Neighbors

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Sylvia
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:27 pm
Location: Iowa
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Some of this you already know, but here is an update. I need ideas quickly. :x


The rental we bought is on the corner, our home is the next house one way and the problem neighbors are the house the other way. We share two property lines with them. The rental's side yard and our side yard.
Our side yard has an easement that we have maintained and have been using as our driveway as for whatever reason that's the only access that our property has to the back.
Herein lies the problem. The neighbors who live on the ajoining property firstly are the owners of the hounds from hell. Three bassett hounds who bark and howl continually and are now trying to attack us if we are in the rental property yard. I planted shrubs, lots and lots of shrubs so said hounds couldn't see us, but they're small shrubs and not growing as quickly as I'd wish them to. That problem is getting resolved but slowly. We may still install a ten foot privacy fence. We really do not want to see their messy yard, lots of broken down cars, junk in the yard and needing to be painted masonry house.

The main problem is there is a culvert that runs between the properties, along the side of the easement. It's deep. It exists to keep water out of our basement which we added last year. The neighbors from hell's big plan is to take down the privacy fence between the back of their property and the side of the home we live at and park a HEARSE in the yard. To do that they'd have to fill in the drainage ditch that we rely on to keep our home safe. We additionally would have the added fun and luxury of seeing thier mess and having the dogs lunge at us and try to attack us and be able to hear them bark even more as we do spend a lot of time in our yard as I am an avid gardener.

Does anyone have any ideas what we can do? We live in a tiny Iowa town with no rules and no regulations. No zoning or building codes to speak of. The only reason one gets a permit here to build anything is so the tax assessor knows to check on you.

We've spent the last three years making these two properties beautiful and in one spring and summer are very afraid two idiots and three dogs are going to ruin it.

DH said perhaps we should have let the hounds bite us, we could own that property too. The dogs are not nuetered though, so probably are unvaccinated as well. Thanks for reading my rant.

Suggestions?
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Yanita
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Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:16 pm
Location: Eastern N. Carolina

Hi,

The culvert, is it on your land or theirs? Who owns the easement? Did you have permission to get the culvert put in?

Personally, I would not deliberately put myself in the position to get bit by a dog, so I could sue them.

Several years ago my entire family came in contact with a dog that had been exposed to rabies, several thousands of dollars latter, and treatments that lasted for 30 days, way to many needles of immunoglobulin we were done.

I personally do not advocate confrontation with neighbors regardless of who is right and who is wrong. I would build the fence, it gets rid of the site of there nasty yard, might even calm down the dogs.

~Yanita~
The difference between success and failure is who gives up first!
troyster
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: terrace bc

I have neighbors from hell too. non stop barking dog , dirty yard, loud , cursing crack heads. I wish you luck. once they are there they have more rights then we do.
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kashton
Posts: 223
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:03 pm

Usually, if the city comes by, they will force you neighbors to clean up their yard. Dogs could be reported to animal control, for excessive noise. But then you still have to live beside them, and they will be forever picking at you for reporting them.

Like Troyster's problem with his WONDERFUL neighbors, they seem to have more rights than what they deserve. And myself, I don't know how people could purposely destroy and junk up their homes. Why put money into buying something to let it run down.
Humanity is a parade of fools, and I'm at the front, twirling a baton!
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Sylvia
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:27 pm
Location: Iowa
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The property in question as far as the culvert goes belongs to the city.

The city put new curbs and gutters in on the street the cottage is on and hired a large number of idiots aka engineers to do so. The runoff comes through a pipe and under and out flooding the cottage lawn and then spilling down onto our drive and down into our new basement. The city and the hired idiots couldn't figure out what to do on thier easement (the one we tried unsuccessfully to obtain two years ago) and told us we could handle it if we wished.

There had been a trench between the cottage property and the easement. Our driveway for our "regular" home is the easement. We got a large pipe and had it installed in the trench and had some of the dirt from the basement project backhoed on top of it making it so there was no more trench between the properties.

The city came out and kept digging the trench down further and further until it's probably about three foot deep in places. This trench borders the neighbors property. There is an existing but damaged and ugly privacy fence bordering thier property. They want to take part of that out and put the hearse in thier backyard. We don't have any land that isn't driveway to block the view and for them to do this they will have to fill in the drainage ditch the city put in.

I'll take pictures in a bit and post them. I don't think it's clear what I'm talking about without them.
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Yanita
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Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:16 pm
Location: Eastern N. Carolina

Hi,

Well if the city owns and constructed the drainage ditch it will be illegal for the neighbors to do anything to or with it. At the first sign of them filling it in call the city.

The fence...in our area there are rules on them also, one being that the fence HAS to look as good if not better than the owners side. To let it get in disrepair and unsafe conditions can result in penalties from the city/town ordinances.

Dogs..not my favorite pets, and not something I want to listen to...I would handle it like this, politely warn the neighbors of the excessive barking and threatening animals. If no action is taken send them a certified letter, then report them to animal control. Do this as many times as it takes. The squeaky wheel will eventually get greased.

Now if you do not have any dog ordinances in your area (we do not, we live in the country) this is what I did to one of our rental neighbors across the street. I warned them repeatedly about the dog. Cleaned his messes on my deck, picked up my trash he threw all over the place...once done, I put said dog into my car and drove him to the city pound! It will cost the owners $150.00 to get him back.

Do I care, heck no, will I do it again...in a heart beat. They have there dog back, but it's been about 5 weeks and he has not been back over here!

Have a great day!

~Yanita~
The difference between success and failure is who gives up first!
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Maureen
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Posts: 489
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:35 pm
Location: Sun Valley, Nevada

Hi Sylvia,

We're basically in the same situation, except we just own the one property.

