Inexpensive way to tell if neighbor killed my grass

[Michelle67]

I agree with you, but I think documenting, especially if you take pictures (so the straight un-natural line is apparent, and it can't be passed off as you blaming him for nature) will do that just as well for free. Sounds like just planting more hedges might be a handsome and workable solution for you, too. Good luck with the whole PITA.

 

[Married2theYeti]

We've had similar problems with our neighbours and a hedge did a great job of sending a message about the boundary. A word of advice: Plant the hedge about 2 feet within your property and keep a nice edging of mulch right up to the property line - hopefully this will keep him from trimming your hedge "off his property" - our neighbour tried this but my dh stopped him before he did much damage. As long as our hedge is over the mulch we know it's on our side. We've asked him to let us know if it's ever over and we'll save him the trouble and trim it ourselves.
Love the old saying "fences make great neighbours"

This is exactly what we did! We planted the shrubs 2 feet in and mulched up to the line. Now we just hope that he doesn't mow over the mulch and blow it into our yard. If so, we will just have to buy rounded pavers to put around the shrubs!

 

[Todd&Copper]

In some areas, if you can prove that you've done the upkeep on an area of property over a certain amount of time, you can claim it as yours. Kind of like squaters rights, I guess. Obviously mowing an inch or two over the line is no big deal, but if this guy is doing it by a few feet, the OP could have a property disput on her hands if she isn't careful.

For the neighbor to gain the land by adverse possession, he'd have to show:

Five Criteria for Adverse Possession - The possession must be:

(1) Actual

(2) Open and notorious

(3) Hostile and under claim of right

(4) Continuous

(5) Exclusive

The bolding is mine. If they also mow the portion of the yard, then how can the possession fo the three feet be "exclusive"?

Regarding the 3 or 4 feet - sorry OP, I must have missed that detail in your post (which is very, very long). I only go less than a foot onto my neighbor's yard, and I suppose I'd not be too happy if they came 3 or 4 feet into my yard.

 

[moredisneyplease]

all i can say is good luck!!! we have small brick walls separating the properties in my neighborhood!

 

[Plantlady]

This reminds me of a homework assignment that I was given in my turf grass management class.

The assignment was...

Your neighbor, who you don't like has gone out of town for the summer. How can you ruin is perfect lawn for revenge, without using chemicals, and without ever stepping foot on his property.

It all had to do with planting an invasive species of grass, that propagates quickly. A fun homework assignment for college.

To the OP.. Good luck. Hopefully one of the posters has a good suggestion for you, and it doesn't stress you out too much. We just decided to let them mow. It was stressing me out too much, and I just had to drop it.

 

[sasha's goofy]

I agree with some of the other posters, unless you have proof that HE put the chemicals on your yard nothing can be done. Your claim of motive is unfounded until you can prove HE did it.
If it was my property line I would sink a line of bricks down the edge of the line. I would keep it on my side but have the edge on the line so they are not able to claim you are infringing on their side.
Sunk in they do not impeed your mowing, view or curb appeal. They should pass any HOA restrictions and if questioned, politely explain your reasoning for the border to the HOA. You will be left with a defined border and that should solve any questions he might have on the property line. If he continues to mow over then with a defined marker you might have more recorse. Paving bricks are cheap, under a dollar a brick, come in various shades and should take you less than a day to install. Just need a shovel and a straight line. Good luck

 

[mtblujeans]

Yes, we did think about putting up a fence. There is a chain link fence behind us and on the other side. But because our kids played with theirs, we decided not to. The shrubs we planted are the tallish type and will provide a natural screen, but we don't want to have to go all the way down the property line in the front.

If it was me, I would do the privacy shrubs all the way down. Just make sure you are following the true property line.

That way the issue is mute and no hard feelings. By not putting something down that 'protects' your property line, you will allow something to fester and have a 'misunderstanding' down the road.

 

[Married2theYeti]

For the neighbor to gain the land by adverse possession, he'd have to show:

Five Criteria for Adverse Possession - The possession must be:

(1) Actual

(2) Open and notorious

(3) Hostile and under claim of right

(4) Continuous

(5) Exclusive

The bolding is mine. If they also mow the portion of the yard, then how can the possession fo the three feet be "exclusive"?

