Woman Is Fed-Up With Her Neighbor Skipping Trash Day – Was Her Action Justified?

A woman is contemplating getting a trash bin lock to make sure her neighbor doesn’t take advantage of her taking out the trash.

Being A Good Neighbor

In an effort to be a good neighbor, the original poster (OP) offered to take out the trash, only for her neighbor to take it for granted and abuse the situation. After months, OP has resorted to taking drastic measures due to the inconsiderate behavior of their upstairs neighbor. “My neighbor has been living above us now for over 6 months… and I’m tired of how un-neighborly she is,” said the OP.

The neighbor has failed to take in the trash bins, leading to an overflowing amount of waste. “We stopped pulling her trash cans and she never put hers out and it was piling up,” OP said. “I gave in and brought her trash to the curb and it finally got taken.”

OP then attempted to establish a compromise with the neighbor. I went to ask her to help with the garbage to be neighborly, told her that I’m fine with taking out the trash if she would take it in,” said OP. “And she agreed, it was a nice conversation.”

Unfortunately, the agreement was not honored. “Now cut to literally the next week, trash truck comes and leaves, 2 days later. Trash cans are still out,” said OP.

After months, OP is now contemplating buying a lock for their trash bin to prevent their neighbor from using it. “I wanna buy a lock for my garbage so she will be an adult and do her own adult [things].”

Others Weigh In

With the neighbor’s inconsiderate behavior creating a difficult situation, OP has chosen to lock their trash bin in order to protect it from being used by their neighbor.

“Buy the lock and don’t do her anymore favours,” said one comment.

“She’s making it a you problem which means it’s no longer a “mind your business” problem. Taking the trash bins in is really easy, even if you have a long driveway or something. It’s empty. I’d 100% lock my trash up if I were in your shoes,” said another comment.

The person was advised to contact the rental company and discuss their options. “I wouldn’t buy a lock. I would handle it through the rental company. Dealing with someone like this can escalate into an unnecessary war. You may not be authorized to lock the trashcan, [since] you keep saying ‘shared,'” said one comment.

The opinion of another comment was that locking the trash bin is justifiable. If you have a private trash bin, it’s yours, no one else is (usually) legally allowed to throw their trash in it,” they said. Illegal dumping laws vary depending on where you live, but generally it’s illegal for other people to throw things away in your trash bins. Lock your trash bin if other people are using it. You shouldn’t have to feel obligated to take the other person’s trash out/in anyway, but this is ridiculous.”

What would you do in this situation?