11 Celebrities Who Are Rumored To Be Horrible Neighbors

Whether it's your college dormmate, the downstairs neighbor in your first apartment, or someone across your suburban street throwing loud parties, it's almost a rite of passage to have a bad neighbor. But what if your annoying neighbor were a celebrity? People who share a doorman with Madonna or whose farmland abuts Ellen DeGeneres' property can confirm that famous people don't make for better neighbors any more than regular people do. Whether they're simply being loud or running full-on production companies from their residences, some celebrities take their entitlement too far without considering how their neighbors might feel about their presence.

Below, read about the singer accused of egging his neighbor's house, the comedian who allegedly depleted a village's water sources, and the model accused of not paying rent — and, yes, the celebrity who 30 percent of people surveyed said would make the worst neighbor is included in this list.

Ever since rumors of staff mistreatment on her talk show surfaced, public opinion on Ellen DeGeneres has taken a downturn — and controversy has even followed her to the U.K., where she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, moved after the 2024 presidential election. They bought a house in the picturesque Cotswolds, where they keep horses and chickens. "It's just a simpler way of life. It's clean. Everything here is just better — the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here," DeGeneres told broadcaster Richard Bacon (via the BBC).

However, the people of the Cotswolds don't seem to feel the same way. In early 2025, it was reported that DeGeneres and de Rossi built an extension to their $18 million farmhouse, which parish council members feared would disturb nearby Roman remains. "Concern was expressed by residents that the hedge and wire fence could increase flood risk in the village" as well, a record from the parish council meeting stated, per the Daily Mail.

There were also rumors of a rift between DeGeneres and her neighbor Jeremy Clarkson, an English TV presenter who runs the Cotswolds pub The Farmer's Dog. DeGeneres allegedly used the village's limited resources to fill her 56-foot swimming pool the same weekend as the pub's grand opening, causing issues with Clarkson's plumbing and forcing his kitchen to close. "If you can imagine having all the taps on to fill the pool, that has to take a lot of water out of the system and Asthall really is just a very small hamlet with a handful of houses ... it is no surprise that Clarkson, with all the water a business like that uses, ran out of water," a village local claimed, notes the Daily Mail.

Kanye West was once known as a best-selling rapper, but in recent years, he has become notorious for his bizarre online rants and a maligned political career. To his neighbors, he has also gained a reputation for being a nuisance. West owns several properties in California, including a warehouse in East Hollywood and a $35 million mansion in Beverly Hills. In April 2025, residents who live near the warehouse told a local news station that there are mysterious, noisy goings-on at the building. "There are raves and concerts here on the weekends," a resident told KTLA News. "On weekdays, there's been noises, there's been groups of men doing push-ups and other exercises over here, and you can hear music blaring from the parking lot." Another neighbor added that they heard "a chanting of only men dressed in black ... it's been weird to see."

West's Beverly Hills neighbors aren't any luckier. In October 2024, West shared an aerial photo of his mansion captioned with the word "Droam," the name of a self-sustaining city West originally wanted to build in the Middle East. Speaking to TMZ, neighbors called the idea "delusional" and claimed the strict homeowners association would never allow it. The neighbors also pointed to other issues West has encountered with his properties, including a Malibu mansion he bought in 2021, gutted, and then abandoned, leaving behind what critics call an eyesore.

Carrie Bradshaw could write a gossip column about this. Though "Sex and the City" actor Sarah Jessica Parker has become well-known for her fashion sense and her decades-long marriage to Matthew Broderick, she's also shown a shady side of herself throughout the years — something her West Village neighbors might confirm. In 2016, Parker and Broderick bought two adjacent townhouses on West 11th Street, and construction permits were granted in 2017. Two years later, the homes were still covered in netting, and parking spaces had been blocked off to accommodate the ongoing construction, irritating neighbors. "It's excessive," a neighbor told the New York Post. "They're not living there ... We have to deal with it just to suit their private life." Parker commented on the commotion, saying through her publicist, "We are vigilantly conscious of trying to not disrupt our neighbors' lives. It's a top priority and we are frequently checking in," per the Post.

Parker has also annoyed the residents of 66 Perry Street — her character Carrie Bradshaw's address — by staging photo shoots on the apartment's stoop to promote her shoe line, going so far as to remove a chain that read "Do NOT go on staircase please" for a 2014 photo op. The president of the Perry Street Association told Page Six at the time, "I heard about the shoot. They didn't get the permission from the owner. The situation with 'SATC' visitors is still very intense. People who live here get upset that the sidewalks are constantly jammed."

