Never mind the distance to his house, you need to demarcate and defend your property. Put markers - like big stones - along the property line if you’re not allowed a fence. And it’s not him that’s allowing his dogs to crap in your yard - it’s you unless he’s standing over them as they do it. Discourage them - a hose should do it.
Ummm… Did you buy your property after his house was built? I’m not a lawyer but it sounds like you’re SOL. You should have had this all looked at before you bought your property.
Yes. And I may be SOL. That’s why I am asking the question. However, no matter who bought my house, the problem exists on both sides of this guy. And in my opinion, there is no excuse for the developer of this entire community to break the zoning rules because some guy wanted him to. There should have been, at the minimum, some sort of disclosure to me that my neighbor was closer than the legal limit of 15 feet.
Sorry if this was muddled in my description. The guy who’s dogs are visiting my backyard is my neighbor on the OTHER side. He’s a real piece of work, and I’ve chased his dogs out of my yard before. However, he has 3 small kids who look at me like I’m crazy. I am conscious of the fact that they are their pets. The owner is not reasonable about this. I get the speech about how it was an empty field before I moved here and the dogs view it as their territory. If I see them, I chase them, but they crap at least once a day, and I’m not a sentry. (I CAN however, fling poo with the best of them, and I have a flat shovel for such a purpose. 
) Still, I clean up after two dogs and I don’t own one myself. Yet.
And for those of you who would like to help me and my wife pick a dog, please visit Help us pick a dog! in IMHO.
IMHO you may have an issue to take up with the city over the water draining onto your property.
As far as the mowing damaging your lawn, hitting trees etc. All of this can be fixed with a good fence.
Have the property surveyed, and place a good fence on property line. Done deal.
Sadly, this doesn’t solve the problem. You see, about 2 years ago, they changed the rules about fences in my town. It used to be that I could put a fence 6 inches from the property line. Now, it’s 3 feet. So even if I put a fence up, I’m still responsible for maintaining the property on the other side. Also, my own trees will have to be torn down or end up on the other side of my own fence.
It’s tough to picture because of the topograpy, but the only real solution seems to be a) boulders, which because of the shape of our lawn and the retaining wall may be impossible to do correctly or 2) large pine trees. The pine trees solve one problem, i.e. seeing my neighbor, but it doesn’t solve the other one completely (the drainage issue). Plus, trees have roots, and they will eventually find their way to pushing out my retaining wall on their own. Of course if I move before the roots start showing, I’m a winner!
I’m really a good neighbor, honest! I help the retired guy across the street with his mail, snow removal, whatever. But, he doesn’t really share a property line with me, so we don’t have to mark our territory like a couple of dogs. Everyone here seems to just want to push everyone else one inch, one inch, three feet…
<sigh> If it were not for my neighbors, I’d love my neighborhood…
[Rant]
I wanted to buy a four acre plot about 10 miles from here to avoid this very kind of problem but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, wifey wanted to live here. The good news is, she’s more annoyed than I am. The bad news is, she hates when I say “I told you so.”
[/Rant]
You could try what a friend of mine did. He had a neighbor who’d bring his small fuzzy mutt by every morning to crap on my friend’s front lawn. Several times the neighbor was asked not to do this, but would simply say things like “Oh, it doesn’t hurt anything” and continue.
My friend headed to the local Agway where they sold him a box of some powdered substance said to be effective at repelling dogs and safe when used as directed. My friend took this and sprinkled it generously on his front lawn, concentrating on the dog’s favorite spot.
The next morning, neighbor and dog were right on schedule. The dog took one sniff and went out of control, writhing on the ground and yelping. The neighbor banged on the front door and announced he was calling the police: “You tried to kill my dog!”
The police duly arrived at the front door and informed my friend that attempting to harm an animal was a potentially serious offence. He protested that he he’d only been trying to discourage the dog from crapping on his lawn with a product sold for that purpose and guaranteed safe. He showed them the package, and they went away to tell the neighbor not to bring his dog (now mostly recovered) on the lawn in future.
But as my friend held up the package for the police to see, he’d read the instructions on the back for the first time: “Dissolve 2 tablespoons in a gallon of water.”
Anyway, the neighbor never brought the dog back.
There’s a misconception that factual answers are unobtainable in IMHO. But that’s not true.
