PEOPLE in my backyard!

[ZachnElli]

I definitely let my just turned 11 year old DD go for a walk outside unsupervised all the time. And I have for some years now. The kids in the neighborhood even walk through the neighbors yard to get to the treed area of the neighborhood. But because it's behind their house, but not their property, they wouldn't be liable if she (or any of the other kids) fell out of one of the trees and broke an arm. I don't think the OP'r would be liable if a child drowned, whoever owns the canal might, but not the homeowner. I lived in a neighborhood with a large deep pond and our homeowner's dues paid for liability insurance in case someone drowned. The homes that backed up to it, didn't own it and wouldn't be liable for it.

Also, maybe the girls are not from Florida and they assumed it was public property. I could see my kids making that mistake, not too many "canals" here in Nebraska!

 

[Hannathy]

It's amazing how things change over the years. When I was a kid, we ran all over the neighborhood. We walked through a lot of backyards. We'd stop and play in one if it seemed the thing to do. We didn't harm anything.

It really bothers me that people can't walk through another person's yard without it being considered bad. In the OP's case, I can see how it would be bad if the girls stopped to fish off her dock or were jumping into the canal or causing some other type of mischief. Walking through and looking at the canal from the dock just doesn't seem bad to me. If you don't want a person to walk through your yard, I suggest a fence.

I agree with the previous poster. People worry too much about liability. Just because someone gets injured on your property doesn't automatically make you liable. You have to be proved negligent and, in the OP's case, that wouldn't be true.

Such an untrusting world this has become.

I agree. How unfriendly and me oriented this world has become. What possible harm could 2 young girls do to your precious property standing looking at the water? Wow, I'm glad my neighbors aren't that unfriendly to my kids and their friends. They run and cut thru yards all the time. Now do they hurt anything or do it if the people are out entertaining- no, but just cutting thru a yard, yes.
Before shutting out the world you might want to stop and think you may need a neighbor some day to help you and I doubt they will be to willing if you act as cold as this post comes across.

I also agree with you probably don't own the canal and several feet around it so they can walk there if they want., unless it is a privately built canal.
And 11 yr olds don't need parental supervision to take a walk. I would be a bit worried if my kids couldn't handle playing on their own at 11.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Can you plant grasses or small, short bushes on your property line? Perhaps people wouldn't be as tempted to cross over foliage!

I am just curious, because I was always under the assumption that when you owned property on water, THAT was your FRONT yard (hence, "lakefront" or "waterfront"). My grandparents house is on a lake, and their FRONT is platted on the lake side, their BACK is what is normally the front of any other house. They don't "own" the first 6' of land from the lake to the house, it is an easement.

 

[Mickey's Minion]

LOL! I have a Golden Retriever, and I was a little ticked at him for not barking. He was out there, just watching them.

Your dog is very smart. He knew the girls were fine and not causing any harm to your property

I do see the issue, and it's been explained quite well by myself and other posters. And as far as the possible trouble is concerned, let them try. I'll be calling the police next time. I do suspect they were kids from the party a few doors down though.

You would really call the police on a couple of young girls just sitting on your dock? Really?

Right, which could make me over more liable if something happened - if I saw them there and allowed them to stay. They are strangers. Their parents are strangers. Nope, I definitely do not have any obligation to them.

If you are so worried about liability, just add an umbrella policy to your homeowners insurance. We have a $2 million umbrella and it only costs us $175.00 a year. Gives us lots of peace of mind if some nutcase actually does try to sue.

You really want to go there? At 26, you already want to be "that" neighbor - the crabby curmudgeon that yells at kids and calls the police for the most innocent things?

You are really setting yourself up for problems in your neighborhood if you become "that" neighbor. Kids will constantly test you and as others have said, if you need a neighbor's help in the future, good luck.

 

[locolala]

We put up a no trespassing sign on our back fence, and padlocked the gate. We haven't had any issues since we did that, and that was a year and a half ago. Since we've had people try to steal things from our yard (and suceed.. we had a grill stolen, and then they tried to steal the replacement, but it had been chained to the fence), and had kids in our yard yelling at all hours of the night, we needed to do something. A kid slipped on some ice in the yard in Jan of 08, and the parents tried to sue us. Had the ice been on the sidewalk, they would have had grounds, but the ice was on the grass. I don't think it's ok for kids to trespass just because they're kids. We didn't cut through people's yards without permission, we were taught respect for other people's property. Maybe it's different in the city, but where we were raised (rural suburbs, every house on at least 2-3 acres with woods) we didn't go on people's land without permisson. It just wasn't done.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Wow! I was pretty surprised at your post. I remember being 10 and 12 and my parents wouldn't have allowed me to trespass! Even if there is an easement for walking, its very evident that the dock is private property not an "inviting" public structure.

