighbours' permission to add a level to his house, incredibly, he didn't require his consent to build an entirely new structure. Being careful to respect the legal boundaries between his land and his neighbour's, the man constructed a slither of a house that was tall enough to obstruct the outlook from the house next door.
While Casa del Dispetto is not large enough to live in, it has become a popular tourist attraction in the region and scores of visitors flock to see this architectural testament to revenge every year.
German TV presenter and former goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is something of a legend in the sporting world. The Premier League footballer played for a roster of top international teams during his career – most notably, he was part of Arsenal's undefeated 2003-2004 team, who were nicknamed the Invincibles.
After his retirement in 2010, Lehmann was out of the spotlight until 2023 when he was fined €420,000 (£350k/$468k) by a German court for damaging his neighbour's property following a heated dispute. Let's take a look at how a squabble escalated into something more serious...
Lehmann's modern mansion, captured here by German magazine BUNTE, is perched on the banks of the tranquil Lake Starnberg in Germany's Upper Bavaria region. Despite its peaceful location, it became the scene of a rather dramatic falling out between the former footballer and his neighbour in the summer of 2022.
Purchased back in 2007, Lehmann's luxury home features a white façade lined with swathes of glass – perfect for framing views of the waterfront. However, construction work was seemingly threatening to obscure the idyllic outlook.
That summer, Lehmann's neighbour began building a garage adjacent to their property. Unfortunately, the new structure is said to have partially blocked the goalkeeper's view of Lake Starnberg. Lehmann is reported to have been at "loggerheads" with his neighbour, Walter Winkelmann, for years, according to Bavarian newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The former footballer decided to take matters into his own hands. In video footage from a surveillance camera, which was later shown in court, Lehmann is pictured entering the half-built garage with a chainsaw and raising it to a wooden roof beam, before the tape cuts out.
Pictured here is one of the damaged timber beams. In court, Winkelmann also accused his neighbour of using the chainsaw to fell a young birch tree on his property. The former sportsman claimed he hadn't intended to cause harm and he only had the chainsaw as he was cutting a hedge.
However, Lehmann was ultimately fined for damage to property, insult and attempted fraud, though he was spared the prosecution's request for a suspended prison sentence.
An innocent-looking conifer graced Bharat Mistry's front garden in the leafy Sheffield suburb of Waterthorpe in the UK for almost a quarter of a century with no complaints. But in 2020, Mistry's next-door neighbours started grumbling about birds nesting in the 16-foot (4.9m) tree, which the couple claimed were covering their driveway and car with droppings and driving them crazy with their cooing.
Mistry has said he did his best to placate the pair, having previously pruned the lower branches and trimmed the tree into a ball shape. But his efforts were to no avail. In the spring of 2021, the couple called in a tree surgeon, who took drastic action by chainsawing the overhanging branches, effectively hacking the tree in half. Mistry and his family were left “gutted” and “absolutely distraught.”
'Conifergate' ended up going viral after an image of the tree was posted on Reddit, entitled: “Some traditional British pettiness on display". The story gained even more traction after it was featured on Channel 5's Jeremy Vine On 5 TV show in the UK.
The odd-looking tree has seemingly put the neighbourhood on the map, according to one resident. It's even been tagged as a local tourist attraction on Google Maps and has accumulated a number of Google reviews from curious visitors.
Sadly, harmony hasn't returned to this quiet corner of Sheffield. According to reports from The Sun, the neighbours remain “at war” though they are “polite and pretend not to be,” according to one resident.
As for the conifer, it's going strong, though the couple, who “have no regrets about cutting it in half,” are still said to be pruning the branches on their side.
Residents of Hambleton, a rural village in the English county of Rutland, Paul and Selena Bailey's impressive collection of supercars caused quite a stir among their neighbours. The couple were accused of disturbing the tranquility of their countryside locale when legal action was brought against them in 2015.
At the time, the Baileys were among the only people in Britain to own the so-called 'holy trinity' of hypercars – a subclass of hybrid supercar – comprising a Porsche 918 Spyder, a Ferrari LaFerrari and a McLaren P1. Paul, who is also an avid race car driver, is pictured here in an interview with auto membership club Supercar Driver.
