As the saying goes, close neighbors are better than distant relatives. But small frictions and disputes are inevitable between neighbors. Recently, many readers have written to express their conflicts and trivial matters with their neighbors, calling for the promotion of a civilized and courteous living environment. Mr. Liang, a reader in Beijing, has a neighbor upstairs who has a dog and barks incessantly every night. Mr. Liang once took the initiative to communicate with his neighbors, but the situation did not improve. Since he chose to keep a pet, he should take responsibility for management and avoid causing unnecessary trouble to others. Nowadays, keeping a pet has become a daily routine for many families. The White Paper on China's Pet Industry in 2026 shows that the number of dogs and cats in urban areas will be 126 million by 2025. However, the neighborhood conflicts caused by pets are also increasing day by day. In addition to noise issues, many pets in the community defecate everywhere, and their owners did not clean them up in a timely manner, resulting in hygiene problems such as odor and disease transmission, which is a headache, "Mr. Liang said. Once neighborhood disputes arise, it is often difficult to protect one's own rights and interests. A reader admitted, "Speaking directly is afraid of hurting feelings and making it difficult to get along with in the future; but if you can hold back, it's still you who feel uncomfortable." Not long ago, Ms. Zhang, a reader from Tianjin, tossed around a neighborhood dispute for a whole month. When she was renovating her parents' second-hand house, she found that a neighbor had placed an old wooden cabinet in the hallway, making the already narrow passage appear particularly crowded and directly blocking the fire hydrant, posing a serious safety hazard. On the wall of the hallway, there is a "warm reminder" from the property management of the community, which reads: "It is forbidden to place items indiscriminately in public areas to avoid affecting traffic and blocking fire exits. Unable to swallow this breath, Ms. Zhang called the street office, but the other party stated that "the property management bears the main responsibility and should be approached for handling". Finally, at her insistence, the street office promised to handle it and urged the neighbors to move the wooden cabinet. The reporter noticed that disputes caused by occupying public areas in this way, ranging from private parking spaces and green spaces to stacking debris in hallways and private use of public land, are not uncommon, but the disposal effect seems to be unsatisfactory. Many readers have reported that property management often only wants to be a mediator, while street offices prefer to do less rather than more. They evade responsibility and perfunctory behavior, which objectively fuels the arrogance of violators. When coordination fails to solve the problem, some people also choose legal means. A netizen named Xiaomin from Wuhan, Hubei, suffered from long-term water leakage from upstairs, causing water stains on the ceiling and side walls of her home, and damaging the cabinets inside due to moisture. She demanded that the neighbor solve the water leakage problem and provide compensation, but the other party kept shifting the blame and even spoke ill of her. In the absence of effective coordination from multiple parties such as property management, community, and police station, Xiaomin collected all evidence and officially filed a lawsuit. After mediation by the Hongshan District People's Court in Wuhan, the two parties finally reached an agreement that the upstairs residents are willing to compensate 8000 yuan and thoroughly repair the water leakage problem. The 'knots' between neighbors may seem like trivial matters in daily life, but in reality, they are a mirror of modern social interpersonal relationships and grassroots governance. Article 272 of the Civil Code stipulates: "Owners exercising their rights shall not endanger the safety of the building, nor shall they harm the legitimate rights and interests of other owners." Article 288 stipulates: "Adjacent owners of immovable property shall handle their adjacent relationships correctly in accordance with the principles of favorable production, convenient living, solidarity and mutual assistance, and fairness and reasonableness." Associate Professor Han Guangming of the Law School of Sun Yat sen University believes that this means that owners have legal boundaries when exercising their own rights, which means they shall not endanger safety or obstruct others. Once the reasonable limit is exceeded, the victim can protect their rights in accordance with the law. The legal provisions are clear and transparent, why is the path of property owners' rights protection frequently obstructed? Han Guangming analyzed that disputes among property owners are often sporadic and difficult to obtain evidence, leading to unfounded claims of rights; If the rights protection party chooses to file a lawsuit, it will not only be time-consuming and laborious, but may also worsen the neighborly relationship. In addition, when there is a conflict of interest between property owners, the property management company, which should play a buffering role, is hindered by its awkward legal status and lacks clear authorization or basis to handle neighborhood disputes. The mediation of the community or street becomes a formality, leading to the problem fermenting in the "playing the ball". The key to resolving the "knot" in the neighborhood is to establish diversified and low-cost dispute resolution channels and buffering intermediate mechanisms while fully enhancing the legal awareness of property owners' rights and obligations. On the one hand, we need to activate the vitality of homeowner autonomy, so that the homeowners' committee can truly become the spokesperson for homeowners and the persuader of civilized behavior, promote good governance through autonomy, and make restraining uncivilized behavior the collective consensus of homeowners. On the other hand, we need to enhance the professionalism, authority, and radiation of community mediation, establish a mediation team composed of legal professionals, community workers, and resident representatives, and move the mediation table to the hallway, "Han Guangming suggested. Of course, this requires grassroots party committees and governments to attach importance to resolving conflicts, and also requires multi-party investment to form a joint force. (New Society)