Neighbours at war!

  We live in the Waitakere ranges in West Auckland amongst regenerating rain forest and with views of the Manukau harbour.  When our subdivision was put in place – the council was anxious to reduce the impact on the environment and as a result ourselves and our two neighbours have a shared driveway into the bush from the road – which then splits into three separate drives – a real mixture of titles and easements to give us all access across each others property.

When we moved into our house – the boathouse owned by our #1 neighbour (see photo) was vacant and so we rented it from them for BNI Support – it was perfect as the double garage gives us heaps of storage and the first floor makes for a great office – it is even in the corporate colour 🙂   All went well until recently when #2 neighbour rented out part of their property and found that they needed extra parking.  At the same time, the daughter of #1 neighbour went overseas and brought her car home to store on the only spare car parking area – situated on land owned by her father but to all intents and purposes on #2 neighbours driveway and which they had tended to use as their own.  The net result was that #2 neighbour took to parking on our office forecourt at night.  Whilst this was not really a problem for us as the parking was not used at night, we felt somewhat put out at the imposition and the fact that they had not asked before using the space and it was starting to cause an issue for us when the team arrived for work in the mornings, so we politely asked them to stop.  A few days later a car reappeared and I found myself in “reaction” mode – blocking them in and putting a note on the car to the effect that they should not part there.  I was mad!!

Enter our 15 year old son – who despite his young years has a wise head on his shoulders.  “Dad  – what if we clear some space in the office garage and let #1 neighbour store his daughters car in the garage – thus freeing up the car parking area on #2 neighbours driveway?”.  Well, it took me a little while to come around, after all, why should our neighbour get to park his daughters car in the garage of the building we were renting from him? – and why should #2 neighbour rent out part of his property and pass on the issue of parking to us?  There is something about being dispossessed and also about giving in too easily to others, however the logic of his suggestion soon won through.  For sure #2 neighbour needs to re-read his copy of “How to win friends and influence people” – however once I was able to put my ego to one side, I could see the wisdom of my son’s words.

As a result – everyone is happy and we are back to living in our idyllic spot without the hassle of neighbours at war.  How quickly could things have escalated and yet when one is willing to make sacrifices for others – genuine sacrifices and not just token gestures, the world can look very different.