People, STAY OUT OF MY YARD!!

[MELSMICE]

why do so many people hate fences? afterall...good fences make good neighbors, right?

our house is being built right now and one of the first things we're doing when it's done is putting up a fence. partly because i don't want random people in my yard. but also because i like privacy. if i want to lay out in a swimsuit on my patio...i don't want anyone to see me...haha. i also don't want to feel obligated to chit-chat with my neighbors all the time.

For me, nothing says, "You're uninvited" & "don't bother me, I don't want to talk to you" more than a huge privacy fence.

When our neighbor built his house next door the first thing he did was put up a fence & you're right, it told us right away that he wanted his privacy & didn't want to "chit chat" with the neighbors. So be it.

Funny thing is, we have an above ground pool & when you stand on our deck you can see right into his back yard & see everything they're doing.

Because while I'm lying out on my patio in my swimsuit, I'd rather look at a sparkling lake than the back side of a fence. Okay, realistically, if I'm lying on the back patio in my swimsuit, I'm snoozing and not looking at anything - but you get my drift.

That's my thought too. Why do I want to look at the back side of an ugly fence.

Just my opinions, of course!

 

[Mrs. Bee]

Because while I'm lying out on my patio in my swimsuit, I'd rather look at a sparkling lake than the back side of a fence. Okay, realistically, if I'm lying on the back patio in my swimsuit, I'm snoozing and not looking at anything - but you get my drift.

I don't really know what your backyard is like. And maybe this sounds dumb...but can you just put a fence that i open in the back. So that you can walk down to the lake but other people can't cut through your yard to get to it? I don't know if that makes sense or not.

For me, nothing says, "You're uninvited" & "don't bother me, I don't want to talk to you" more than a huge privacy fence.

When our neighbor built his house next door the first thing he did was put up a fence & you're right, it told us right away that he wanted his privacy & didn't want to "chit chat" with the neighbors. So be it.

Funny thing is, we have an above ground pool & when you stand on our deck you can see right into his back yard & see everything they're doing.


That's my thought too. Why do I want to look at the back side of an ugly fence.

Just my opinions, of course!

Yeah...I HOPE that is the impression my neighbors get. If i'm in my backyard...that's MY space. I don't want to feel like I have to talk to my neighbors every single time I'm back there. If I see them out front or around the neighborhood...that's good and I'll chat with them there. But I don't want people thinking they can come in my backyard and hang out with me anytime they want. A fence will also keep any neighborhood dogs from going to the bathroom in my yard.

Personally, I think having a fence up is a great idea. Unwanted "guests" are just rude.

Oh...and we specifically picked a lot to build our house on that once the fence goes up...no one will be able to see over it.
And I think that fences can be quite nice to look at. Better than looking at my neighors lawn that has the potentential to be very ugly.

 

[lillygator]

Don't you have to have a fence around the pool?

Actually in my county of FL, no we do not have to have a fence. And ours was put in in 2006.

We have a corner lot and our problem is adults stealing lemons, pineapples and oranges as well as helping themselves to cuttings of frangipanis. It drives us nuts, one night DH was out watering and this woman had the nerve to pick lemons right off the tree....dh saw her and hosed her down and told her, if she it again he'd call the cops.

Also, people with dogs who have them off the leash or even on them that take a crap in our yard and don't pick it up. I have been thinking of bagging it and leaving it on their doorstep. Drives me nuts!

 

[Chicago526]

Fences may not be required for having a pool, but I'd never own a pool without a fence, required or not! It only takes one kid with no common sense (and this goes for teens, not just little ones) for a horibile accident to occur. Anyway that's not what the thread is about.

OP, I feel your pain but other than putting up a fence, I don't see how you can stop people from cutting through your yard. Yes they should respect you and your property but if they haven't by now, the aren't going to suddenly start.

 

[LoriKay]

I don't know why people have such a hard time being a good neighbor. We have a truckload of little kids on our street and their parents hang out in the street oblivious to their kids destroying other peoples stuff. I've had kids trying to pull out the bushes in our landscaping, we've had to repair the decorative lighting three times because they pull the wires out of the ground and my all time favorite is the kid who repeatedly plows his little motorized jeep into our garage door as hard as he can. Even though we've been nice about it the parents all hate us because we prefer to keep our property nice and our garage door on it's tracks. We're thinking of a 15 foot brick wall all the way around the front and sides of the house!

 

[daisax]

poison oak and poison ivy will grow quite well even in rocky soil-and it's not prone to people opting to stomp on it even in it's earlier stages of growth

I love the way you think!

Trouble is, it spreads

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I know your pain. We have neighborhood kids that play football and baseball in our yard even though we have told them repeatedly not to.

Funny story. A few months ago, I was sitting at my table with my DH enjoying lunch. I looked out the window, into my rather small backyard, and there was a little boy with his pants down having a pee. My DH went out and told him that we could see him and he went away. He hasn't been back yet.

Well TODAY as I am leaving to pick the kids up from school I see huge gaping trenches - it's obvious that somebody drove a truck into that part of my property - I looked to make sure they hadn't dumped anything then I noticed they took that freaking wood. I know exactly who did it too since there was a huge set of dirty tracks going right to his house......

Well, you do plan to confront your neighbour, right? That's what I don't understand about a lot of these incidents. To me, they could be easily solved with a little communication. If my neighbour did something wrong, I would go over and talk to them.

We could just see that our enjoyment of the property would be negated by people traipsing thru our yard to get to the water (and by the higher probabilities of having to use my liability insurance when they get hurt on my property).

This is what I'm thinking too. I'd be most worried about someone getting hurt or alleging an incident.

After 20 years of owning the property, they decided to build their dream home on the property. They fenced the property and a neighbor sued them, claiing that they were being denied their habitual route to the open space (which they had had been trespassing on). It went to court and the court GAVE 30% OF THEIR PROPERTY TO THEIR NEIGHBOR!!!! The judge ruled that the landowner had failed to protect their property and thus lost their rights to that part of the property,

I'm really surprised how little people know about the law. I thought this was common knowledge. In the old days, it was called "squatter's rights" but that term probably went out the window with political correctness.

I got some advice from the local district attorneys office and sometimes wonder if I should have taken it.

His advice:

Put up a no trespassing sign and a beware of dog sign. Get a vicious or vicious looking dog. Put the dog on a leash making sure the dog cannot cross your property line. I said your crazy if they got bit I have a legal problem. He claimed if they are warned and the dog is on your property no problem.

I'd question the credibility of your district attorney! Maybe it depends where you live, but I've read so many cases where people thought a sign would protect them from being responsible for injuries on their property. I've even read about a burgular who got injured while robbing a person's home and sued the homeowner and won!

For me, nothing says, "You're uninvited" & "don't bother me, I don't want to talk to you" more than a huge privacy fence.

That's how I feel too. The only time I would put up a fence is if I really needed one. I guess it depends where you live, though. We live in a pretty quiet subdivision.

I don't really know what your backyard is like. And maybe this sounds dumb...but can you just put a fence that i open in the back. So that you can walk down to the lake but other people can't cut through your yard to get to it?

I think that's exactly what the OP said she was going to do.

 

[LisaNJ25]

I have 2 kids come in my gate yesterday and play on this kids slide and toys. The mom sat there on the sidewalk and just watched. I yelled at the to leave the yard but got ignored until my sis in law who was here went out and yelled in Spanish and that they left. The ground is so wet and muddy my kids having even played back there is months. My luck they would of fallen off and got hurt.

 

[Mrs. Bee]

I think that's exactly what the OP said she was going to do.

Well...I wasn't sure because she made a comment about not wanting to stare at a fence instead of the lake.

 

[Corryn]

OP - I know you've heard it, but the only answer is a fence.
Maybe 50, or even 30 years ago when it wasn't so crowded, who needed a fence except to corral the livestock or your children?
Now, we are so crowded and there isn't any more land being made, so the only way to protect or keep what you have is to put a fence up.

