How do you handle this - Neighbor issue. Problem solved - Thanks!

[kacaju]

Just ask them if they knew they were mowing your yard, that will probably clear it up.

I agree with this. When we first moved here my dh cut half of our neighbors lawn. DH thought he was doing the guy a favor!!
Neighbor came to me the next day (dh was a work) and made sure we knew where the property line was. He was real nice about it.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

DH finally spoke to him this morning. All is fine. I think he KNEW he was doing it, but didn't really care - said he was doing it out of courtesy. All over and done with now. Thank goodess I don't have to hear DH complain anymore about how hes "Killing my grass!!!!" yada yada yada.

 

[BCDisneyFanatic]

Wow...it's no wonder there are so many threads on the DIS about people having trouble with their neighbours. We spend a lot of time trying to teach conflict resolution skills to our kids, but it seems like many people have forgotten how to use them in their own lives.

Why would it be a bad thing to TALK to one's neighbour? Perhaps (s)he is unsure of the property line or thinks that (s)he's doing you a favour by cutting the grass. I always figure that a friendly, straight-forward "heads up" that something is bothering you is the best way to approach these issues. After all, I'd want to know if I was doing something that was really bugging my neighbour (especially if it's something that I could easily refrain from doing). All these passive aggressive suggestions of putting up markers, flagging tape, and fences instead of TALKING to your neighbour seems a bit of overkill!

As for fences, (sorry OP), everywhere I've lived we've "shared" fences with our neighbours. The cost of the fence was split between homeowners, and each person is responsible for the upkeep of their side of the fence (painting, weeding, etc.). The fences were put right on the property line (on all three sides).

 

[3boymthr]

To OP you're lucky it worked out so well. Our neighbor got a nasty surprise a few years ago. Shortly after we moved in, due to Mass Title 5, we had to redo the septic and the contractor was told to put the fence back up along the property line. Well, it went back up inside what she thought was her yard. She was very upset when her lilac bush and the ornamental tree she'd received as gifts from her kids were suddenly ours. The arguments were not pretty. Luckily the contractor got to deal with her not us. He had the plot lines, and the deed descriptions, and the lot markers all mapped out and showed them to her. Her realtor had told her the lot ended 15 feet from the house which has an attached garage and it did but not 15 feet from her garage - which ends 1 ft from the lot line. Oops! Technically, her garage doesn't meet regulations, but it was built before such things were monitored.

ETA - when a septic system is redone for Title 5 they have to basically dig up the entire yard, put in new tanks, plus all kinds of fill and filtering systems, and then re-slope the yard. It's a messy, long (took almost the entire spring) and expensive process ($20,000 for us because we had two systems) which basically caused the entire yard to be relandscaped and it looks nothing like it did when we moved in.

 

[Veronica Lodge]

Around here all yards are fenced in- good fences make good neighbors! The fence goes on the property line of course- who would give 2-3 feet of their yard all around to the neighbors?? Also you never need to go "maintain" the other side of the fence- that is the other persons job- my neighbor next door put up a wood fence- he liked his side stained and that is what he did with his side- the guy on the other side wanted it painted to match his house and that is what he did with his side- each person weed whacks their own side (I do get a kick out of people calling it weed eating though LOL).
For those of you that think the fence should be 3 feet in on your own property- then your neighbor puts theirs 3 feet in on their property and you have a 6 foot gap of nothing in between?? Yuk. And if you didn't put up a fence but your neighbor did then when he was on "your" side of hte fence it would be like he was in the yard with you- what if your dog was running around your yard and bit the person???

When my family lived in Sunrise, FL, that is EXACTLY what people did. Fences had to be set 18" from the property line, so when our backyard neighbors wanted to put in a fence, they had to set it back 18" from the line. We mowed that portion of the lawn b/c it was on our side of the fence, and it belonged to the neighbors (a crucial element of adverse possession is that a taking be hotsile and this was permissive) and if/when they [or their successors] tore down the fence, their obligation to maintian those 18" would resume.

And, becasue you seem concerned about 2 neighbors both erecting fences and there being an untamed gap in between, I NEVER saw that happen. Never did I see two neighbors each build their own fence along the same property line. We continued the fence along the sides of our yard (had to b/c we had a pool) but it adjoined the neighbor's fence in the back.

Most localities do have a set back for fences.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

No. You put your fence on your property line.

It depedns on the stae. IN GA it's a law that all fences must be 3 inches into the property. You are not allowed to put a fence on the property lines. That way if two neighbors put up a fence there is a small area to tend and mow to instead of two fences butt up against each other and weeds growing in. There may be a different reason also.

OP, glad it's cleared up!

 

[h20jag]

Wow, 4 pages to figger out how to get along with a neighbor!
Time for "the duel" (were still legal when I left Ga.).

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

Wow, 4 pages to figger out how to get along with a neighbor!
Time for "the duel" (were still legal when I left Ga.).

Yeah.... thats kinda why I put "Problem Solved - Thanks!" in the title.... but people still keep going.... and about fences too!!! We don't even have a fence!!!

 

[daisax]

: And if you didn't put up a fence but your neighbor did then when he was on "your" side of hte fence it would be like he was in the yard with you- what if your dog was running around your yard and bit the person???

It wouldn't be your yard.

I think part of what is confusing people is that many of us live in places with fences along property lines (well inside the actual property line) but not fully enclosed yards. So nobody put up two fences because it would look silly, and even when people enclose part or all of their back yard for their dog(s) they don't do it in such a way that it really runs up against an existing fence.

Generally speaking, neighbors work it out (our fence is inside our property but our neighbor hangs stuff on "his" side of it.) With our permission. And when his kids knock pickets out playing ball, he replaces them.

But when it comes to neighbor disputes, when towns are called in to verify the property line, they WILL insist that fences on property lines be removed and placed inside the area designated by law for it.

My good friend had a terrible time with people who kept encroaching and kept encroaching and even took a surveying spike out of the ground. Fortunately the town surveyor really scared them about that being some kind of felony or something and they knocked it off -- after they took down the poolhouse they had built right up to my friend's land.