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About a year ago, a couple moved into a rental house directly behind my property. Over that year they have been mildly annoying, constantly leaving their back door open (back door is about 10 feet from my yard) and talking in loud voices or shouting at one another - as well as the guy who rents the other side of the house - in order to be heard. On a rare occasion fights will break out, but are usually finished within half an hour or so. The guy also runs a junk pile business, going out in the early morning and collecting huge pieces of metal and other stuff in his truck. Several times a week, and usually on an early Saturday morning, he's out there pounding on the metal and making all sorts of noise in an otherwise quiet neighbourhood. My dog is not a barker, but the one time my niece had him in my yard so he could play in a wading pool, the neighbour yelled at her from inside his house to "shut the f up". I guess he's allowed to make as much noise as he wants when pounding metal with a sledgehammer, but no one else can make a peep lest he be disturbed.
My main problem, however, aside from the rather invasive noise levels, is the boundaries these people are crossing. At first it was a few small piles of junk that they were depositing behind a small metal shed on the property...the shed is within about a foot of my yard, and inevitably the junk winds up spilling onto my property since there is no actual fence at that spot - only half of my backyard is fenced between the properties. I wind up tossing or shoving everything back onto their side, and so far it has generally remained there, once I've moved it back. But then last summer they (or perhaps the property owner? I don't know who that is) decided to cut down two trees on their side of the fence, close to the property line. Yes, you guessed it...all of the branches wound up heaped in my yard. So I cut up the larger chunks and then threw everything back over to them again, most of it landing on their shed. And there it still sits.
Then a while ago my tenant, who rents the upper part of my house, told me that the guy was tossing their dogs' crap over my fence and into my yard. When he told me about this I checked the property, but it was hard to tell. I have a dog myself, and while he rarely goes in the yard (I always have him go while we are on walks, then pick up after him and dispose of it before heading home) there can be the odd occasion - maybe once or twice every couple of weeks - when he does use the yard before bed when I let him out. However, I gave the neighbours the benefit of the doubt since I honestly couldn't tell, when I did find a couple of piles of feces, whether it was from my dog or theirs, so just cleaned it up when spotted.
But the other day my tenant again told me that the guy was tossing feces over the fence and onto my property. This time when I went to check, I went into my vegetable garden, which has a small fence around it, and is off limits to my dog. Sure enough, when I began pulling out the old dead vegetable plants, there were several piles of dog poop lying under my kale plants. This was not the result of my dog, who is trained to never enter the garden, and has never used that part of the yard to go to the bathroom.
At this point I want to pick up all of the poop piles and just fire them over at the house. My son suggested I call the police about it, but really do hesitate after hearing another neighbour's nightmare over a similar issue. This couple did call police when their backyard neighbour began harassing them, but the police not only did nothing to help...once their neighbour found out, he began making their lives a living hell. The police wound up being called several times, but nothing could be proven, and the police finally stated it was something that was out of their hands anyway, and they would have to hire a lawyer.
My problem is, I cannot abide these peoples' actions any more. I went out this morning and some of their cut tree branches - that had somehow two days ago re-appeared once again in the middle of my yard - were once again there today...along with more junk spilling into the yard from their property. Because of the nature of the people I'm dealing with, I am afraid that if they are confronted they will not hesitate to start attacking, and more than anything else, I don't want to put my dog at risk. Property I can deal with, but all it would take would be one opportunity for them to hurt my dog - which I would not put past them - and I'd never forgive myself. (Case in point: years ago another neighbour had his dog poisoned when someone tossed some meat laced with arsenic on his property.)
I guess my post is really more for venting at the moment as I'm so frustrated, but I am curious too...if you were in this situation, what would you do?
I wouldn't escalate it by calling the police. Without proof, the police will do nothing, and you're living way too close for comfort if they decide to retaliate. You could set up surveillance equipment to catch video of him tossing poop over the fence, but check your state laws about videoing someone without permission first.
I wouldn't have let it get this bad in the first place. I'm a very outgoing neighbor and establish relationships with neighbors early on so I can work out differences that might arise. The very first time, junk spilled over into my yard, I would have had a friendly visit about it. The same when the tree branches ended up in your yard. By not addressing these problems early and establishing interaction with the neighbors, you've allowed it to escalate and tied your own hands at the same time.