As a homeowner, I get up every morning and go to work so I can pay for the right to live in that home. Twice a year I pay property taxes on that property.
I keep my property safe and looking nice. If it's nice out during the warmer weather, I'll prune, weed, plant, water, etc. just to keep my property looking nice.
It is My Right as that Homeowner,
the person who is paying the mortgage on the property,
the one who is responsible for whomever walks across it,
to include or exclude who or whatever I choose.

If someone gets hurt on Your Property while traipsing across it to get to the lake, or if someone accidently trips on a rock near the shore and drowns, guess who the family will come after?
And guess what they'll say when they're in court:
"The homeowner should have had a fence.....My son wouldn't have went down to the pond/lake after dark if there was a fence...
The homeowner should have known that something like this might have happened, they should have put up a fence since they knowingly purchased property adjacent to water/pool.....

BTW, here in our town if you've got a pool, you've gotta have a fence, it's the law.
And who cares if the HOA president's son is one of the kids trespassing on your lawn? What does that mean? That because he is the president he can forget about any and all laws in your community?

You know, no one likes to be a pushy person, or to become a "trouble"
but remember, if someone is going out of their way to make trouble for you, you are not the one starting it, YOU'RE THE ONE ENDING IT!!!!
I just don't like to see people get walked all over.......I am rooting for you and I hope that you will be able to come to a peaceful resolution. Remember that you are the "victim" here.

BTW, up here on Long Island we have a HUGE problem with Illegal Aliens. Talk about walking through your property? How about walking through your property, taking stuff and then leaving their garbage for you to pick up? I am CONSTANTLY picking up trash that the Illegals dump while walking past my home every single day. I've also called the cops twice because I caught them breaking into my shed. Unfortunately, because it's an Illegal, the police do not do a thing about it
So to protect my yard, my husband's tools and equipment and to keep out any kid or drunkard who wants to take a midnight dip, we have put up a six-foot fence, like most of our neighbors. We've been there done that with no fence, trying to make it seem more "country-fied" by keeping the property fence-free, but as another poster stated, Fences Make Good Neighbors.

Good Luck

 

[nataliela]

My aunt has a house with a cane field behind it. Before she bought the property, the previous owners would allow trucks to use the road to have access to the field.

Well, they built a house and have kids playing in the yard, so they no longer want people trucking through their backyard. They put two little stakes with a chain and a no trespassing sign, people would unhook the chain and go right through.

They are now in the process of putting an iron and brick fence across the front of their property to keep people out.

Some people just don’t learn!

 

[Mrs. Bee]

OP - I know you've heard it, but the only answer is a fence.
Maybe 50, or even 30 years ago when it wasn't so crowded, who needed a fence except to corral the livestock or your children?
Now, we are so crowded and there isn't any more land being made, so the only way to protect or keep what you have is to put a fence up.

As a homeowner, I get up every morning and go to work so I can pay for the right to live in that home. Twice a year I pay property taxes on that property.
I keep my property safe and looking nice. If it's nice out during the warmer weather, I'll prune, weed, plant, water, etc. just to keep my property looking nice.
It is My Right as that Homeowner,
the person who is paying the mortgage on the property,
the one who is responsible for whomever walks across it,
to include or exclude who or whatever I choose.

If someone gets hurt on Your Property while traipsing across it to get to the lake, or if someone accidently trips on a rock near the shore and drowns, guess who the family will come after?
And guess what they'll say when they're in court:
"The homeowner should have had a fence.....My son wouldn't have went down to the pond/lake after dark if there was a fence...
The homeowner should have known that something like this might have happened, they should have put up a fence since they knowingly purchased property adjacent to water/pool.....

BTW, here in our town if you've got a pool, you've gotta have a fence, it's the law.
And who cares if the HOA president's son is one of the kids trespassing on your lawn? What does that mean? That because he is the president he can forget about any and all laws in your community?

