# Is it okay to step on neighbor's property while mowing my own? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212 "2009-08-29T23:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/21 "2009-08-30T01:34:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Since this one is mine, allow me to disagree. You seem to be assuming it’s supposed to annoy the guy next door. I don’t see how you’re coming to that conclusion. If there is nothing to mow, then how can the neighbour be annoyed? If the driveway is concrete, what’s wrong with making the driveway six inches wider? It saves **filmore** from having to mow at all, and it has zero impact on Mr. Territorial. Installing the concrete will invariably hurt the grass next to it. Now, yes, if you could magically install it, then the idea might work- unless it’s against the neighborhood covenants. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/22 "2009-08-30T03:04:22Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > A giant wall of big fracking gnomes on that six inches. THATS what you need. Naked gnomes, with VD, on YOUR property, facing HIS property. > > Then let the weeds grow up around em. > > Let the battle begin ! OK, I wouldn’t actually DO it…but the mental picture??? Priceless! Really, if I could find reasonably well made, naked gnomes…with or without VD, I would install them around my yard so “I” could see them!😛 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/23 "2009-08-30T03:13:55Z")
> [@dragonlady](#): > > Really, if I could find reasonably well made, naked gnomes…with or without VD, I would install them around my yard so “I” could see them!😛 How about [Klaus Gnomi](http://www.flickr.com/photos/27492458@N05/3869651530/)? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/24 "2009-08-30T03:17:27Z")
Personally, if mowing a 6" strip is becoming a problem, I see zero reason to _not_ remove the mowing issue entirely with concrete, stepping stones, decorative rock, a mulch strip or some other non-turf alternative. The OP isn’t going to miss a half foot strip of grass and there’s no longer a problem with him getting **Filmore** cooties on the other guy’s grass. Alternately, just mow the strip as usual. What’s he going to do… call the police and complain that you stepped on his grass while mowing your lawn? I’m sure they’ll be really impressed. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/25 "2009-08-30T03:21:07Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > All the rest of these ideas: > > are all either poor attempts at humor, or _reeally_ fucking bad ideas. Wars with a neighbor are something you\*\* can not win. > \*\* Is this supposed to be hyperbole? What’s wrong with a bit of hardscaping on the man’s own land ?? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/26 "2009-08-30T03:26:39Z")
How do you know the property line is where you or your neighbor think it is? I had a friend who got into such a legal dispute with his neighbor over a tree that both thought was on the property line. When a litigation ensued, the property was surveyed, and the legal boundary was found to be several feet away from what both paries had assumed. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/27 "2009-08-30T03:49:54Z")
Some people can be raging jackasses about a few inches of ground. When we first moved to Minnesota (I was 8), we moved into a new construction home in a former corn field. We spent a couple of days raking the backward to put down the sod and came up with quite a few corn cobs. We were in a cul-de-sac. Our immediate neighbor was not. The back of his house faced our house. They were an older couple in a new neighborhood rapidly filling up with children. Well, asshole came out very early screaming at us to stay out of his yard, and screaming at my dad not to mow HIS yard. He claimed that the lot line ran down and cut off about 6’ of our driveway - which was on HIS yard. My stunted little 8 year old mind didn’t quite grasp what the big deal was when this asshole would come running out on his deck to scream at me for being in HIS yard when all I could ever see was that I was on my own damned driveway. Eventually, we had to get a survey done, and it showed, quite to his extreme irritation, that our mutual property line hit EXACTLT at the end of our driveway, and in fact, several of the trees he’d planted down the line he’d imagined were actually on OUR property. My dad threatened to start cutting them down before the guy changed his tune, but he was pretty much the pariah of the neighborhood for the entire 6 years we lived there, because he hated kids and was all too happy to scream at us the moment our feet touched his lot. (Then don’t live on a corner surrounded by kids, dumbass!) When I bought my own house, I had some issues with the neighbor, because I was following the fence line and though that his FIVE vehicles (one operational) were crowding my parking spaces. Well, that and I’d come home and find him “temporarily” parked in my driveway all the time. So we split the cost of getting a survey done so he could demonstrate that the fence angled onto his property by about 2 feet. Sure, fine. Just stop parking in my damned driveway. