Zogby is right about neighbors trying to move on to your land

I don't ever do it but I have a neighbor on each side of me who keep planting stuff and putting down huge fecking rocks on my property.

Its a never ending battle around here. I have to stay on my toes about this or I wouldn't have any yard at all.

I currently have one neighbor who planted about 15 huge pine trees right on our property line about ten years ago. Well them mothers are about twenty feet around now with ten feet of them laying over in my yard killing my grass.

The other guy put some huge rocks around one of his trees. Only problem he is over on my property about a foot with his fecking rocks. Then when he cuts his grass he cuts two swaths further over on my property and cuts his lawn so low it dies right out from the heat. I keep my lawn cut high so it doesn't do that and I don't have to water so much. But I have to water the area he scalps down to the dirt! I am going to have to say something to him soon.

This is a true story. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am getting squeezed in here. I think I know how the Palestinians feel now. Shit!

Don

of course then you risk ticking off your neighbors....

but...

I would defintely confront them on it. I think they're betting you not confronting them. I mean, if it comes down to it, you can go to the city planner and get the property description, which will clearly show you're in the right.

Or you can always put a "Don't Tread on Me" flag. :+

Anything past the stakes is fair game for disposal. That's your best bet. My grandmom had the same problem you're having; once we knew they were encroaching, their shit got destroyed and tossed back onto their yard. Good luck.

They both know where they are at too. They don't seem to care.

Don

Invite them over for a drink and let them know your concerns.... It sucks to have tension with a neighbor, you still have to see them all the time and it will taint your life, not theirs (experience talking here). Which, in turn, will make you even more resentful. Just my $.02.

I cut down trees, cut down wires the neighbors attached to trees on my grandmomsland, etc. Make like a Bush and clear some brush! ;)

but the next step would be to go to Codes Enforcement.

Sounds like they're not good neighbors to begin with, but will they make your life worse if you go after them is the question?

rational words

particularly the 1800's and the influence of the British on Arab economies. If no good deed goes unpunished, the bad ones just live on and on.

Get a survey including stakes and erect a fence. If you don't try to "reclaim" your land for 10 or 20 years (depending on your state's requirements), you can lose that much land by way of the common law doctrine of adverse possession.

On the other hand, to avoid acrimony with your neighbor, first try showing him/her/them where your propertyline is, and ask them to remove the shrubbery and give them like two weeks. If that doesn't work, go to City Hall and see if something can be done. And if that doesn't do the trick, there's civil litigation. But that's potentially expensive and guaranteed to make enemies of your neighbors.

I like the open space a lot. I don't like the idea of cutting grass and weed whacking along several hundred feet of fence line. Both sides. It takes me about 35 minutes to cut this lawn and whack the weeds now using a Ø-Degree lawn mower. I start putting up fences that will turn into a half day job. And I am not getting any younger.

Don

You can remove it if you wish. As another poster said, you are generally entitled to trim trees that overhang your property, especially if it is killing your grass.

It takes at least ten years for a neighbor to claim "adverse possession," twenty years in my state. So, unless you completely allow neighbors to encroach for a long period, they will have no claim to change the property line. So I would remove any items they place on your property at your convenience.

Of course, it is best to talk to the neighbor about this ASAP. Let them know you wantr them to respect the property line. There are many people out there who will take all you give them. But if you talk to them, maybe they will stop it.

My neighbor to the rear planted a row of pines 6" from the stockade fence that separates our property. Those puppies grew at a phenomenal rate and topped out at over 25'. I used to spend a lot of time on the ladder chopping off branches that were hanging over the fence.

Luckily, even he saw that he no longer had sun in his yard, and cut them all down last summer.

Now --- what do I do with my neighbor to my left (one of those people whose yard is covered in gazing balls, gnomes, ceramic squirrels, etc) --- who reaches over the fence to attach wooden birds to MY trees?

The Israelis keep stealing the Palestinians' lands! Occupying Palestine and Lebanon.

Yoo hoo!!!! get it now?

But there is an existing law that if someone maintains your property for 10 yrs
with or without your permission, after 10 yrs the land is theirs for the taking.

You should send them a certified letter stating they are encroaching on your land.
If they are interested in purchasing the property for X amount of $$$, please
contact you, otherwise please remove your shrubbery within X amount of days or be
subject to damages and attorneys fees.

I have one neighbor who does like yours and constantly takes a swath over beyond the property line, makes the yard look like shit since I mow high, just scalps it and burns it. I'm a big believer in keeping a yard fairly tall in the summer, hell I haven't mowed in a month here since we have been so dry.

This same neighbor has a mother in law who drives an extended cab 4 door truck. Rather then just park on the street she hops the curb and gets her tires halfway up the strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the street, looks freakin ridiculous.