The world has changed a lot. I think people worry about liability because people are quick to sue these days. It wasn't an issue when I grew up, because people knew everyone in the neighborhood. That's not the case so much now. You don't know what people will do and it could end up costing you. That's not something people generally want to leave to chance. Also, I thought liability could be something like having no fences around pools, would that also apply to the OP's property? Would having no signs be an issue? Could the railing on the OP's pier be an issue if there were an accident? There are a lot of variables that aren't easily foreseen that can come into play.

Also some people you give an inch, they will take a mile. Strangers. Today it's people on your pier. If the owner is perceived as going along with that, then the next step may be bringing more people over, staying longer, and the word further spreads. Not a good situation.

I totally agree!

As to walking to a dock... where I am now the waterline up to the mean high water mark is public. You cannot restrict access along the water's edge.

Actually you can. One of our neighbors across the canal DOES have a fence, a chain link fence, and it goes all the way down to the water's edge. I'm sure if we wanted to, we could do the same thing.

I agree. How unfriendly and me oriented this world has become. So I am "me oriented" because I don't want strangers on my property? What about the sense of entitlement they clearly have? What possible harm could 2 young girls do to your precious property standing looking at the water? I addressed that very fact if you had read my first post. It's the principle of the matter. Wow, I'm glad my neighbors aren't that unfriendly to my kids and their friends. Again, they were most likely from the party two houses down (for the third time). They run and cut thru yards all the time. Now do they hurt anything or do it if the people are out entertaining- no, but just cutting thru a yard, yes.
Before shutting out the world you might want to stop and think you may need a neighbor some day to help you and I doubt they will be to willing if you act as cold as this post comes across. Who are you to assume I am an unfriendly neighbor? And that I shut out the world? Those are major ASSumptions on your part! I am perfectly friendly to people who respect me, and trespassing on my property is not respecting me.

I also agree with you probably don't own the canal and several feet around it so they can walk there if they want. We own the dock and the property around it, so no, they don't have a right to be there. , unless it is a privately built canal.
And 11 yr olds don't need parental supervision to take a walk. Well apparently they do since they can't stay out of people's backyards! I would be a bit worried if my kids couldn't handle playing on their own at 11.

My answers to you are in red.

You really want to go there? At 26, you already want to be "that" neighbor - the crabby curmudgeon that yells at kids and calls the police for the most innocent things?

You are really setting yourself up for problems in your neighborhood if you become "that" neighbor. Kids will constantly test you and as others have said, if you need a neighbor's help in the future, good luck.

Yes, I do want to be that neighbor at 26! Thanks! I want people to stay off my property unless they're invited. I don't care if it's two girls checking out my dock, a man and his two teenage sons fishing, or whoever the person was who went around and knocked on all our windows in the middle of the night a few years ago. If you can't see the "wrong" factor in all of that, then maybe you need to evaluate yourself, not me. I was brought up to respect other people's property - not to trespass, not to run through the flower beds, not to take something that doesn't belong to me, etc.

And as far as the calling the police comment, I was referring to the previous poster who said I would now need to worry about retaliation. Would you not call the police if you were harrassed or your house was vandalized?

 

[lillygator]

well maybe they can just swim in the canal around and next to your dock!

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

well maybe they can just swim in the canal around and next to your dock!

Fine by me!

 

[daughtersrus]

I haven't read all of the posts so this may have already been discussed. If someone is injured on your dock, you (or your insurance) may be responsible. We have a similar situation and State Farm told us that if someone is injured on our property, we could be held liable.

We back up to a very small airport and constantly had people sitting in our yard to watch the planes. This was an every weekend thing all day long. It got to the point that we decided to fence the yard.

We had one group of kids that would constantly come and dig along our back property line where it meets the airport. One time they were so deep that you could see the electric lines that are buried. I told them to go home and they got smart with me. I then called the police to come and tell them to leave because I didn't want to be responsible if they hit a line with their metal shovel. The police came and took them home (two doors away also backing up to the airport). The mom gave the cop and earful as she didn't think that what they were doing was wrong.


We still have cars pull up on the side street (we're on the corner) and sit either on the sidewalk or the parkway between the sidewalk and the street and sometimes on the other side of our back fence. You don't even want to know what DH finds back there when he's cutting the grass.