Regarding the 3 or 4 feet - sorry OP, I must have missed that detail in your post (which is very, very long). I only go less than a foot onto my neighbor's yard, and I suppose I'd not be too happy if they came 3 or 4 feet into my yard.

Yes my original post is very long! And I didn't state in my first post exactly how far over he was mowing. Anyway your apology is accepted, especially because I am in love with the pictures of your furbabies. We have a sheltie (our third), and we are all very much in love with him.

 

[angwill]

I love it when my neighbor cuts my grass it saves me the work. Saw him out there last Saturday and he decided to be nice and cut my lawn too. It rarely happens but I think he just wants to get out of the house away from his wife and is looking for an excuse sometimes. I brought him out a bottle of water and thanked him and made sure he knew it was not necessary. Now I wish I could find a way to get him to pull my weeds in the garden. lol

I never thought of squatters rights or worried about him trying to take my land. I just thought of it as his being a friendly neighbor who is bored. Heck they hated our wire fence and wanted a wooden privacy so we agreed they could take it down but said we won't be sharing the cost. I must be the dream neighbor. lol

To each his own I am not judging just realizing that I must be different than some.

 

[Michelle67]

Our neighbors in our old house were really close on one side (probably about 15 feet apart), and whichever of us got around to mowing first always mowed that whole piece. We did the same thing with the strip of easement along the alley behind our fences. Silly for each of us to get out and mow that little strip, when one or the other could just keep going and do it. It worked out fine for us, and we didn't mow down one anothers flower borders or anything so it was fine. My dad mows four yards in his neighborhood all summer long because the other three homeowners are elderly (not that my dad's a spring chicken himself...) and their kids don't bother coming to do it. They don't pay him, and didn't ask him to do it, although he did ask the first time if it was okay. He says it makes his neighborhood look better, so it is worth it to do it. But of course those are all mutually acceptable arrangements, which is hugely different from someone messing around with your property when you have asked them not to, no matter what your reason is.

 

[mtblujeans]

For the neighbor to gain the land by adverse possession, he'd have to show:

Five Criteria for Adverse Possession - The possession must be:

(1) Actual

(2) Open and notorious

(3) Hostile and under claim of right

(4) Continuous

(5) Exclusive

The bolding is mine. If they also mow the portion of the yard, then how can the possession fo the three feet be "exclusive"?

Regarding the 3 or 4 feet - sorry OP, I must have missed that detail in your post (which is very, very long). I only go less than a foot onto my neighbor's yard, and I suppose I'd not be too happy if they came 3 or 4 feet into my yard.

In our area, if something sits for five (5) years (ie fence, building, etc), then it becomes legal. We had a previous problem with a neighbor and had to get an attorney. The attorney told us that is what the State law dictates...it helped us decide if we really HAD to go to court to protect an easement or not.

 

[sk!mom]

I read your whole post...but I can't seem to get past this:

WHY is it an issue at all that he mows a little over the property line? I don't get it.

Same question here?

It actually bugs my DH a little that our neighbor on one side does this since the neighbor cuts his grass much shorter then DH cuts ours and the line is so crooked it always looks like he mowed drunk BUT, we just laugh about it and would never paint a line or drive a stake and make a big deal. We value a peaceful neighborhood. That sounds a bit juvenile- kind of like when my sister and I would put a dividing line down the room we shared as kids.

 

[mtblujeans]

Same question here?

It actually bugs my DH a little that our neighbor on one side does this since the neighbor cuts his grass much shorter then DH cuts ours and the line is so crooked it always looks like he mowed drunk BUT, we just laugh about it and would never paint a line or drive a stake and make a big deal. We value a peaceful neighborhood. That sounds a bit juvenile- kind of like when my sister and I would put a dividing line down the room we shared as kids.

I think your post is unreasonably harsh. Sometimes little things bug people and they let them become big things before they realize it. If suggestions are made, here, that allow this little thing to go away completely, then so be it. How constructive is your post?

 

[mtblujeans]

I have made a mistake. I thought I was posting my previous opinion/comments on another thread about a neighbor building a fence into someone's property....