Entrepreneurial millionaires, the Baileys purchased land in Hambleton from Mick and Marilyn Blackwell in 2005 for £675,000 ($904k). They went on to create their dream home on the acreage, known as Serenity, which includes two large garages to house their prized fleet of supercars.
However, relationships soured between the Blackwells and their buyers. 10 years after the plot changed hands, the couple sued the Baileys and requested damages and an injunction from the High Court, claiming they had broken the terms and conditions of the 2005 sale. They alleged that the supercar collection was unlawful and described the noise from the vehicles as an "annoyance", according to a story by British news website LincsOnline.
Photographed here is the Blackwell's farmhouse, which sits adjacent to the garages.
In this Google Earth image from 2015, you can see the Blackwell property on the left, which includes a campsite. On the right is the Baileys' garage, complete with rows of supercars on its driveway.
As well as the noise complaint, the lawsuit alleged that the Baileys were running a business by "carrying on the trade of supplying prestige cars for hire", in violation of the sale agreement. It was also alleged that Selena Bailey was running a wedding business from the house. The Baileys denied the allegations at the time, stating that their supercar collection was a hobby and that they sometimes raised money for charity by raffling off car rides.
Paul is pictured here driving a Ferrari F430 GT2 during the Pirelli Open race in Norfolk in 2012. When the case first appeared in the High Court in August 2015, the presiding judge rejected allegations of the Baileys' business operations on the property as "very weak", according to another report on LincsOnline. He also said that there was little evidence that the Blackwells had suffered harm as a result of the defendant's actions.
As the Blackwells had a campsite on their own land and had rented out part of their property as a wedding venue in the past, the judge remarked: "Mr and Mrs Blackwell may not be as concerned about their peace and tranquillity as has been made out."
Somewhat unassuming, this boxy beige house in oceanside Manhattan Beach, California, blended in very nicely with the surrounding homes. Until May 2019, that is. Neighbours had reported the owner, Kathryn Kidd, for illegally renting out the property via Airbnb and she ended up being fined £3,000 ($4k) by the city.
Not long after, Kidd had the house painted hot pink and plastered the exterior with two emojis, one with a zipped mouth, known to mean 'shut up' in the emoji parlance, and the other with its tongue stuck out. Both surreal faces sported extra-long eyelashes.
Susan Wieland, who was among the neighbours that reported Kidd, is sure the eyelashes were a sly dig at her since she had lash extensions put in at the time. But Kidd denied she was trying to offend anyone, telling Easy Reader News, which first reported the saga, that she commissioned the paint job as a “happy” and “positive" addition to the area.
The neighbours were anything but happy and positive though, calling the paint job “graffiti” and an “attack on the neighbourhood.” Horrified by what they viewed as an eyesore that would drag down house prices in the street, homeowners complained en masse at a city council meeting in August 2019.
Not long after, however, Kidd put the property on the market and it eventually sold in March 2020 for just under £1.2 million ($1.6m), which while below the asking price, was around £150,000 ($200k) more than what Kidd paid for it in 2018. Much to the relief of the locale, the house then reverted to its neutral hue, effectively ending the drama.
A spite house is a home built specifically to annoy a neighbour or erected as a vengeful act against another landowner. Believe it or not, there are plenty dotted around the world.
Among the most infamous is Boston's Skinny House, which at just 10 feet (3m) wide is the narrowest home in Beantown, which itself is noted for its extra-slim townhouses.
Local legend has it that the 1,165-square-foot (108sqm) property in the city's historic North End was built shortly after the American Civil War by a returning soldier. He reportedly discovered to his horror that his brother had constructed a large home, hogging land they'd both inherited from their father. To spite his sibling, the war vet built the skinny house on the slither of land that remained, obscuring his brother's view and blocking out sunlight.
Another story claims the property was built by an unnamed individual, with the aim of blocking light and views from the home of neighbour they were in a bitter dispute with.
A plaque on the front puts the construction date at 1862, but official records peg it at 1890, so it's anyone's guess which is correct. Whatever its real beginnings, the house has certainly fascinated Bostonians over the years and attracts tourists in their droves.
The two-bedroom home's diminutive size is hardly a stellar selling point. Yet the property's unique charm ensured it had no shortage of potential buyers when it last came on the market in 2021 with CL Properties. The home swiftly sold for just over £899,000 ($1.2m), £37,400 ($50k) above the asking price.
