Jennifer Hawkins, Guy Sebastian, Chris Hemsworth: Australia’s celebrity neighbours from hell

Think your neighbours are bad? Try living next to these stars who are annoying all the community Karens.

In the razzle dazzle world of Australian showbiz, you’re no one until you’re the subject of mass neighbourhood complaints.

Sure, over in the US, fame is judged by superficial things like awards and private jets and owning your own tequila company. But in Australia, the true sign of success is when residents in your street formally protest your weird design taste.

This means Jennifer Hawkins is one of our biggest stars. She probably thought she’d made it when she released her own line of tequila like George Clooney but it’s actually the vocal neighbourhood Karens who have really made her one of our nation’s most talked about commodities.

The former Miss Universe and her builder husband Jake Wall are just annoying neighbours everywhere they go. The latest incident involves the rickety old shake they’re renovating up in Whale Beach, north of Sydney.

After snapping up the property for $6.95 million in September, the couple has now been forced to amend plans for the $3 million reno after neighbours complained about the proposed height of the trees they want to use, fearing they’ll lose their water views.

The rickety old shack in Whale Beach that’s about to cop a makeover.

Jennifer Hawkins and partner Jake Wall have developed a reputation as savvy property flippers.

It’s not the first time the model-turned-property flipper has faced the wrath of community Karens.

(She doesn’t like the title of “flipper”, by the way. Deny it all you want, Hawkins. But you’re just one sponge feature wall away from being a contestant on The Block.)

She copped it after overhauling her joint in Avalon that sold last year for $24.5 million.

A Karen who lived across the water from the mansion took to Facebook to vent — dubbing the home an “ugly blot” which screams “look at me, look at me, look at me”.

“The edifice is a blight on the landscape. I should know; I live directly across the bay from her excessively obscene self-indulgent home,” she wrote.

Karens are so articulate when specifying exactly what it is that’s annoying them.

Jen’s former mansion in Avalon ... AKA, “the ugly blot”.

Jen’s history as a terrible neighbour stretches back even further. In 2009 when she was living in Coogee, it was reported her annoyed neighbours had to organise formal meetings to discuss the noise coming from her ongoing bashes – the final straw being a pool party that ended at 6am when the cops were called.

“The neighbourhood reverberates to unending beats, and high screams and cries pierce the air,” the cranky neighbour told news outlets at the time, probably while shaking his fist at the sky.

And Jen isn’t alone.

Everyone in Maroubra hates that jail block Guy Sebastian built.

“He’s got a lot of money and we’re only little people. He’s not building a house, he’s building a fortress!” one of his neighbourhood Karens huffed to media.

Then there was that beef Rebel Wilson had with her Birchgrove neighbours. She was doing her own reno but got annoyed with their reno. Jury’s out on whether she was the Karen or the neighbour from hell.

And remember that cranky old lady who went on TV and trash-talked George Calombaris’ house reno? She dubbed it “a public toilet block”.

Guy Sebastian’s joint.

The king of the terrible neighbours is obviously that Hemsworth guy. Every time you blink it seems he’s adding more shops and levels to Westfield Byron Bay. And his neighbours are notoriously unhappy customers.

I’ve got a new neighbour in the street who bought a terrace and now wants to add their own personal rooftop sky bar. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds. None of us other residents really know what a sky bar is but we’re just protesting it anyway because it sounds annoying and we’re bored.

I could be accused of being the ringleader of the neighbourhood Karens and I wouldn’t deny it. But I’ve also fallen victim to my own troupe of complainers.

A handwritten letter recently circulated around the complex.

“Can the person who’s always singing Sheryl Crow please cease-and-desist?” it read.

The issue was brought up again at an informal meeting of the Karens, so I threw them all off the scent by saying I thought the singing was coming from the losers with the sky bar.

The sky bar dwellers shouldn’t take offence. They’re our neighbourhood’s Jennifer Hawkins.

Twitter, Facebook: @hellojamesweir