I caught her coming back from the store to get a pack of smokes and very nicely said "Maam if you could please not park on our yard I would appreciate it, my wife and are trying to..." then she cut me off and screamed "I don't need a lecture from you!!!! If you don't want me parking there then just say so!!!" My neighbor has spoken to me since that happen. I think his wife and MIL must have ripped on him about me.

now you see why gun control laws are so pointless. :)

Only problem is that while your grass is being mowed down, civilians in Lebanon suffer from the same fate.

on edit - I mow HIGH too. My grass is greener, more weed free and and never needs watering. One neighbor used to have putting green height - then, last year's drought and water shortage (pipeline breakdowns kept Lake Michigan water from southern suburbs) killed his lawn faster than I sneeze. This year, he is leaving it much longer and is much happier.

over onto our property when going around his trees that are supposedly on the property line. We, of course, return the "favor" when we mow along the line. ;)

As soon as we have enough money we're going to have the surveyor that did the survey when the property was split up (it used to be a LARGE dairy farm) come over and mark the property lines for us. Once that's done we'll slowly install "friendly" fencing (split w/wire and picket possibly) and in the front, where our property meets their little plot, I'll have one of my gardens and the fence will act as part of it's "bones". We'll also have a gate between their house and ours as well as the normal entry ones. B-) The "reason" for the rest of the fencing will be to keep our dogs and "someday" horses contained.

Another option to a wood/stone fence is an environmentally friendly living "fence" (like a hedge). B-) If you like low maintenance roses there is one that my late MIL referred to as "Pig proof" (I believe it's a floribunda wild rose) that you could plant long your side of the property line. It has beautiful roses, blooms all summer, grows wild in some areas (like the coast of Maine) and usually has a lot of thorns. ;)

It's not easy living with "invasive" neighbors but sometimes they simply don't realize that they're being that way or, much like some "kids", are testing how much they can get away with. IME communication and/or tactful "hints" will usually resolve the issue... if not you an either learn to live with it or go the legal route.

They eat everything around here. They ate my trees up too. Killed them dead. They are ferocious little buggers. Damned near poisoned myself to death spraying them until I gave up on that idea. The stuff to kill them is a watered down nerve agent.

Don



http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef409.htm

You can spread some 10mm gravel on the short mowed lawn to help the ground
from drying out so much, and probably dissuade short mower, even...

The rock on your property line, your neighbor sounds like they might believe
you are sharing in the experience of a nice rock.

Trees are an adapting development, and i would Plant a tree or two in the mix,
so that it looks nice, surely SOME tree species can handle japanese beetles,
there are many elegant species of pine, or a cedar of lebannon is a lovely tree.

stuff to get rid of them when we had them downstate. From what I understand it's best to attack them while they're very young and still in the ground. Have you tried Milky spore, nematodes or the parasitic wasps?

OTOH - I know that in some areas they're a whole lot worse then others and extremely difficult to control. If you live in one of those areas you might want to consider plants that are resistant to JBs. From http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/housing/japanese-beetle/jbeetle.html">HERE it looks like many conifers/evergreens like Juniper might work as a hedge. Juniper is one of my favorite conifers. They're an attractive and pleasant smelling conifer and if you eat read meat the berries, with a light hand, are wonderful to season red meat with. B-)

Anyway... good luck with your neighbor. Hopefully you'll find a way to draw a line and still be relatively friendly. :)

The one turned his drain pipe away from the street (and his front yard) towards my backyard 6 feet away. The other has let his (planted by a previous neighbor) HUGE shrub-thing grow 4' onto my property, and cuts around it on his RIDING mower.
I've just hired a landscaper to cut tons o'crap, and half that shrub is gonna be GONE, baby!

So advice? Me, I'm all about doing unto others.....heh.

...the nicest people in the world besides the property stuff. I mean either of them would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Weird, huh?

Don

they aren't trying to burn down your place.

Our lovely newest neighbors ( who bought two tracts on our road) seem to have a fascination with creating fire.

One of their trailers already burned down, they lit off craploads of fireworks DURING A DROUGHT -IN THE WOODS! - and now they are trying valiently to burn down the trailer they've parked at the top of our road.

Over a month ago, they put up some ugly-ass barbed wire and had to cut a bunch of limbs and brush. Well, they are so lazy, that those limbs ( some almost a foot across) and brush are now still in the drainage ditch that runs along the two sides facing the corner where you turn into our road.

The pine needles are nice and brown now, ready to burn like crazy. All it's gonna take is somebody coming through at night and tossing a cigarette and the entire mess is going up in flames. Their property is surrounded by trees, as is everyone's, so I'm just waiting for the next round of firetrucks.

If these idiots were not so dangerous to the rest of us they would be a facinating study in American stupidity. Just watching them try to be big badass men ( in reality they are scared to death out here, but rather than ask for help, they play this macho game and fuck up everything they touch,) Thank god they don't live adjacent to me or I would move.

...reading that post. Let me go here. I think there may be some Rosary beads around here somewhere.

Don

I'm not religious either, but I appreciate any help I can get.

These people really do scare me.

They have destroyed the beautiful green right of way at the top of our road, parking this huge tractor there, so that no one can see around the curve or walk or ride horses along it. That was a neighborhood right of way along the road that we all used to share.

Now, even though it's across the street from their property, they park that truck and vans and anything alse they don't want to bother pulling into their own driveway along there. It's like the top of our road is their own personal property and the rest of the folks here for years just have to take it.

I'm just sick of users, really. I keep hoping they'll move - as does everyone else on this road.

You just don't know the half of it, so all prayers and supplications are much appreciated!

:hug: