AITA for putting “ugly” one way mirrors on the windows facing one of my neighbors because I saw the husband looking in my windows?

A Reddit user describes a situation where they installed “ugly” one-way mirror window coverings on the large windows facing their neighbor’s property after repeatedly noticing the husband of the neighbor staring into their apartment. The neighbors complained about the mirrors, citing issues with aesthetics, discomfort for their teens, and reflections disrupting their backyard.

The user, feeling justified due to the husband’s behavior, showed the wife photos of him looking into the apartment, but the neighbors are still upset. Now, the user wonders if they overreacted by installing the mirrors.

‘ AITA for putting “ugly” one way mirrors on the windows facing one of my neighbors because I saw the husband looking in my windows?’

I live in an apartment on the ground floor of a house that was converted to apartments. My neighbors (one street over but the back of their house faces the back of the house I live in) can see my whole backyard and vice versa. My apartment has a whole wall of windows that are on the back of the house. It’s gorgeous and is a big reason I picked the place, I love keeping plants and it let in a lot of light. Looking out, there is the neighbors backyard which is large and comes up close to my place, the property line is maybe 10 or 15 feet from my windows.

Once it has gotten to be warm out I’ve noticed the husband of the family who owns that house looking into my apartment a lot. Even sometimes I’ll look up and see him, look away then look back minutes later and he’s still looking. So I started shutting the shades during the day but that was kind of annoying, my place is a dark cramped shoebox without the windows open. And I can’t do that for too long because the plants were struggling without light.

So I bought these window coverings that make windows into one way mirrors. During the day when it is light out, my windows look just like mirrors now. From the inside it looks pretty much the same, the windows look tinted slightly darker but that’s it. From the outside you can’t see in at all, it looks exactly like mirrors. The section of windows it’s applied to is about 8 feet high and 20 feet wide.

After a week of the window coverings being up, both of the parents from the neighbors house came to my door and wanted to talk to me. The wife was complaining about the windows for a lot of reasons….

1. They were ugly.
2. It was uncomfortable, especially for the teens and their friends, to have a huge mirror adjacent to the swimming pool. It’s at a time that they feel insecure about looks and they have lost interest in hanging out by the pool.
3. In the afternoon and evening, it was reflecting a lot of extra sunlight into their backyard, they couldn’t enjoy eating dinner on the back porch with the sun in their eyes.

I said sorry about the inconvenience but I wanted it for privacy. They both pushed back on that some and I said that I needed privacy because of the husband’s starting. He started denying it in front of his wife and so I took out my phone where I’d taken pictures and sent it to my group of friends, and showed her a couple pictires of him gaping at my apartment and the texts from that time.

He got mad and said he incidentally looked over, and the 8 foot by 20 foot mirror was a crazy overreaction. I said that I’d like to keep it, and that I was sorry but frankly this was avoidable. I think they’re both mad because they called my landlord, who brushed them off. AITA for putting the mirrored film on my windows?

These are the responses from Reddit users:

[Reddit User] −  NTA. You proved that you needed the privacy because her husband is a c**ep and they’re upset for being called out. You don’t owe them anything and if your landlord hasn’t contact you about it then you don’t need to do anything that you don’t want to.

Hazeru1001 −  NTA. You only put it up because he was staring into your window. Whatever his reason, that’s pretty creepy, especially since it seems to be happening a lot. Tell them you’ll only consider taking it down if they put up covers on their property which stop the husband from being able to see in your window. If they don’t like it then too bad. Any complaints from any other party who doesn’t like it should also be directed to the peeping husband.

EmpressJainaSolo −  NTA because of why you did it, but mirrored blinds that increase heat and confuse wildlife don’t sound ideal. Have you tried Magical Blinds? They are also one way but don’t give off a reflection. I would argue that since the neighbors are the ones being bothered they can pay for your new blinds but that would obviously escalate the situation.

rantiok −  Eh….. I know this isn’t the popular opinion here but I’d say ESH only because there are other types of privacy window coverings you could have picked that aren’t mirrors. You’re punishing the entire family for something the husband was doing. Having a whole 8ft by 20ft mirror shooting sun into your yard would be incredibly annoying.

gemskiy −  You had a privacy issue, you have proof, you took steps to protect your privacy in a temporary, non damaging way to the apartment youre renting (in my experience privacy film on windows literally just peels off, please correct me if this is not the case). The above makes you NTA. I would have done the same.

DrNeady −  This is brilliant! NTA. Even without the creepy staring you are entitled to do what you like to the windows (with your landlords permission).

ostrichesonfire −  INFO: if you were able to take pictures of this neighbor staring at you, and multiple times at that, isn’t it likely he couldn’t see in the windows and was looking at the reflection? Perhaps just staring off into space instead of being a c**ep? It sounds like a very large percentage of a very small yard is covered in your wall of windows.

TheButcherOfBaklava −  Hrm. In terms of just the mirror issue (not going into the husbands behavior), I think it’s NAH. The first two points made by the neighbors are dumb. The final point has merit. Putting up a mirror that shines light at people’s houses is a bit of an AH move, though this seems an unintentional side effect. since you are not specifically Angling the mirrors at them, and you put them in as a result of their behavior, I think the onus falls on them to adapt to your mirrors as you have adapted to their ogling.

Now, there may be local laws around this sort of thing, but I do not know them. Angling light at another house could* have the potential to start a fire, similar to a magnifying glass. You might want to look into both of these situations for your liability/ safety.

HoldFastO2 −  ESH. You’re no AH for wanting your privacy, that’s understandable. But not wanting a 20 x 8 ft mirror streaming sunlight into their backyard is also a reasonable request that you should be accommodating. Are there no non-mirror window covers that you could use instead? We have something with a flower pattern on our bathroom window to keep unwanted eyes out, and there’s no mirror effect. Maybe look for an alternative solution?

[Reddit User] −  INFO: Are you sure the husband could see in from there during the day? At 15 feet in broad daylight it’s pretty difficult to see inside a house because the windows are reflective.