Dealing with Neighborhood Children in My Yard/Damaged Property (Seattle: apartment complex, rental)

[Polymorphist]

I'm a single guy living alone in a house I bought just over one year ago. The neighborhood i'm in has TONS of small and younger children, most of them under 13. While the children are nice and for the most part respectful i'm having a problem with them coming into my yard.

What they are doing is using my property as a shortcut. They are kicking planks out of my side fence and then crossing through the hole and into my yard, then kicking planks out the back fence into the courtyard of an apartment complex behind me. They do this because there are a lot of children living in the apartments behind my house and they play out in the courtyard. The fence is now in pretty bad shape and there are small children running around the courtyard with boards from the fence and there are nails sticking out of them. I spent all weekend chasing kids down and telling them to not cut through my yard and rounding up the boards. About six hours ago I heard a ball hit the window out back and I went outside and one of the kids was in my yard trying to retrieve a soccer ball. They didn't break anything but I told them to be more careful and not NOT ENTER MY YARD. Not long after that I caught a young girl sitting on the fence and I had to tell her to get down. She did so, then not minutes later she was right back up there again and I had to go back out. Stuff like this went on and on all freaking weekend.

The apartment managers and parents don't seem to monitor the children very well at all. I'm sure they can see the damage to my fence and they see the kids running through the hole into my yard but they don't seem to try and keep the kids away. As i'm responsible for the fence I now have to have it repaired, but i'm actually afraid that i'll be constantly dealing with this and fixing the sucker. I also end up with tons of trash in my yard from kids throwing stuff over the fence. The lawn guy throws it back into the courtyard of the apartment complex but not long ago the manager came out and started yelling at him. He told her that the trash was coming from that direction so he was just returning it and that she could sue him if she had a problem.

My immediate neighbor came over on Wednesday night and told me he caught several kids in my front yard throwing stones I had recently laid. I have a small front yard, so I dug up the grass and laid stones down for a better look and easier maintenance. Well, these kids were having a blast running through the gravel and throwing it around, so my neighbor came over and told them to knock it off, put all of the stone back in my yard and leave. They all did so except for one kid who evidently told him, "you can't disrespect me like that". Now, my neighbor was an Army officer whom just got out not too long ago so he pulled out is command voice let the kid have it and the little sucker took off running, LOL.

I'm not really sure what to do here. The kids are nice enough for the most part and they seem to like me, the problem is that there are a lot of them and I can't seem to catch them all. It'd also be nice if parents and the apartment managers would help out a bit - or is that too much to ask for? As I said, i'm a single guy and don't have any children of my own so i'm not really liking my new role of playground guardian. I'd like to think that if I left for a week that the kids wouldn't tear my fence and yard apart.

What would some of you do?

[Ruth4Truth]

OP, I had a similar problem for awhile. Kids in the neighborhood would ride their bikes on my street, and for some reason they'd ride onto my front lawn, and ride around on it, as if it were a playground. I've never encountered or heard of behavior like this before--using other people's yards for play, as if private property were meaningless. Is this a Seattle thing? Finally, a contractor I had working on the place chased them away for good.

If kids tear apart your fence and crawl in and out through the spaces created, should they injure themselves, you'll be liable, for maintaining a hazard. I would reinforce the fence with 2x4's going cross-wise. I'd also consult with the police. The kids are trespassing, and they're putting themselves in danger, as well as vandalizing your property. Since parents could sue you if kids get injured on your property (even if they're trespassing), you should consult a lawyer, too, to find out what you should do to avoid liability. This is a nuisance, and a potential legal problem for you.

I also wonder if you might talk to the apt. complex managers, and ask about calling a parents' meeting in the evening, to let the parents know the kids are putting themselves at risk of injury, and are causing you significant expense. Describe some of the activity (crawling through gaps in fence where nails are sticking out, sitting on top of fence where a fall could cause a broker bone) Ask them to prevent their kids from trespassing, or you'll have to call police in order to protect your property and keep the kids safe.

Hard to know if meeting with the parents would do any good.

BTW, a kid who talks back to an adult telling him not to trespass is not "nice enough". How old are these kids?

Consider organizing a Neighborhood Watch group. You have a real asset in that neighbor who's an army officer.

[CrazyDonkey]

It is tricky because apparently they don't hate you, yet...

When I was a kid, way back in the 50s, we had free run of ALL of the neighbors' yards, for playing Kick the Can (we actually played a version called Frying Pan). The thing was, there were generally no fences, and when there were, the gates weren't locked. Finding a kid hiding under your back steps was not all that unusual. We never damaged anything, but simply used the neighborhood as our playground.