In your situation, it might be too late. At this point, I'd probably install a 6' high privacy fense with a net at the top on your side to catch the poop when it flies over. Other than that, I'd move.
The first thing you need to do is call the code enforcement department in your area.
I don't know what the codes are where you live, but where I live, buildings must be a minimum of three feet from the property line.
If that shed you speak of is less than three feet from the property, the department will make them tear it down.
As for all the debris in their yard, it might be a health issue, so call the health department in your area.
The next thing I would do is to install a video camera aimed at their property so if you need evidence when you call the police, you will have it.
Bob.
What kind of ham-strung crap liberal whiny democracy we live in when one cannot even videotape a suspected act of vandalism committed against one's own property....amazing.
Since it is a rental and the police won't do anything because there is no evidence that it was those particular neighbors contact the property owner but do it in writing. Give them specific details, times, dates, take photos that are time and date stamped and see what the property owners do.
As far as the noise goes if you have a city ordinance regarding the noise you can call the police when he is being excessively noisy outside of the accepted times according to the city ordinance.
What kind of ham-strung crap liberal whiny democracy we live in when one cannot even videotape a suspected act of vandalism committed against one's own property....amazing.
The laws in my state are terrible for this. A student was arrested for wiretapping laws when he video tapped being bulled at school. Before the happened, I had no idea we weren't allowed to video tape people without their permission.
I would begin by taking photos and or videos of your property, the fencing and such. If you have a wood fence, it is simple to just make the fence higher, with some sort of inexpensive materials, use some 1x3 boards, 5 feet long or what ever length,can also use pipe, metal or those plastic types, make a frame, staple or nail some bisqueen to the frame, heck, if there are enough of those tree branches, secure them to the frame to fill it in. Screw the frame to your fence, using those little half circles, if you use the piping, extending several feet above the top of the fence.
Easy to take down if there is a problem with it, several reasons for putting it up, eye sore next door, the poo in your yard, privacy..
Its really near impossible to make others change. So, I would focus on what you can do, not on what you want him to do.
Block the fence so he cant throw poo or simply put the crap, the branches right back into his yard.
If the guy is a renter, here's what happens. You need to call the police on them at least 3 times before the owner will issue an eviction. I had to do this. You need to find out who owns his property and let them know he is running a business out of it and what else he is doing. If that doesn't work you need to send a letter to the Administrator of you city counsel and let them know he is running a business out of his house and what you've done so far to communicate through the owner and the police. Take the dates of police reports and address and get the reports, take photos of his place or when he's working and also of the stuff he's throwing over the fence as you will more than likely have to have proof and present it at a city counsel meeting.
Second, I have neighbors from hell living behind me. They are OBNOXIOUS, but not anymore. They face the street behind me and I face the other way. They'd argue inside their house so loud I could hear them in my living room. They had two boys and he was constantly yelling at them. They would have parties and play 'burn barrel beer can basketball' and from the sound of the cans hitting the concrete pavement they weren't very good at it. Then to make matters worse, they went and got a puppy. They have this driveway that holds more than one car at the end of it and the entire area between the house and garage is all concrete. They tied the puppy up to the basketball pole between the garage and the house and this poor thing whined and barked and it echoed! I called the police on them twice for this because they would do it and leave and at 11:00 at night this thing was still out there. You have no idea how close I came to going and getting this puppy and taking it to a rescue out of state and claiming it as a stray so they couldn't find it.
I got on a ladder one day and yelled, "ARE YOU PEOPLE CRAZY" when the dog was at the end of it's tether barking. I called the police, the Humane Society and Children's services on them. I no longer hear yelling, I haven't seen her or the boys, but now he's taken to firing up the chain saw every Sunday night at 5 p.m like clockwork....he doesn't have any trees or bushes.
I would finish the fence. Then I would put security camera up,.facing it towards your back yard, if you can capture him throwing the poop....you can do something legal to him....(even if it is fake it may make them think twice) Also, I'd put some noise making security motion detectors, or sense he likes to be tinkering, some motion sensitive water sprinklers....Anything to deter his encroaching over your fence. In your case....I would consider adding height to your back fence.
And, if a man cussed at my niece, I would call the police. They sound like trashy people......I sure wish you the best.
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