A thread from yesterday looks almost eerie now.
Like I said get the police report filed for when you don’t get a satifactory restitution from the neighbors.
I would agree if this were a case of a truck accidentally running over a bit of her land; that would be the neighborly thing to do. However, this is a case of blatant disregard for another’s property. There is no way that anyone could claim that it was an accidental removal of her fence.
To beat that drum once again: Get it documented, and get it in writing while you still have leverage. Use whatever third party you can to argue on your behalf. Once the contractor is gone and the damage grown over, it will be more difficult to prove to anyone that you were harmed. Make sure the agreement is specific as to the replacement of everything you lost, and who is do the work. You don’t want to wake up to find a handful of bulbs and a bag of seed in your driveway.
One thought about making a claim against your insurance: Insurance companies keep records of claims made against your policy. If you choose to go this route, talk it over with your agent and make sure that this will be a black mark against your neighbor, and not you.
This line is so funny I can hardly stand it. I want to make some little flash cards up that say I hope you turn blue. I can hold them up at meetings or hand them out while shopping.
You know what, jsgoddess, screw the neighbors. You are never going to be friends with them. They have shown themselves to be rude, selfish, and completely lacking in the social graces.
You have my permission (I know, like you were not going to move until you got it 
) to go to town on them. Take pictures, call the insurance company, call your BIL, call the pool company. I wouldn’t mess with the neighbors anymore. Clearly they have no clue what it means to be good neighbors.
Oh, and next time? Speak up!
Get a few pounds of cress seed and in the middle of the night use it to draw an enormous penis and testicles on their lawn. Then sit back and wait for it to rain.
You would think so, wouldn’t you? But odder things have happened.
Better still, use the cress seed to spell out “I WANT YOU TO TURN BLUE”.
Dig up pictures of your yard before, and get those pictures of your yard after. File a police report, and sue 'em. Anyone that stupid isnt going to be able to make amends without being MADE to do so. Even if you didn’t pay to put the fence in, you will either have to repair it (time, maybe money) or have a new one put up. Take them to court.
Also, I would maybe consult a lawyer type to see if you would stand a decent chance of getting fully reimbursed if you bought the lilacs and lilies yourself. I doubt you could make them get you good quality plants, they would try to go cheap and “hope you wouldn’t notice”. It would be harder to hold out for decent plants rather than present them with a fait accompli I would think, but be sure. And yes, contact your BIL too. Have him come out and see for himself in fact. He needs to know this for his job.
“Hoped you wouldn’t notice”?! Oh effin’ God!! :eek: :mad:
These “neighbors” are beyond the pale.
You’ve done the right thing by talking to them first. Now, I’d go back and tell them you’re buying the materials and plants and will present them with receipts for remibursement. I would not brook any arguement. I’d also get their “promise” to reimburse you in writing. If they balk, tell them you’re sure a lawyer would help straighten out this mess tout sweet.
Somehow, I don’t hold much faith in their promise to fix things.
I’m sorry you had to go through all this. I would have been absolutely furious if this had happened to me.
We have a neighbor who moved into our development well after we did. Since we moved in first and weren’t sure if or when these folks would move in, we put up a fence in our back yard. One side of our fence runs along their backyard. Since we paid for it and installed it, we put the “good” side facing us. They moved in and decided they didn’t want the “bad” side facing their yard. Their solution? To nail fence boards on their side. They talked to us about it first. We told them we’d go along with it, but ONLY if they repair the fence if it goes down. We explained that eventually the weight would tweak the fence. They agreed.
They actually sound like my neighbors, who did a teardown on their house, and built a new house so large, that they did not leave enough space on the side of the their lot to allow access to their free standing garage. They came to us, and asked if we would sell them a strip of our land.
Now, we owned just under an acre and we like these people etc. So we said yes.
(I still wonder, what if we had said no? What would they have done–the house was built.).
Can you believe that the wife was pissed at us, because we asked for the fair market price of the strip of land? We had a surveyor come out etc–it’s not a figure we pulled out of nowhere. Apparently, we were just supposed to give it to them, according to her. :rolleyes:
But thinking that you wouldn’t notice? WTH? These people are mentally deficent. I would most definetly write down that you will buy the lilacs etc and get reimbursed. In IL, the construction permit must be visible from the street, dunno OH laws, but do they even have a permit? I would also waylay the contractor and speak with him about preventing further damage.
Who would want to use this pool? Are they banking on you not noticing that they do no maintenance on it and it’s covered in algae? :rolleyes:
hope you would not notice?!!?
i also made sounds that had the cats curious. did they tack on a “until we fixed everything” onto that statement?
def. get documentation and go through third parties to get things fixed. perhaps they won’t notice the inspector!
hopefully, a large ursine will enjoy their pool, along with pachys and bovines.
I hope you don’t enjoy quiet time in your backyard. If so, you can kiss that goodbye, thanks to their new pool. Every kid in the neighborhood will be over there.
It may be different in Ohio, but usually the Planning and Zoning officials rule on allowed uses within a particular district. A pool is usually an allowed use within a residential district. It’s actually the Building Inspector who approves the construction of buildings and structures. It may be worth holding his feet to the fire to ask him whether your neighbors were within their rights to do what they did. He’ll know that they weren’t.
Anyone who has seen “Caddy Shack” will know the appropriate revenge to use at a pool party. 
Bolding mine.
The idea I had in suggesting she contact her BIL is that he needs to have a look at the situation to better be able to decide if that company is a fly-by-night job, and be more hesitant to give permission next time.
So?
What happened?
Not much.
Spoke to BIL who says that they do have the proper permits but when he asked how they were going to get equipment in and out they stated they had the permission of the people behind our houses. But then they used my yard too. So I could raise a ruckus via him if I want to.
I really don’t want to. This is a small, incestuous town that I really don’t like at all. I have dreams of moving elsewhere and have little patience for getting into some sort of feud with these people.
But, I will if I have to. And I can be a real bitch. They might not be aware of that yet.
<summons own personal inner Bitch>
Bitch Goddess, appear!
Good luck.
“We hoped you wouldn’t notice” seals the deal. These people have no decency or respect for the rights of others, much less are inclined to be pleasant to be around.
What others have said… document and be prepared to push this through legal channels because otherwise they’re going to screw you at their earliest convenience. And yeah, move quick because blocking their access through your property is a major chip on your side but it won’t last.
What a couple of jackasses. Hope they don’t “notice” the Baby Ruths that keep showing up in their pool.