My Neighbour from Hell

We became neighbours 15 years ago.

We share a 280 foot property line.

Up till several weeks a go I thought we were getting along adequately. Not like we were friends, but our conversations were friendly.

Three years ago the fence between us was blown down in several sections. We talked about getting together and sharing the burden to replace it but neither of us was in a hurry. We talked about the fence several times since then, because I wanted to ensure him I was ready and willing. “No hurry” and I was okay with that especially since the loss of privacy affected him way more than me since his house and and main land use was at one end where most of the fence was blown down.

Several months ago I saw him digging post holes and laying in posts. He had already cut down a 10 inch diam tree leaving a post which he skinned and tore down a windscreen on my property that was connected to the old fence for a mid lot corner garden. He said he decided to go ahead in one section and by the way , the property line was really several more inches into my side. “How do you figure that when there are conifers all over the line” I said. . “Triangulation” he trumpeted. I happened to have started out my working life as a surveyor, and I know given the obstacles he was either full of shit or clueless. I didn’t object , because I’m not going to make a stink over a couple of inches.

I then asked him What kind of fence was he putting up. It wasn’t a good neighbour fence with alternating boards on both sides, but I was getting the shitty side. “Oh well” I said. "I can put up planks on my side.

" Thats not right because , I’m paying for this fence" he said.

I walked away, because I felt kind of lucky anyway that this idiot was willing to pay for the entire fence to have it his way.

Several days later I noticed he had pulled the posts he placed, cut down a wack of conifers and was able run an offset line from pin to pin. He informed me he wanted to ensure a straight line and due to keeping some tall hedge type shrubery at the back of our lots where there never was a fence he was setting the posts two inches into his property.

“And by the way the existing fence is two inches into your property”. He said.
Several weeks later as he was placing a post right across from my patio door I mentioned that soon I could take down my fence. I had been using a section of it for a 7 foot wide dog run which we rarely used.

“YOUR NOT USING MY FENCE FOR A DOGGIE RUN” He bleated

I was stunned. It all became clear to me. He wanted nothing to do with me. I paused and then I abruptly walked way. He jumped the shark I think they call it.
Two years he planned for this private fence, going into the bush and pulling out fence logs, stripping the bark and seasoning them on the other side of his house.
He let me believe we were going to share in the fence. He destroyed my tree and my corner garden in order to achieve his ends and I merrily went along and let him. Fuck him

Two weeks ago as I began to strip my fencing, he approached me and asked me if I needed any boards. I looked at him silently and he blurted he didn’t want to be enemies . Fine I said, and I mentioned that I wanted to attach boards along the bottom of his posts so that my lawn tractor would bump into his posts and my weed trimmer wouldn’t damage the protective finish on his posts. My other agenda was to be able to ensure that my dogs couldn’t crawl under his fence.

He said it was up to his wife but she might not go for it.

What ever, as I really didn’t care and I was testing.

Several days later I got a note through the fence. " Sorry, Keep your “improvements”(sic) on your side.

I shoved the note back

In the meantime, I learned that I had 3 healthy pressure treated fence posts opposite my patio door which up till that point only had a four step staircase outside the door. I began to construct a landing with these fence posts. At the point where I just layed my floor planks my neighbour inserted another note

“NO WAY. kEEP IT LEGAL !”

Setbacks are 5.75 feet and my house is 7 feet back so even my old staircase is not in compliance. My neighbours carport eve is about 3 feet from the fence but he may have a variance.

Anyway, I walked up to his door to reason with him. I asked him what was bothering him about the patio door landing. He said it was an eye sore. I asked him how that was given he can’t see through the fence.

At this point he blew up and screamed for me to get the hell off his property. I looked silently at him with a quizzical expression and then he screamed at me that he would kick the shit out of me.

I looked at him and every fiber of my being wanted to laugh

“Go for it” I said with a smile, knowing it wasn’t going to happen, and even if it did, I actually would enjoy this.

After blurting he was going to call the cops and slamming the door behind him I walked away. I feel real good .

But as of this posting, I’m still feeling the adrenilin

I’m going to have that landing. I’ve put the project on hold to satisfy my wife until we get a variance ($250) from the regional district, “to make it legal”. Failing that I’ll find some way, even if the patio door landing has to be a box on wheels.