Some of it might simply be the neighborhood design. How many blocks would they have to negotiate from your street to the apartment complex, if they weren't cutting (literally) through your yard? In other words, they might just be doing their best to make the neighborhood more kid-friendly (like the neighborhood I grew up in).

Is there a Neighborhood Watch or other community organization? It sounds like yours is not the only yard they're cutting through. Action on a neighborhood-level might be required - maybe send out a notice to all the neighbors, alerting them to the problem, property damage, and concerns that kids could be injured, and asking the neighbors to contribute to solving it. That way, it won't just be you against a horde of kids.

Or you could replace your current fence with a more kid-proof fence (with spikes along the top?)...

[angelenogirl]

Hedges? Like, really tall hedges?

[flyingsaucermom]

Didn't you once consider buying in Issaquah Highlands? Where did you end up buying? Knowing which places have a lot of kids is actually really useful to a lot of people who end up coming here... not that it helps YOU.

This is an ongoing problem in the Highlands. There is a condominium adjacent to mine (and across the street from the school) that is filled with a lot of childless couples and individuals. They have a really hard time with the kids coming and going to school. I have seen a variety of adults yelling at my kids, the neighboring kids.... every kid - except the ones that live there...

Most of it is completely unwarranted: Community dogs peeing on the same small section of grass each and every day is causing more damage to the lawns than the kids. The daily dose of delivery trucks and contractor vehicles (of which affluent communities get a lot of) are doing more damage to curbs than little feet. Deer are more to blame for hurting the vegetation than kids taking the short cuts.

Anyway.. My dad was a property manager and always suggested using natural barriers to thwart reckless behavior (he used ivy to cover walls.. reduced graffiti by 100%). I would buy thuja trees and create a fence with them.

[sean98125]

Add screws to the fence boards - they are a lot harder to kick out with screws than with nails. You can also add cross-boards in an X pattern on the opposite side of the fence like this http://media.merchantcircle.com/1545...%20X_full.jpeg to reinforce it. Even one board across the back would help to secure it.

Get a pit bull and keep it in your back yard.

File a small claims court suit against the property managers of the apartment building for damages that their tenants are causing.

[Garfunkle524]

Did you try yelling at them from your front door without actually exiting your house to do so? It would probably help to wave your cane at them as well.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom

My dad was a property manager and always suggested using natural barriers to thwart reckless behavior (he used ivy to cover walls.. reduced graffiti by 100%). I would buy thuja trees and create a fence with them.

Or plant some Oregon Grape, or other "prickly" plant, along the inside of the current fence. It won't injure intruders, but can definitely scratch them up.

[Hemlock140]

A few calls to the police to report them for trespassing, with pictures might help, but this is typical of being in a house near a school, apartment complex or rental condos. Parents are working, and the kids are not supervised after school. The apartment managers are not going to monitor the kids, nor even pay attention to them as long as the kids are not damaging the apartment property. Most rental agreements have a clause that entitles you to "quiet enjoyment of your rental property" which can protect the other apartment dwellers from this sort of thing, but not you as an owner nearby. Depending on local laws, the police may require that you post "no trespassing" signs prior to responding, as I have seen happen in Bellevue. The signs had to specifically address the RCW code.

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

If kids tear apart your fence and crawl in and out through the spaces created, should they injure themselves, you'll be liable, for maintaining a hazard. I would reinforce the fence with 2x4's going cross-wise. I'd also consult with the police. The kids are trespassing, and they're putting themselves in danger, as well as vandalizing your property. Since parents could sue you if kids get injured on your property (even if they're trespassing), you should consult a lawyer, too, to find out what you should do to avoid liability. This is a nuisance, and a potential legal problem for you.

Consider organizing a Neighborhood Watch group. You have a real asset in that neighbor who's an army officer.

Originally Posted by Sean98125;

File a small claims court suit against the property managers of the apartment building for damages that their tenants are causing.

Some good ideas here, OP.

Reinforce fence

Alert police to the problem, get advice Keep a log of incidents Police are busy, but sometimes the precinct will assign an officer to keep track of the problem If you can get a cop to actually show up and talk to the kids and sound intimidating, that might take care of it

See lawyer about liability issues, and to draft a letter to apt. mgr/owner threatening to go to small claims court if problem isn't remedied. Typically, a letter is enough to get action.

Organize Neighborhood Watch group.