We discourge, but don’t forbid, questions asking for legal and medical advice to specific situations/questions.
Let’s move this one to IMHO, and you can continue this discussion.
samclem GQ moderator
The Blonde Bomber, I tried to send you an email, but it bounced back. My question was: Where are you? It makes a world of difference.
The Blonde Bomber, I’m thinking it would be more effective if you would call your neighbors up every time they poop in your yard, and make them come clean it up right then. Just tossing it back in their yard doesn’t make it any worse for them than if they went in their own yard to begin with. If they give you the “it was an empty field” argument, remind them that they knew full well there would be a house going in where you’re living, and that it’s their responsibility to control and clean up after their dogs. If they have to clean up after their dogs every day, they’ll find a way to keep their dogs out of your yard.
If they still don’t want to accept responsibility, can you videotape the dogs pooping in your yard? Dogs tend to go on a somewhat regular schedule. With that, you could threaten to call the police or animal control if they don’t clean up the poop. Somehow, youe need to make the dogs pooping in your yard their problem. Right now, it isn’t.
Good luck with the other neighbor. Water diverted onto you property can be a big problem, and fences or boulders aren’t going to fix it. Your best approach may be to consider the setback violation as leverage over your neighbor to get him to resolve the water problems.
- It could ruin a view
- it could ruin the OP’s property value if it’s too cramped
- it could prevent the OP from making additions/improvements to her place
- Fire hazard
- Why should she have to eat it if the neighbor broke a law?
I live in PA. I don’t want to get more specific that that at this point, and I know without an attorney without specific knowledge of how my township works I won’t get an exact answer, I was just hoping for some common threads of law that I’d see here before I go to an attorney. I really don’t want to go to an attorney. But I’m increasingly thinking I have no other alternative. I sent you an email.
This is a tough one. I know it sounds like a silly issue, but it has really become annoying. I don’t want to get the police involved simply because I feel they (should) have better things to do. I get some peaceful relief of flinging poo over his fence, but it’s an exercise I’d rather not continue to do. I never thought of video taping. Now THAT would be a fun meeting with my attorney and the DA! I’m simply not here all day, and when I come home the dogs have already come and gone. I’m not mad at the dogs. It’s the owner. And I’m very conscious of the fact that even though these dogs are annoying AND the owner is a short little turd (no pun intended), the kids LOVE these dogs as pets and family members, and they don’t need some nutbag neighbor hitting their dogs with a hose. Plus, they just lost their grandmother, so I try to have a heart. I’d like to hit my crummy little neighbor with the hose, but then I’d get sued. So, for now, I fling poo. I’m a pretty big guy, so I’m not too worried about a physical confrontation. But that’s just it. I don’t want a physical confrontation. I just want these folks to respect me as I respect them. No more, no less. No Christmas card required.
I think I’ve been extremely patient and rational with these folks, but the truth is, I feel like I moved into the middle of a middle-aged high school-type clique, and they don’t like the fact that they lost their open space. Soooooooooooory!
The water drainage is really the big problem here. I’m getting more than my fair share of water runoff, and the fact that he is so close to my retaining wall, where his house gutters are pumping gallons of water on my land, softening the land behind the wall and adding water to my driveway (which adds to ice buildup in the winter) is a problem that just won’t go away with a fence or a rock.
I guess this could get ugly. The problem I have is that the builder should not have done this. He is who I’m most upset with. And he seems to be able to walk through the raindrops on this on. From what I’m reading, the owners of the house next door will ultimately be responsible. I’m not sure that’s fair. But if that’s the way it goes, so be it. If I get no relief, I’ll have to live with it too (and pay for the upgrades necessary to re-route the water), so I guess all’s fair.
Thank you and yes to all of the above! Except number 5, which is more of an “EXACTLY”! Oh, and I’m a guy.
[explaination]
I really didn’t give a ton of thought to my user name when I signed up as a guest, and it’s not a big deal… but sometimes it helps to know the sex of the poster and my user name has confused a number of folks. (I know blonde with the ‘e’ is the feminine form. I picked my name for other reasons. 'nuff said. Please go back to the OP!)
[/explaination]
How about something like a Scarecrow? It’s a motion-sensing sprinkler that shoots a loud, vigorous three-second burst of water when something enters its field of protection. Sure to scare animals away, very likely to discourage people from bringing their pets onto your lawn.