I had a similar neighbor that argued over a property line. One day a big wind storm came and knocked down two trees that were over 50 feet tall that was on his property onto my land. The morning I was standing on the disputed property (that was mine by survey) to see what needed done for cleanup and to check the damage. Neighbor comes storming out asking again why I was on his property. I calmly asked what we were going to do to get his cleaned up together to get his trees off of my property. I was actually willing to work with him to help clean it up. His response was "I'll f-ing get to it when I want to and to get off "his" property." I said ok, walked inside to get my wallet and jumped in my suv and left. 1 1/2 hours later I returned with my cousin, two chain saws, the biggest damn wood chipper I could rent, a case of beer in a cooler , and a couple of subway subs. Me and my cousin spent the next few hours cutting the tress off exactly where they crossed the property . Then backed the wood chipper up towards my neighbors house and ran every damn piece off wood through it back onto his property. He returned from golfing when we were about 50% complete and there was two wood pile of chips about that size a VW bug on his property. He came running up and screamed what are you doing. I stopped, opened a beer and said, well returning your property to your side of the property line. Best beer I ever had.
As a boy, our next-door Bill, had a basement garage where he parked his Cadillacs. When we bought our lot, my father planted bushes along the property line which grew up, of course. At the same time, Cadillacs were getting longer and longer. This was the 50s, when Cadillacs were long enough to need navigational lights. Bill finally found it necessary to cut down some of our bushes because he kept running his long Cadillac into them, and then had his driveway repaved to encroach about two feet onto our property to improve his turning circle. My father, while we knew Bill was on vacation, hired a man to erect a two-block high concrete block wall (about 20 inches?) on top of Bill’s driveway pavement just a couple of inches on our side of the property line (denying him the last two feet of the freshly paved area). On his return from vacation, Bill slammed his Cadillac into the wall and over rode the low wall and presented a tow truck driver with a challenge to remove the vehicle. Bill cussed my parents and my mother went out and leaned over the wall and painted it purple and yellow. I do not believe Bill ever spoke to my parents again.
Ah man, I can't believe the builders didn't tell you that they planted rebar bushes. They take a few years to come up, but when they do, they're devastating.
As a child I had a similar situation. When I was 5 years old, my parents bought what became our "homestead" for lack of a better word. It was a 1 acre plot about 6 miles from Oil City, PA. It was about 200 feet wide and however long from the center of the 2 lane highway out front. Standing at the road looking at the house, to the left was an area that was essentially a closed down strip mine. The closest neighbor was a family that lived in a 30 or 35 X 8 foot mobile home (actual trailer) that apparently had no bathing facilities or dish washing area because I never knew of any of them to ever have evidently taken a bath in the past year or so. Dishes were piled half way to the ceiling and there were always 15 or 20 fly paper strips, covered with flies, hanging everywhere. They were not the problem, and were generally pleasant enough people if you were not downwind. The more well off people at the opposite end of the property were less pleasant regardless of wind direction. My parents had the most recent survey when they bought the house (imagine paying $3000 for a 3 BR cement block house on an acre) in 1957. There were 2 or 3 small apple trees about 5 or 6 feet inside our property line, and one day when I was 8 or 10 (it's been a long time obviously) I was climbing one of those trees probably picking apples. The neighbor, a guy about 6'4" or so came out and gave me a ration for being in "HIS" tree. Then he basically threatened my 5'8" father with harm if he didn't get me out of "his tree" & keep me off his property. My dad eventually took me to the house, but looked at the survey and made a decision. A few days later, in the evening, he went up and cut those apple trees down and dragged the wood to our yard to use in BBQ fires. Of course there was a major uproar, but eventually the neighbor realized he had been wrong all along. He never made peace, and a few years later, I understand he won some kind of small lottery and bought another house someplace away from his terrorist neighbors, the Lynchs.
I have a neighbor who was even more of a delight. I came home one day and a fence had been built across my driveway! Seriously--and without saying a word to me or giving me any kind of notice that he disputed the easement where the driveway is located. When I contacted him, he said he did this on the advice of his attorney. I called his attorney and it became clear very quickly that he had never had to do serious title work but assured me that his conclusion in relying upon the intent of the developer in the 1970's was infallible. They must have made a lovely couple. (I wish I had a recording of the conversation where they decided that fencing over the driveway without notice to anyone was a good idea.) I called my title insurance company and emailed them pictures of what the neighbor had done along with the claims of his attorney. It took a couple of days for the title insurance attorney to let the hounds loose, but the fence is gone, my neighbor is poorer than he was since he also had to pay to remove the fence and restore the driveway to its previous condition, and he has apologized and now tries to be as friendly as possible. I suspect he also has a different attorney.