 

[m&m's mom]

I have made a mistake. I thought I was posting my previous opinion/comments on another thread about a neighbor building a fence into someone's property....

I was trying to figure out how her post could be construed as "harsh".
ETA- You could go in and edit the posr if you want to remove it.

 

[DevilDuckie]

Yes, we did think about putting up a fence. There is a chain link fence behind us and on the other side. But because our kids played with theirs, we decided not to. The shrubs we planted are the tallish type and will provide a natural screen, but we don't want to have to go all the way down the property line in the front.

A three foot high white picket fence is decorative rather than divisive and won't "accidentally" get killed by poison. It might be a good way to avoid hurt feelings while still marking the boundary.

 

[Fizzgig]

Round-up chemically decays before the grass is dead. I wouldn't go through the expense of getting a soil assay done so the lab person can tell you, yes, it is dirt.

Good luck!

 

[Mom24Princesses]

In some areas, if you can prove that you've done the upkeep on an area of property over a certain amount of time, you can claim it as yours. Kind of like squaters rights, I guess. Obviously mowing an inch or two over the line is no big deal, but if this guy is doing it by a few feet, the OP could have a property disput on her hands if she isn't careful.

op- sorry can't help you .

to the others- the issue may be that in some states if they allow him to mow into their property after a certain amount of time it becomes HIS property. kind of like squatters laws they used to have. if you live somewhere long enough without anyone telling you to move, it became your property. i know that these laws still exist on the books in some states. and that may be an issue. if he continues to mow into her property line then it becomes his property.

I don't feel that 3-4 feet is a "little" mowing over. And each year it has gotten worse. Next thing you know he could be planting on my property, like he did behind him. The "issue" was the dead grass.

This is true in our state.

He (the neighbor) is doing it to make his own yard appear larger.





Our story. . .when we returned home from our WDW trip in June of 04 I noticed a piece of orange surveyor's tape out back. We have a one+ acre lot and our house sits on one corner of it with uncut woods on most of the rest.

I went out to investigate - we'd been home 24 hours or so. I discovered a lot of trees had been cut ON OUR PROPERTY and piled ON OUR property and a drain field had been dug for our neighbor's septic system.

TRUELY a very long story short - it was a huge deal to get them to stop work. Well they never appoligized or even admitted any fault or repaired our lot. My satifaction is/was it made their view from the front of their house very ugly as the weeds grew where the trees had been. Their house is set back from the road more so it is in the front side lot of their house. FOR US it thinned the trees between the two houses but not even half on that side and we see it when we look out that way BUT they are/will all grow back, you can not see it from the road.

I am trying to draw a map!!! It is fair!!
N = neighbors
U = Us
X = damaged area
S =street
H= House

NNNNNNNNNNNUUUUUUUUU
NNNNNNNNNNNUUUUUUUUU
NNNNNNNHHHNXXUUUUUU
NNNNNNNHHHNXXUUUUUU
NNNNNNNNNNNXXUUHHHU
NNNNNNNNNNNUUUUHHHU
SSSSSSSSSSSUUUUHHHU
SSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUU
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[DVC Sadie]

Put a fence up ( even if it is only 2 feet tall) so he can't use his mower on your lawn. Problem solved.

 

[eclairemom]

We are on the opposite side of this. When we first moved in DH finished cutting the neighbors front yard trying to be nice one day. I told him he should have asked first -- too late we got a letter asking us not to mow on her property. So two years go by and Dh had been mowing the same way since the letter and we got another letter this time certified about mowing on her property, removing trespassing signs and removing property markers. She stated she had been to the police and filed a report. We were very upset since we had not removed anything. DH said if she was so worried about mowing on her property line it would be nice if she would mow it so someone could tell where the line is.

We had a new survey done and DH actually wasn't mowing enough in the front yard but too much in the back. So now we cut right down the line. Funny thing she was so concerned about property lines except everytime she drives 100 ft on our property to enter her driveway (she has no access from the road) there is no easement in county property books. Our attorney sent her a letter reminding her the drive was on our property and at anytime we could put a fence up if we wanted.

I hope things work out for you.