Love thy neighbour (it seems not always!)

According to the latest research, for 18 million Brits, their neighbours have become a nuisance.

51% of those who have encountered a nuisance neighbour feel stressed or depressed as a result, 24% want to move to a new area, 20% no longer sleep well and a similar number 18% say that they no longer feel safe in their home.

Nuisance neighbours come in all sorts of forms, so Ocean Finance have compiled a list of the top 10 most common annoying neighbour traits.

1. Front-of-house hoverers – Your neighbour appears like magic every time you leave the house waiting to strike up a conversation as you try to sneak unnoticed from your car to front door.

2. Overt bin thieves – Neighbours who claim your black bin, despite your house number quite clearly being stamped on the front in big colourful stickers.

3. Bin dumpers – Don’t remember eating the contents of that Domino’s pizza box? Of course you don’t, and that’s because you didn’t. Your neighbour not-so-discretely plonked it there.

4. Problem pets – Cat poo in your garden?  Dog waste outside your gate? Or do you just run the gauntlet of the snarling dog every time you leave the house?

4. Parking monopolisers – That family next door who has six cars, four residents and never stick to the unwritten code of parking in-front of your own house.

5. Wi-Fi robbers – The neighbours who force you to have your password set to an unmemorable code to stop them getting in: gHbu87%”kH90(bxX32”$^6gH.

6. Nuisance noise – The chap next door who must think you don’t own a TV, and so cranks his volume up right to the top to share EastEnders’ storyline with you every night.

7. Litter droppers – Who doesn’t want to see their neighbour’s half eaten, soggy takeaway splattered all over the pavement? Surprisingly, most of us!

8. Snooping neighbours – The curtain twitchers, gossip instigators and MI5 interrogators.

9. Front garden scrap yard – Not content with a couple of rusting cars on the drive, these neighbours accessorise with half a motorbike, an old fridge and a mattress.

10. Not-so-happy families – The neighbours who give you a live, close-up and unfiltered Jeremy Kyle show every day.

Ian Williams, Ocean’s spokesperson, says: “Good neighbours really can be good friends and are a vital part of a vibrant community.  But most Brits will recognise at least one of these less welcome neighbours too – and sadly for some people a problem neighbour can make their lives a misery.”