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/28 "2009-08-30T04:58:39Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Is this supposed to be hyperbole? What’s wrong with a bit of hardscaping on the man’s own land ?? 😕 It’s on the border, and the neighbor obviously has a problem with that area. Not to mention, on your land, and legally right or no, it’s an obvious nose-thumb at the neighbor. You dudes seem to be confusing “legally in the right” with “practically in the right”. Yes, absent some issues with neighborhood covenants (and it sounds like there are issues with the covenants, so most of these ideas aren;t even legal), it’s within your \*legal \*rights. That will do you very little good when your pet dies of poisoning, your tires are slashed in the night or other not uncommon revenge scenarios. Telling the police that you are sure your neighbor did it as he’s getting back at you for some juvenile but legal act or yours will not endear you to them, or lead to an arrest. It will lead to escalating acts of revenge, which can only end with someone selling out and moving- or prison . These neighborhood feuds are nothing to get silly about. > **[CakhiaTV Trực Tiếp Bóng Đá #1 - Xem TTBD Cà Khịa TV HD](https://www.castillos-de-espana.com?c=260020)** > > CakhiaTV trực tiếp bóng đá Full HD, link nhanh, miễn phí, không giật lag. Xem mọi giải đấu lớn nhỏ: EPL, C1, La Liga, Serie A, V-League, hỗ trợ mọi thiết bị. [http://www.charlotteobserver.com/244/story/900474.html?storylink=omni\_popular](http://www.charlotteobserver.com/244/story/900474.html?storylink=omni_popular) You need to nip this in the bud and stop the feud before it gets serious. Childish revenge fantasies are not the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/29 "2009-08-30T05:22:44Z")
I’m still not grasping what “childish revenge fantasy” about a 6" strip of mulch along his driveway. I mean, telling him to install a line of garden gnomes mooning the guy’s house or something, sure. A 6" strip of volcanic rock? Not exactly a revenge fantasy but rather a practical solution to the problem. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/30 "2009-08-30T05:35:03Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’m still not grasping what “childish revenge fantasy” about a 6" strip of mulch along his driveway. > > I mean, telling him to install a line of garden gnomes mooning the guy’s house or something, sure. A 6" strip of volcanic rock? Not exactly a revenge fantasy but rather a practical solution to the problem. Nor is that one of the ones I listed. However, it may well be against the neighborhood covenants, and I can’t see how "talking to the neighbor and seeing what he’d like to do about it " can be a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/31 "2009-08-30T07:04:55Z")
Honestly if he’s that much of a pain you need to put up fence. Get a survey out there and have it accurately surveyed so you can know what you’re doing and put up a chain link fence with slats in it. Then remove the grass from your 6" and put wood chips or rocks in it There’s an old saying “high fences make good neighbors.” ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/32 "2009-08-30T13:21:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Nor is that one of the ones I listed. > [@DrDeth](#): > > “Some nice flat rocks or stepping-stone type thing…” Personally I would rather see flat flagstone-type rocks rather than those ugly volcanic rocks. But something nice-looking was what I had suggested. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/33 "2009-08-30T13:27:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Since this one is mine, allow me to disagree. You seem to be assuming it’s supposed to annoy the guy next door. I don’t see how you’re coming to that conclusion. If there is nothing to mow, then how can the neighbour be annoyed? If the driveway is concrete, what’s wrong with making the driveway six inches wider? It saves **filmore** from having to mow at all, and it has zero impact on Mr. Territorial. You missed the part where there is a fence involved too… ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/34 "2009-08-30T13:31:30Z")
To address the OP: Legally, yes, your neighbor can insist that you not tresspass on his land. I have some doubts that the local gendarmerie are going to be all that happy about enforcing his insistance that you stay off that extra 14 " or so when you mow. But there are other ways he could proceed, such as by filing a court case, so it’s up to you to decide what you want to do. I tend to agree that filling the 6" in with some sort of non-grass border is a good idea. You could always try replacing the grass with a spreading ground cover that doesn’t need mowing, which will make an attractive border and end the dispute. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/35 "2009-08-30T14:22:14Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > You missed the part where there is a fence involved too… As I read it there is the driveway and a two-foot strip of grass. Since the OP is mowing the whole thing, I assumed that the fence is not in the middle of the strip. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/36 "2009-08-30T14:33:45Z")