You know, no one likes to be a pushy person, or to become a "trouble"
but remember, if someone is going out of their way to make trouble for you, you are not the one starting it, YOU'RE THE ONE ENDING IT!!!!
I just don't like to see people get walked all over.......I am rooting for you and I hope that you will be able to come to a peaceful resolution. Remember that you are the "victim" here.

BTW, up here on Long Island we have a HUGE problem with Illegal Aliens. Talk about walking through your property? How about walking through your property, taking stuff and then leaving their garbage for you to pick up? I am CONSTANTLY picking up trash that the Illegals dump while walking past my home every single day. I've also called the cops twice because I caught them breaking into my shed. Unfortunately, because it's an Illegal, the police do not do a thing about it
So to protect my yard, my husband's tools and equipment and to keep out any kid or drunkard who wants to take a midnight dip, we have put up a six-foot fence, like most of our neighbors. We've been there done that with no fence, trying to make it seem more "country-fied" by keeping the property fence-free, but as another poster stated, Fences Make Good Neighbors.

Good Luck

Off topic...but how could you tell they were illegal citizens? Just curious.

 

[Corryn]

Off topic...but how could you tell they were illegal citizens? Just curious.

Are you, really?
I've never heard the term, Illegal citizen.
I call it what it is.

 

[Disney Doll]

High fences make good neighbors.

 

[Mrs. Bee]

Are you, really?
I've never heard the term, Illegal citizen.
I call it what it is.

I was seriously wondering how you knew they were illegal....so...how did you know?

And yes...I realize that "illegal citizen" is somewhat of an oxy moron. I was just trying to be polite.

 

[fraggle551]

On LI, there is a huge problem with illegal aliens. Its hard to explain, but you just know that they are. They stand on the corners by 7-11 and home depot every morning waiting to get picked up for work. Its been a problem for a few years now. It was in the paper for a long time about a year ago. I don't really remember if anything came of it.

Im guessing the other LI'er lives towards the middle of the island. Thats where the largest problem seems to be.

No, you dont know for a 100% fact that they are 'illegal'. The circumstances surrounding them just elude you to believe that they are illegal. I hope that helps you to understand.

 

[Mrs. Bee]

On LI, there is a huge problem with illegal aliens. Its hard to explain, but you just know that they are. They stand on the corners by 7-11 and home depot every morning waiting to get picked up for work. Its been a problem for a few years now. It was in the paper for a long time about a year ago. I don't really remember if anything came of it.

Im guessing the other LI'er lives towards the middle of the island. Thats where the largest problem seems to be.

No, you dont know for a 100% fact that they are 'illegal'. The circumstances surrounding them just elude you to believe that they are illegal. I hope that helps you to understand.

thank you for the polite response.
and yes..it does help.

 

[tonilea]

Here is what I would do....

Put up a large sign that reads:

Traps on property.
Whatever gets trapped
will be skinned.

 

[Corryn]

Im guessing the other LI'er lives towards the middle of the island. Thats where the largest problem seems to be.

No, you dont know for a 100% fact that they are 'illegal'. The circumstances surrounding them just elude you to believe that they are illegal. I hope that helps you to understand.

Yes, I'm from the middle of the island. When I purchased my home it was your typical middle class neighborhood. Then one day, literally, we woke up and were surrounded by 8 homes in our immediate view that were packed with men. When they moved in next door and directly across the street, on the 4th of July no less, I flipped out.
I moved out of The Bronx and now I'm dealing with this.

There would have been no "polite" way for me to give an answer. Thanks, Fraggle.

 

[fraggle551]

Yes, I'm from the middle of the island. When I purchased my home it was your typical middle class neighborhood. Then one day, literally, we woke up and were surrounded by 8 homes in our immediate view that were packed with men. When they moved in next door and directly across the street, on the 4th of July no less, I flipped out.
I moved out of The Bronx and now I'm dealing with this.

There would have been no "polite" way for me to give an answer. Thanks, Fraggle.

no problem. My town doesn't have that large of a problem. I know it can be very frustrating. Hope it gets better for you soon