Hip-hop artist Chris Brown has been facing legal trouble for years for everything from domestic violence allegations to illegally owning an exotic pet. Given all the allegations he has faced, it doesn't seem like he would make for an ideal neighbor, and those who lived near him in the Tarzana neighborhood of L.A. experienced it firsthand. In 2016, a neighbor called the police to report that Brown and a friend were speeding around on ATVs. "The citizen saw a person he recognized as Chris Brown in the area. At that point, he came on to his property, did a couple of doughnuts on his front lawn," police said, according to ABC7. "The citizen asked him, 'Hey knock that off, quit it.' At that time we had a couple of obscenities thrown at him by Chris Brown. And then he took off down the street to his house."

A few months later, there was a police standoff at Brown's home after a woman called police to say Brown had pulled a gun on her. Former L.A. Laker Nick Young, who also lived in the neighborhood, captured the incident on video and claimed there was a SWAT team and helicopters flying overhead: "Chris Brown, you gotta move, man," Young said in the video. "Go on, get away from over here, please. You're making the block hot, buddy."

James Franco made a name for himself as a high-profile actor and director behind films like "127 Hours" and "The Disaster Artist," but after several allegations of sexual misconduct were levied at him, he was publicly distanced from by many in Hollywood, including his once-close friend Seth Rogen. His onetime neighbors aren't fans of his either. In 2012, he purchased a two-unit home in Silver Lake that he allegedly planned to renovate with his producing partner Vince Jolivette. However, a neighbor wrote an email to Curbed accusing Franco of running a production company from the home and detailing the headache the actor was causing. While they were initially excited to have Franco as a neighbor, the resident wrote, things went south as the production company seemed to take over. "Large white production trucks and various other vehicles block our driveway and use it as a loading zone ... racks of costumes come and go; crowds of people constantly stream in and out of the house and have business meetings in front of OUR house and treat us as if we are eavesdropping sycophants when we walk out our gate to our car," the letter said.

TMZ reported additional problems with Franco's home, claiming one neighbor complained that "in-house film operations generate huge amounts of trash that blow onto her property ... and his security has little regard for her privacy, leering at her every chance they get." Franco never commented on the controversy, and he sold the home in 2017 — which was likely a relief for his neighbors.

Allegations of singer Madonna making excessive noise in her home date back to at least 2009, when her upstairs neighbor Karen George filed a lawsuit against the "Vogue" singer and their building's co-op board. George claimed that Madonna was "blaring music, stomping and shaking walls" for up to three hours each day, as well as playing "unreasonably high-decibel, amplified music," while the co-op board had threatened to evict the singer, notes CBS News. In 2011, Madonna settled the lawsuit, apparently finding a new space in which to rehearse her shows.

But the issues didn't stop there. In 2016, Madonna was accused of placing fake "no parking" signs and painting a yellow line in front of her Upper East Side home's driveway. Her neighbors reported her to NYC's Department of Transportation, which sent her a warning letter. According to PIX11, Madonna commented on the incident on Instagram, writing, "Yes Bishes I am Madonna and that is my driveway and if people park in front of it i cant drive in my driveway! So sorry the city doesn't like the color yellow! We will paint a nice dull grey to keep our neighbors happy! Sorry?!" And two years later, Madonna was accused by a judge of "merely harassing" her neighbors in her Upper West Side co-op as she sought records from the board to "investigate how her lease was changed," per Page Six. Add these unneighborly incidents to the list of her many feuds over the years.

After a meteoric rise to superstardom as a teenager that was marred by tragic details and controversy, Justin Bieber spent a number of years facing legal trouble, occasionally involving his neighbors. In 2014, Bieber's Los Angeles neighbor accused the "Baby" singer of throwing eggs at his house. In a grainy video of the incident published by TMZ, the neighbor and someone purported to be Bieber yell at each other, with Bieber allegedly shouting, "F**k you! I got another one for you, actually!" Bieber ended up pleading no contest, and the court ordered him to pay over $80,000 in restitution as well as complete an anger-management program. A representative for the singer commented that "Justin is glad to get this matter resolved and behind him," and Bieber sold the house to Khloe Kardashian in the summer of 2014.

But his former neighbors didn't agree that the matter was resolved: In 2015, they filed a new lawsuit against Bieber, claiming that in addition to being egged, they experienced harassment from Bieber and his bodyguards and were bothered by the loud parties the singer threw. That lawsuit was finally settled in 2018, though minimal details were given.

