Estate Agents In York

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Fallen out with the neighbours? Time to build a ‘spite house’

Paint it in red and white stripes and your unhappy neighbours will soon get the message

Until the age of 16 I went to school in a suburb of extreme good taste, where locals were required to maintain their properties according to an ancient and densely illustrated binder of rules about gate heights and hedges. Walking back to the bus stop, through a small stretch of woodland planted with the most polite of flashers, then along slim clean roads, my friends and I would often be moved to scream. Perhaps this experience, of moving in uniform among enforced lawns, contributes to my glee, my utter dripping glee, at the existence of “spite houses”.

The latest example is in a ritzy neighbourhood in Manhattan Beach, California, where a woman called Kathryn Kidd was reported to the city by neighbours for listing her home on Airbnb. Her response was to paint the house fuchsia and cover it with 3ft tall emojis, including one with its mouth zipped shut. Kidd insisted she’d chosen this design a) because she is an art collector, b) as a message to young women to cover up their bodies and c) because she loves emojis. Neighbours instead read them as a sign to “zip their lip”.

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