 

[daughtersrus]

Well, here's a thought. You may own the property leading to the canal but I doubt you own the canal. If they work it like any residential area (I don't know, just throwing it out for thought), there is probably a band of land bordering the canal that is really not yours. It belongs to whatever town you reside it. Much like a sidewalk area on a city street. The city owns that area that they may need to use to gain access to the canal for whatever reason they might have and it would be impossible to get "permission" when they had the need. I don't know what they call it now, but it used to be referred to as a "green belt".

Now if they were well up on your property that's different. Before I would get to "high and mighty" about it I would check zoning ordinances and be sure that they do not have a right to be there, walking along the canal. Also, you may own the dock in the sense that you paid for it and had it placed there but that my come under the same rule since it is in what many might consider a common area that you do not own.

Each state/area is different.

My SIL has a lake house in WI. She owns the property all the way to the edge of the water as well as the long dock. A neighbor asked if he could use her dock as the water by his property isn't deep enough to keep his boat. Her insurance agent highly recommended that she not allow it.


On the other hand, friends have a lake house on KY Lake. They have a huge dock that they own but their property lines stops before the water and the TVA owns from their property line to the water. People are allowed to walk along the shore but they are not allowed to use the dock.

 

[Mickey's Minion]

:
Yes, I do want to be that neighbor at 26! Thanks! I want people to stay off my property unless they're invited. I don't care if it's two girls checking out my dock, a man and his two teenage sons fishing, or whoever the person was who went around and knocked on all our windows in the middle of the night a few years ago. If you can't see the "wrong" factor in all of that, then maybe you need to evaluate yourself, not me. I was brought up to respect other people's property - not to trespass, not to run through the flower beds, not to take something that doesn't belong to me, etc.

And as far as the calling the police comment, I was referring to the previous poster who said I would now need to worry about retaliation. Would you not call the police if you were harrassed or your house was vandalized?

Well, good luck with that

Your "making it a point" is very likely to backfire on you and cause more trespassing than halting it.

I can just see it now. The kids whispering to each other - "you do it", "no, you do it" to see which one is the bravest to cross the witchy woman's property and to see if they can get her to come out and yell at them.

Every neighborhood has one of "those neighbors" and kids throughout history have been dared to cross the crabby neighbor as a right of passage. Heck, it is so common, scenes like this are in many kid movies; boys huddling, daring each other to step foot on the witchy neighbor's property. The woman comes out, disheveled, brandishing a broom, yelling at the monsters to get off her property. Boys laughing that they did such a brave thing, crossing the curmudgeon's property.

I would pick my battles. Boys playing football in your backyard - ask them to leave.

Stomping around in your flower gardens - ask them to leave.

Knocking on windows in the middle of the night - call police.

Trying to steal something - definitely call the police.

2 girls innocently daydreaming on your dock - chalk it up to childhood and enjoy watching children be able to still daydream without the pressures of adulthood. If they had packed a lunch and were spending the entire day, I would gently tell them that they needed to go home. But a few minutes, an hour - nope. They are not hurting anything.

If it really bothers you to have people cross your yard, put up a fence.

As the old saying goes: Fences make good neighbors.

FTR - my children were also taught to respect property. Hopefully they do 99.99% of the time (we all make mistakes). However, on my own property, life is not completely so black and white. Vandalism, destroying property, or blatant disregard gets called on. Childhood innocence, not so much.

 

[Bluestars]

Since your neighbor has a fence leading all of the way to the waterline, have you considered putting up a nice rod iron fence? I think that would be the only way to completely stop people from coming on to your property.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Well, good luck with that

Your "making it a point" is very likely to backfire on you and cause more trespassing than halting it.

I can just see it now. The kids whispering to each other - "you do it", "no, you do it" to see which one is the bravest to cross the witchy woman's property and to see if they can get her to come out and yell at them.

Okay, so now you're going to start calling me names?

 

[lillygator]

oh geez, I don't think they are calling you names.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

Since your neighbor has a fence leading all of the way to the waterline, have you considered putting up a nice rod iron fence? I think that would be the only way to completely stop people from coming on to your property.

If this kind of thing persists, we will definitely look into it.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

oh geez, I don't think they are calling you names.

Calling someone a witch isn't a name?

You can disagree with me without being rude, which is something the posters on the first two pages were able to do quite easily.

 

[lillygator]

I wasn't being rude - I just think you are reading more in to it.

 

[SundaeAfternoon]

I wasn't being rude - I just think you are reading more in to it.

More into what exactly? And I wasn't just referring to you.

 

[lillygator]

More into what exactly? And I wasn't just referring to you.

more in to someone calling you a name....I don't think the poster was calling you a name in particular which is what you posted about.

 

[wdwfan16]

Time to put up a fence.