Justin Theroux, actor and one-time husband of Jennifer Aniston before the two called it quits in 2018 is a decent neighbor or a terrible one, depending on whom you ask. His downstairs neighbor in their Greenwich Village building, Norman Resnicow, would have argued the latter. Starting in 2015, Theroux and Resnicow were locked in a battle over renovations, trespassing, and harassment. In 2017, Theroux sued his neighbor, claiming in part that Resnicow purposely killed ivy plants on their shared rooftop space and cut off water and electricity to the actor's deck. Resnicow "has made it his twisted sport to bully and intimidate" Theroux, the lawsuit claimed, while Resnicow retorted that Theroux's "story of a so-called 'years-long harassment campaign' [was] as fictional as the television series in which he recently starred," according to the New York Post.

Their legal back-and-forth continued for several years; in 2019, Theroux claimed in court that Resnicow was acting like a "peeping Tom," saying, "Every single night this week, Mr. Resnicow has been shining his flashlight onto Mr. Theroux's property," as reported by Page Six. In 2024, Resnicow was evicted from the building and ordered to pay upwards of $600,000 in the co-op's legal fees. He passed away in June of that year, leaving his battle with Theroux up in the air.

Shameless, indeed. In April 2023, actor William H. Macy was sued for $600,000 by his Hollywood Hills neighbor Pierce Brown, who alleged that Macy cut down several pine trees on Brown's property. Macy purportedly claimed it was an accident, while Brown claimed that Macy waited until he was out of town before sending workers onto the property to take down the trees. The ensuing back-and-forth arguments were made primarily through their lawyers, with Macy stating he took down the trees "due to an immediate and imperative necessity ... to protect persons from death or serious bodily injury or to protect land or chattel from destruction or injury," according to People, while Brown insisted that "in accessing the Brown Property, Macy's workers damaged the gate that connected the two properties." A lawyer specializing in neighbor disputes seemed to side with Brown, saying, "The law is pretty clear, if you step on someone else's property and cut down their trees, there's going to be liability," per ABC7.

Through his lawyers, Macy denied Brown's allegations and stated that Brown was "careless, reckless, and negligent in and about the matters and things alleged," notes People. Macy and Brown finally settled their dispute years later, in February 2025.

A model neighbor she may not be. Emily Ratajkowski and her ex-husband, filmmaker Sebastian Bear-McClard, were accused of making too much late-night noise and not paying rent in 2019. Antoni Ghosh, the couple's NYC landlord, submitted numerous text messages to the Manhattan Supreme Court in support of his lawsuit against them. "Hey Sebastian, I don't know if you got a home theater system, but it sounds like it's in my apartment, can you turn it down, trying to sleep," one text message from Ghosh sent at 1 a.m. in 2016 read, while another a few months later said, "Hey, can you turn it down, 4 am and you woke me and my daughter up," as reported by the New York Post. Ghosh also claimed the couple owed $120,000 in rent dating back to 2017.

About a week after Ghosh filed his lawsuit, Ratajkowski commented on the situation on Twitter. "I'm proud he's fighting the good fight against a real estate conglomerate that bought the building he lives in for 40 million and has continued to spread misinformation on its tenants in order to profit," she said of her husband, according to Fox News. "NYC has changed so much and it's a shame that people who work in creative fields are being moved out of the city." In December 2019, the building's owner, Rogers Investments, ended up paying Ratajkowski and Bear-McClard to move out, and the couple bought a home in L.A. The couple split in 2022.

It's not often that neighborly feuds involve two celebrities, but "Flipping Out" star Jeff Lewis and singer Machine Gun Kelly (real name Colson Baker) had a lighthearted spat in 2020. On an episode of his radio show "Jeff Lewis Live," Lewis said, "Colson, across the street ... there's this ... whatever, tension brewing," adding that MGK and his friends "park in front of the fire hydrant, they park in front of other people's driveways," according to Bravo TV.

MGK posted a video of himself on Instagram listening to Lewis's show and shaking his head in disbelief. "Okay, Jeff, as the new guy on the block — referring to you — I wish we would have had a chance to meet," MGK says later in the video. "I'm sure there's years of noise to come from my house, so I just hope that we can have a mutual understanding, and if you ever need anything, just come knocking." MGK then sent Lewis a bottle of champagne as an apology, and Lewis wrote on Instagram, "I accept ... Now please move your car @machinegunkelly," notes People.