Drive through most neighborhoods in Maple Valley, Covington or other small cities in the region and they usually appear to be peaceful, friendly places to live. That outward appearance is probably accurate, unless there is a battle brewing between some neighbors.

In a majority of neighbor disputes, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause for all the feuding.

One side makes claims against a neighbor’s behavior and the other side alleges the first is a bad neighbor.

Maple Valley Detective Jason Stanley said he’s seen neighborhood disputes and is grateful he gets along with his own neighbors. In his mind, there’s little worse than a neighbor dispute — being a prisoner in your own home.

“They’re not even compelling stories because they are so dumb how they start,” he said. “And then it’s just adults acting badly after that.”

Disputes between neighbors are some of the most common areas needed for mediation at the King County Dispute Resolution Center, according to Teri Thomson Randall, the center’s executive director, even if the statistics don’t quite back that up.

Besides neighbor confrontations, the Center assists with family issues, elder care and landlord/tenant arguments. Mediation is voluntary and both parties must agree to take part.

If one party declines, the other can still take part in conflict coaching or learn other possibilities for coexisting.

The Center does not conduct mediation for cases with a threat of violence.

The Center handles about 800 small claims mediations each year. Of those, 30 were listed as neighbor-to-neighbor issues, 17 of which were settled.

The Center oversaw another 65 mediation cases in 2014 that weren’t passed along by the court, as well as 81 telephone consultations where the mediator resolves and negotiates between the fighting parties over a period of time by phone. Of the four neighbor-to-neighbor cases not related to small claims, three were settled.

At the court’s request, the Center recently created a mediation program for anti-harassment petitions at the district court level, the majority of which tend to involve neighbor disputes or blended families. These cases tend to have years of built up anger and resentment.

“They are highly, highly charged,” Randall said.

Of the 31 anti-harassment petitions in the second half of 2014, 29 were resolved — the 94 percent success rate blowing away the 76 percent rate for typical mediation.

About 75 percent of the Center’s cases come from outside of Seattle, with a fairly heavy proportion in south King County. Services by the Center are offered at two sites in south King County — at the Green River Community College campus in Kent and the Municipal Courthouse in Federal Way.

The Center has more than 100 professional mediators that volunteer to resolve these disputes. Some of the mediators are retired, others are working attorneys. Each goes through training and a 1.5 year practicum. Parties are charged on a sliding fee scale based on household income that ranges from $35-$300 per session, Randall said.

Randall believes mediation empowers people to tell their own story and come to an agreement, as opposed to rolling the dice with a judge.

Randall said studies have found people are more apt to stick to the resolutions if they are done through mediation, rather than being deemed by the courts.

In mediation, generally, neither party leaves getting what it wants, but can hopefully find an agreement both can live with.

“The parties figure out a way to coexist and to live respectfully with each other,” Randall said.

Virginia Ann Davis, of Renton, who said she’s volunteered to mediate more than 500 cases since 2009, said neighbor disputes are among the most complex. The issues tend to revolve around land issues or some neighbor being a menace — loud, creating a low-grade threat system to someone else. These conflicts create a narrative of “the other person is bad, wrong or broken,” Davis said. The key to bulldozing that perspective is getting the fighting parties to talk.

“Maybe what they thought was happening wasn’t really happening,” Davis said. “Most people don’t have all the information. We’re trying to get people to fill out the story of what happened. That alone can make for a tremendously different experience for folks.”

Even if an agreement isn’t made, Davis feels she at least assisted in starting the conversation.

Caroline Davenport, conciliation manager, said the idea is to quash a fight before it needs to go to court.

“These are ongoing, long term relationships,” Davenport said. “Those tend to go a little more different than just a money situation or landlord, tenant dispute.”

Davis said there aren’t always happy endings. Some neighbors, she said, are just bullies who are set on fighting and have nothing invested in stopping.

“Those things are hard to see because those typically escalate,” she said.

Stanley said that, unless an actual crime has been committed, police are usually left playing the role of mediators — suggesting potential compromise and rational thinking.

“We try to hear both sides of the story,” Stanley said. “By no means are we any binding arbitration. We just try to help people solve their problems.”