Legally, you have no right to enter your neighbor’s property to maintain your own. You might find this book useful. [http://www.amazon.com/Neighbor-Law-Fences-Trees-Boundaries/dp/1413307515/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251642649&sr=8-1](http://www.amazon.com/Neighbor-Law-Fences-Trees-Boundaries/dp/1413307515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251642649&sr=8-1) I’m moving this thread to In My Humble Opinion because you seem to be asking not what the law is, but what is generally acceptable. **Gfactor** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/37 "2009-08-30T15:31:07Z")
Here’s the problem. If the neighbor is going to be jerk about 6 inches and “trespassing”, whats to prevent him from being a jerk about a half inch? a quarter inch? a millimeter? a micron? Does the laser survey line need to be run every week or so? Apparently, the OP can get in trouble with the neighborhood lawn Nazis’ about not maintaining HIS property. If the neighbor is being a real jerk, how can the OP build or maintain anything that goes up PERFECTLY to the property line? How does he do this without either not cutting the smidgen on his side that he needs to or accidentally cutting some of his neighbors side or encroaching the neighbors side or trespassing to build a concrete strip or to put in bark or whatever? I’d tell the neighbor, politely at first, “either you cut and maintain that strip or you let me maintain a strip WIDE enough for me get my mower and feet in there or we can alternate every other week”. Then I’d give him a week or two to think about it, then repeat the proposal more bluntly. If that didn’t work, then after another week or two I’d hint at lawn gnomes, pink flamingos, toilet bowls and rusty wagons serving as “decorative planters”, “country windmills”, enemy football team flags, bamboo, monkey grass, whatever. I am all for compromise and live and let live when it comes to neighbors, but this neighbor is IMO the one being a total ass about the whole thing, particularly given the OP is actually TRYING to do his fair share and he MUST? maintain that strip so the local lawn Nazi’s don’t get him. Again, if the neighbor is being a jerk about 6 inches, he can be a jerk about any arbitrarily small distance and place the OP in a no win "between a lawn and hard space " so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/38 "2009-08-30T15:40:49Z")
Right. Ok, so there is a strip of grass. The OP owns exactly 6" into this, no more and no less. So, you have to kill the grass along that 6" and put down stones or something. How can you be sure you will get \*all \*of the OP’s 6" and NONE of the neighbors? Spraying herbicide will certainly kill grass on the other side. Just getting down in there to lay rocks will involve trampling on the other side. Of course, “_lawn gnomes, pink flamingos, toilet bowls and rusty wagons serving as “decorative planters”, “country windmills”, enemy football team flags, bamboo, monkey grass,_” are likely against the neighborhood covenants and will doubtless cause a feud. I don;t understand why the OP has to cut his own 6" himself. Why not just ask if neighbor would like better to cut it while the neighbor is cutting his part? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/39 "2009-08-30T15:45:07Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Just getting down in there to lay rocks will involve trampling on the other side. I don’t see why. Use a spade to cut the turf along the property line, while standing on your side. Remove the sod, and replace it with stones that butt up against the sod on his side. Problem solved, no trespassing. > [@](#): > > Why not just ask if neighbor would like better to cut it while the neighbor is cutting his part? Sounds like he already tried that: [QUOTE=filmore] He doesn’t want to mow it and says I should do it with a weed-wacker so I don’t step on his yard. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212/40 "2009-08-30T15:50:06Z")
Put aside all hard feelings and assholishness for a moment… and I’m not advocating for the dick neighbor here… 1. You have a duty to stay off his property. 2. You have grass that you cannot maintain with a lawnmower without trespassing. 3. You have a decision to make about whether you want to (1) trespass anyway; (2) use some alternate means of clipping that grass that is more time consuming than a full lawnmower; or (3) undo having grass in that spot. The developer or prior owner of that property should not have put a narrow strip of grass there. On the one hand, this neighbor is being a petty jerk. On the other, he is just asking you to respect his property rights and the law, even though there’s no real harm to him. Maybe he doesn’t want you to ever claim you have a “mowing easement” on his property. I would redesign the grass with wood chips or stone or concrete, as suggested, and move on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-okay-to-step-on-neighbors-property-while-mowing-my-own/508212.md?page=3)