My annoying neighbor lady left her other half soon after I posted that I was sick of getting up at 4:00 am to listen to her play with her dogs! Like I said, I knew she read the forum. She took the female dog, left him with the cats and male dog. The male dog has been a sweet heart since.

We got rid of the crack house tenants last year... no one has moved in since... thank God!

On the other hand, the home just in front of our private cul de sac just sold. At one time the home next to us and that sold were owned by relatives. They shared a parking are. Well, half of that 'parking area' is accessible through my property. Sorry, but those days are gone! Unless they want to contribute to the upkeep of our road.

Their are ways to fight, even in rural areas. Do you have a county commissioner, a land owners association. or a group of folks in your area that are on the same page as you? If you don't, then start one! Start screaming until you get what you want!

I'm a huge dog lover! Big time. Wonderful neighbors to our left, now have all grown kids and grandkids living with them. They now have 7 dogs over there and 10 people. They keep the dogs, kids and everything else under control. That's the 2 of them, their 2 boys, 1 daughter in law and 5 grandkids! They keep things very cool over there.. sort of like me, they rule with an iron fist.

Good fences make good neighbors, and don't even let them tear the fence down!

Maureen 8)
Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
'Plato'
troyster
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: terrace bc

Hi Maureen, just for everyones information, I do not want to come off as a dog hater. There is nothing further from the truth. As a matter of fact I get along with pets better than some people. My concern is more with the owners than the dog. I too get by on short sleep cycles . Dogs need to be trained whether it be spraying them in the face with water when they bark excessively or putting electric dog collars on them that JOLT them when they bark. My neighbor is being vindictive and juvenile by moving her trampoline from the back of her yard to against my front window so I can hear her daughter and friends scream through my window. They put their chairs under my window so they can listen in on my private conversations. They know the tenancy act better than I do and are making sure they can aggravate me as much as possible within their rights. Sometimes I think it would be better to move and hope for better neighbors the second time.
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Yanita
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Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:16 pm
Location: Eastern N. Carolina

Hi Troyster,

I would think that living in a park you would have a certain amount of space on all 4 sides of your home.

In the last park I was in until we bought this home and land our front yard was about 40' from our home to the next. On the back (long side) we had about 6' from the neighbors driveway. The way back (short end we had all kinds of space and the front short end faced the road with still a distance of at least 20'.

I would think park management could prevent these people from being soooo close to your home.

~Yanita~
The difference between success and failure is who gives up first!
wes

we had terrible neighbors on both sides until the law caught up with them. well it wasn't exactly caught up with i'd say more like getting turned in. one neighbor was makin' meth and the other was and addict on parole for writin' prescriptions for oxycontin. the traffic was more than can be imagined and the noise was terrible. fights, loud music it was rediculous. the addict neighbor went back to prison/rehab 3 times for parole violation til she finally had to finish a 4 year sentence and the park owner took her place for back rent. the meth dealer/manufacturer got busted, went to prison for about 6 months then was paroled, came back and teamed up with prescription writer 'cause the park owner took his place for back rent and needed a place to stay. then he got busted for parole violation went back to prison, came back with the addict, got busted again and went to finish his his 5 year sentence.

now all's quiet. we're the only ones on the row the rest of the MH's are uninhabitable derelicts. in fact there's only 3 units that are occupied in this half of the park. now we have peace and quiet except for the other night with 60+ mph winds with marble sized hail and the tornado siren wailing (one window with a pea sized hole from the hail). no tornado but there's never been a tornado in our fair town and only 2 warnings since i came here in 1999.
troyster
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: terrace bc

Unfortunately Yanita, the homes are only about 15 feet apart and each owner has their side. Ya I know 1 side only and the back & front is kinda silly. If I want to move her trampoline (which she put there just to tee me off) to work on my home, then I have to ask the crack smokin welfare case if I can finish working on my home. If she says no then I would have to ask the owner of the park. back in the old western days they would have been shot and fed to vultures.
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Jim from Canada
Posts: 551
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:39 am

Sounds like the effin idiots we have next door. Disability Hillbilly's, we call them. Can't work at a job but can spend 10 hours a day with a grinder on his junk heap he calls a vehicle. Then uses the rest of the day to think up ways to annoy us. Has his back yard lit up like a city block now right outside my bedroom window and the slacker landowner won't do a thing. I am not in the land owners good books as I took him to the tribunal and won. Then organized a bunch of neighbours together to fight an illegal water surcharge. Got a legal service provider on retainer and all. Will be giving him a call in the morning.

Jim
troyster
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: terrace bc

Sounds like the winners next too me Jim except this lazy bum can't hold a crack pipe and a grinder at the same time. just for fun I moved the trampoline out 6 feet then moved it back again to see if she noticed. She was instantly at my door asking me if I moved the trampoline and I said I had to move it to get on my ladder and do measurements. She told me I was trespassing and had to ask her for permission to enter her property and how would I like it if she did that on my property. I pay taxes so she and her boyfriend can collect a welfare cheque and no one asks me permission to contribute to keep her fed and a roof over her head. Its frustrating to have a low life scum bag crack head come to my door and give me crap when me and my wife work hard to fill their pockets so they can lay around and cause chaos for the rest of us. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr -hey thats funny Jim my neighbours put all their outside lights on to annoy us too. We just draw the blinds and pretend its a night light.
Last edited by troyster on Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
troyster
Posts: 166
Joined: Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: terrace bc

Well it's official - their done like dinner. Word is out neighbors have been given eviction notice. seems they went 7 months without paying rent before her mommy paid it and then they got behind again so they were served their papers. O Happy Day!
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JD
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You should host a block party to happen while they are loading their stuff into the truck, or station wagon or whatever they use.

Ahh yes, the sinister side. Gotta love it all!

JD
☯JD♫
Today is PERFECT!

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