The home is pictured here in a news segment broadcast by NBC10 Boston shortly after the house was previously sold in 2018.
Throwing snags and shrimps on the barbie is a sacred Aussie tradition, so you can imagine the furore that erupted when diehard vegan Cilla Carden took her neighbours in the Perth suburb of Girrawheen to court over their barbecues. She said the smells of meat and fish on the grill were wafting over the fence and into her garden, destroying her quality of life.
Carden initially complained to the authorities in August 2017 and set out her beef in front of a tribunal. As well as her issue with the meaty barbecue smells, the massage therapist presented a litany of other grievances, ranging from neighbours' cigarette smoke to the noise of their kids playing.
One neighbour told national Australian news broadcaster 9News he'd removed his barbecue and stopped his children playing basketball but Carden refused to back down.
After the tribunal rejected every single one of her complaints, she took her case to Western Australia's Supreme Court. But the judge sided with the neighbours and the case was thrown out in August 2019.
By this point, things had turned nasty. Carden was subjected to a barrage of online hate, while a farming activist called Bailey Mason attempted to organise an intimidating community barbecue protest outside Carden's home, posting an invite on Facebook. Thousands were due to attend the event scheduled for 19 October 2019, but days before it was going to take place, Mason cancelled the protest and told his followers he didn't condone the harassment of Carden, who had vowed to fight on, despite the haters.
When it comes to noise complaints, typical gripes tend to involve neighbours' raucous late-night parties, construction work, alarms randomly going off; that sort of thing. And when animals are concerned, decibel-related grievances are almost always related to dogs barking incessantly. But it was a different story in 2018 for a woman living next to Cologne Zoo.
As you can see, homes are located remarkably close to the enclosure housing the zoo's Californian sea lions, so the noise complaint is hardly surprising given these animals can out-bark and drown out the happiest of canines. Plus, they roar like actual lions to boot.
The resident complained her sleep was being disturbed by the five animals who go by the names: Astrid, Amelie, Lina, Mia and Oz.
Cologne's District Government then launched an investigation and the sea lions' nocturnal cries were recorded at 54 decibels, which is 10 decibels above the acceptable limit. Keen to resolve the only noise complaint in its 168-year history, Cologne Zoo figured out the animals' vocalisations were being amplified by the caves they retired to after dark.
The zoo closed off two of the three caves, and as luck would have it, this sorted out the noise issue. According to German news outlet Welt, the Cologne District Government confirmed the “slight noise disturbance” was “probably over” after speaking to the resident in April 2018, adding that there would be “no further" measures taken.
In July 2023, house hunters in Washington, DC thought they'd found the bargain of a century – a property in mega-expensive Georgetown for only £37,400 ($50k) – only to discover after reading the listing that the piece of real estate in question is a dilapidated wall, and only part of it at that.
The wall stands on a skinny piece of land between a car park and a historic rowhouse. Its owner, Allan Berger, inherited the plot on which it stands from his father, who he says bought it at an auction in the 1970s as a sort of joke so he could tell people he owned property in upscale Georgetown.
However, conflicting origin stories exist. According to the Georgetown Metropolitan blog, Berger's father actually acquired it in 1992 from a woman who specialised in buying up unusual lots.
It's thought that the wall may have been part of a long-demolished hotel and survived as it supports the rowhouse next door. It's pictured here in video footage by Washington, DC news station WUSA9.
Trouble began in 2020, when the home's owner, the fittingly named Daniela Walls, noticed water leaking into her home, which an engineer deduced was coming through the external wall. At its widest point, Walls owns the inner 12 inches (30cm), while the outer 12 inches (30cm) belong to Berger.
In a bid to get Berger to fix and maintain the crumbling wall, Walls went to the authorities and Berger was fined £1,000 ($1.7k) last November for improper upkeep. She later offered to buy the wall for its tax-assessed value of £449 ($600). Affronted by the fines and what he saw as an insultingly low offer, Berger then plumped to sell the wall for the massively overinflated figure of £37,400 ($50k), which he admits to having picked off the top of his head.
Astonishingly, several people expressed an interest in buying it at the time, despite the ambitious price tag. In February 2024, the price was slashed to £34,400 ($46k), however, the wall has since been taken off the market. It's not clear if it has passed to a new owner or simply couldn't find a buyer.
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