Document Document Document. Start taking pictures of everything.

Especially physical threats such as above, and any unauthorized demolition of objects on your property, such as the wind screen.

I’d want to ensure that the fence is properly placed, myself. Since he’s so keen to do things all properly and legally. He doesn’t sound like he’s likely to have gotten it right.

Wow, it seems this is escalating without any effort on your part. I think I’d just ignore him and his little messages, and let it blow over and meanwhile, cross him off your Christmas card list.

I don’t know if this applies to your case, but in some states, the person who builds the fence has to put the finished side facing away from his property. The thinking that the person doing the building shouldn’t impose an eyesore on someone. May be worth looking into. Even if just for ammunition.

This.

The whole situation sucks. It’s not fun to have arguments with neighbours.

That said, at some point you should have offered to help with the labour and/or the cost. When he said ‘I’m paying for this fence’, you should have said ‘What? No way, we share the cost and labour’.

We rebuilt our fence a couple of years ago and have neighbours on both sides. On one side, the owners live in the house and we get along really well with them. On the other, it’s renters, so we got in touch with the owners and discussed costs, etc., with them. My husband did all the sourcing of wood, had it delivered, organized the post hole machine, etc., etc. Our owner/resident neighbour, Jack, came out and helped us as often as he could. His reasoning was that he was benefiting from the fence, and he was getting a great deal (hubby got giant discounts and everyone was paying about 1/3 of what you normally would), so of course he’d help build when he could.

The other neighbour, however, wouldn’t help. We didn’t care that much, but thought it was pretty rude. While you’re not refusing to help or pay, you certainly aren’t offering help or pay either.

Done

Oh it is placed as he claims. I can see the surveyor pins and the entire length of the fence.

Ya think :smiley:

The thing is that it turned out to be a beautiful fence with 2 2x8 stringers between the posts with 1x 6 planks nailed to them. The stringers and planks are all rough cut clear and tight knot cedar and the entire fence has been stained with a natural tone. My side shows the exception heavy and beautiful construction while he can simply only see planks. He claims he spent $4000 on the fence. You can see that from my side, but his side is simply 6 foot planks.

The offer was made several times to get together on this before he started the fence on his own. I wasn’t just offering to help, I was offering to share.
And after learning he wanted to do it himself, his way, his design, without any consultation I don’t see why I should bother to help out.

Glad to here that. But he doesn’t have to know you like it. :wink:

Oh—also, if that is the law in your state, it would be great to let him know about it…let him think that you might consider doing something about it. Even if you have no plans to. It might “encourage” him to be a little nicer over all.

You should probably call the county surveyor (or whoever handles that where you live) to come out and recheck his measurements regarding your property line. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was off the whole time and the fence is now on your property. It would be good to know that now before someday you decide to sell the place.

Yeah, check your state laws. Here are some of mine;

Minnesota partition fence law requires neighboring owners or occupants of
“improved and used” land to contribute in equal shares to the cost of building and
maintaining a partition fence between their lands if either owner wants to fence
the land.

“Minnesota fence law requires that a “legal and sufficient” partition fence between adjoining
properties be built and maintained in equal shares by the owners or occupants if two conditions
are met:
• One of the owners desires to have the land totally or partly fenced.
• The land of one or both of the owners or occupants is wholly or partly improved and
used.
In practice, this means that a landowner may compel the owner or occupant of the adjoining
property to build and maintain one-half of the fence between the two properties. Under the
provisions of fence law, when an owner or occupant of unenclosed land uses a neighbor’s
existing fence to enclose his or her land, the owner taking advantage of the existing fence must pay one-half of the existing fence’s current value to the owner of that fence.”

“Fence viewers do not determine exactly where on or near a property line a partition fence should be located. Further, fence viewers do not have authority under fence law to fix disputed boundary lines between properties involved in a fence viewing proceeding.”

“If a person fails to build, repair, or rebuild a partition fence as required by an order of the fence viewer(s), and the adjoining property owner proceeds with the work, the person actually doing the building or repair work may recover from the adjoining landowner double the amount of the expenses or costs that would have been the adjoining landowner’s share of the fence. The fence viewer(s) reach a determination on the cost or value of the fence. In essence, the noncompliant landowner is required to pay for the full cost of the fence.”