'AITA for not letting the previous owner of my house come to see it after she had moved out?'
"AITA for not letting the previous owner of my house come back in to see it again after she had moved out?"
I (25f) have been living at this house with my parents since 2020. This house was built and owned by one family before us. The OG owners were a carpenter, his wife, and their daughter.
The owner and his friends moved out to the country and built houses all next door to each other in 1976 so them and their families were all super close. The owner's wife passed away in 2014 and the daughter moved out in 2015.
The guy kept living here by himself until he passed away in 2020. After his passing, his daughter traveled back to the state and sold the house to us before leaving again. When we moved in we found a few boxes of old family pictures, expensive carpentry tools, and we found super expensive cooking supplies.
We contacted the daughter of the owner so that we could return the items to her but she didn't answer. Over the years we continued to try and contact her through text messages, phone calls, emails, and we even tried to have the neighbor contact her. In 2022, she finally answered and screamed at my mom for continuously trying to talk to her.
My mom explained everything to her but the girl said that she didn't want any of her parents' things. Then she called my mom a few explicit words and hung up. After that situation we stopped trying to contact her and we sold the carpentry tools, sold some of the cooking supplies, and we gave the family pictures to the neighbor that we knew was friends with the previous owner.
We thought that was the end. However, last week I was in the backyard and my neighbor called me over to his fence. He had a younger woman with him who introduced herself as the girl who used to live in the house that I live in now.
She thanked me for giving the family pictures to the neighbor and then she asked me about the carpentry and cooking supplies. When I told her that we sold them she LOST HER MIND. She was angry that we would get rid of something that was so meaningful to her parents. When I explained that we had tried to give them back to her she called me a liar and a b****.
Then she asked to see the inside of the house for old times sake but I didn't like how she treated me and I didn't like what she said to my mom in 2022 so I told her no. This made her get even angrier and it made the neighbor angry as well. They both yelled at me while I hurried inside and locked the doors.
About 10 minutes later, the girl was banging on the front door saying that she wanted to come inside. My parents told her, through the door, that she couldn't come in. This made the neighbor pissed so he joined her and nearly left a dent in the door. We asked them to leave for over an hour before they finally left.
Now it's been a week and ALL of the neighbors know about what happened. They keep giving us dirty looks and doing that classic old person thing of grunting whenever we try to talk to them. They all adore that girl because she grew up hanging out with them and their kids so now we are the most hated people in our neighborhood. AITA?
Here's what people had to say to OP:
USS-Virginia wrote:
NTA Info: why didn't yall call the cops.
OP responded:
We didn't call the cops because the neighbor's son is the chief of police. We live in a super small rural country town with like 5 officers including him. So we just let them knock until they got tired.
Grouchy-Pin-219 wrote:
Massive NTA. You tried your absolute best to return her things and she didn't want them. What else are you supposed to do, be her free storage? Also, it's your house, you're legally entitled to refuse entry, especially to a rude, screaming person.
Your neighbours are AHs though.
Born_Leg_2876 wrote:
NTA. She and the neighbor are complete AHs!! People like her like to play the bloody victim. Your Mom did everything possible to try and give her the things you all found. She was the one who sold the house and she was the one who left them behind.
Although I would simply say we got rid of those items and leave it at that. Saying you sold them might give people the idea that you owe her the money but you don't.
When I sold my last house that I lived in for 22 1/2 years. I gave them 2 large envelopes with my new address on them. Just in case mail came or a picture slipped behind this big built in shelf they said they were going to tear down. I also left my phone number. Don't worry about those people, your neighbors. Just mind your own business and eventually they will go back to minding theirs.
Strange_Apple_9570 wrote:
NTA! It's your home. You're not required to let strangers in to look around and judge you. You can do whatever you want with your home without judgment.
Even if you gutted out the entire interior, you are within your right as the homeowner and that girl is an entitled AS princess that is mad her parents sold the castle. It's not your problem. Your neighbors are also AS material who is judging you off of whatever version of lies that girl has pass around the neighborhood.
zooj7809 wrote:
My best suggestion is literally writing a letter, about everything that happened, like 10 reminder emails were sent...6 calls were made..etc and then how that girl misbehaved with your mom.
Print out copies and drop it off in to all the neighbour's mail box. You don't want All these old people on the wrong side of the story and become bad neighbors to you. They'll realize they're defending the wrong person hopefully.
Temporary-Star2619 wrote:
Gather up those texts and emails and if you care what the neighbors think, show them. It's been years and you're not running a storage company.
So infinity unreasonable. Also good move on not letting her in. It would have ended with fighting and damage to your property.