I've been blessed with nice neighbors so far. There was one "Bill" who lived next to me in a duplex apartment, who liked to warm up his very loud Dodge Power Wagon early every morning by revving to redline over and over again. So I borrowed some microphones and a recorder from the radio station, and recorded him doing that. Then we put the stereo speakers up against a shared wall early one morning and played back the tape. Dude came running his door, which is when we discovered he liked to sleep in the nude. A couple more times and he got the hint.
I have a better worse neighbor story. I used to live next to an 85 yr old lady , and mowed her lawn , moved her snow, and took care of her garden for her. She died , and her kids sold me the house , they gave me a great deal because they knew I helped Cleone out a lot ... I rented the house to various people that did not have lawn mowers , and I knew there was a tree root in the yard that you could hit and disable your mower. So I always told my renters that I would mow the lawn for them. But I got disabled , and had to sell the house , it takes years to get approved for disability. The new owners used it as a rental house also. One day a guy came over to mow the lawn , and I was mowing mine. I told him I could mow the section under the ,(Ironically) , lilac bushes, cause I knew where the stump was. He nodded OK, but the gal who was renting the house called the cops and I got arrested for trespassing for mowing her yard....
I have a neighbor who has a really nicely manicured lawn. I'm talking Pebble Beach golf course quality. Shortly after I moved in I noticed they were utilizing my yard to access the back of their yard. I asked them about it and they told me they had an agreement with the previous owners to do this so they could keep their yard looking nice. Told them to show me the document. They couldn't. Told them to stop using my property. They didn't. Told their landscaper I would have him arrested for trespassing. Slowed it down, but didn't stop it. Planted a row of bushes. Now it's stopped and they don't talk to me anymore. No loss.
8:22 “so, anyways, I keep going about my life, I keep mowing my lawn. BILL keeps mowing my lawn.” 😂 I busted out laughing 😂 and I don’t laugh out loud at Steve’s videos…says a lot.
I had a neighbor who tried to claim part of my property also. I had the property surveyed and put up a fence. He filed a complaint but, when they came out to investigate, my wife showed the survey report and the stake. The neighbor was so angry he tried to dump trash over the fence, but I had installed cameras. It cost him $500 for dumping.
Boy could I relate to this one. The guy had no problem coming onto my property, or the guys property on the other side, but heaven forbid you so much as stepped on his. He tore out a driveway going to his "barn", so he could plant grass, and then would drive up the neighbor's driveway, and through the neighbor's yard to get to it. Complete flipping idiot. Mowed his yard constantly. But as kind of a funny side note, I noticed his wife, equally as crazy I believe, standing in their backyard holding a yellow legal pad one day while yelling at him a list of things to do. I figure his life wasn't very happy. Makes me smile when I think about that. I was thinking about moving when he moved in, and his stupidity sealed it. Now have a wonderful, peaceful home with great neighbors that I love dearly. Enjoyed the rant!!
Had a neighbor at my previous home who was just like Bill. I could write a book about the stuff he did. We finally moved and my neighbors now are just the best; I love living here. After a while we heard stories about the woman we bought this place from. Turns out she was the female version of Bill and all our neighbors were overjoyed when she left. Funny world we live in.
I had a good Neighboor, then a bad one moved in. Really changes the feel of the place. New house, I went and talked to the neighbor before I even looked at the house. It matters that much.
Who knows, but those "spikes" might have been property line markers. You never know. As for property lines, when my sister and brother in law built their house near Lake Tahoe, the neighbor protested that something was on "his" property. This prompted my brother-in-law to get the place surveyed, and what do you know, the actual property line was 5 feet in the other direction from the fence (or marker, whatever). If he had kept his mouth shut, it might have turned out better. Live and learn.
Mr. Lehto, your restraint with the annoying neighbor is admirable. I have perhaps one of the quickest neighbor problems resolutions ever. In Ann Arbor i once lived next to a popular bar near the stadium; still in a neighborhood. One night about 10p a asphalt company shows up to resurface the bar parking lot. I noticed the noise right away. I went out and told them you can"t do that at this hour they said we're gonna do it. I said I'm calling the cops......they said call em.........so I did i called the A2 police and a female officer answered and I told her that there was an asphalt paving company at the bar next door etc etc. She said there are special permits for allowing work past the designated hours that do allow for such activity.She the looked to see if this company had one.......nope they did not have one......She sent out an officer........the officer showed up about 10 min later and the asphalt company packed up and left! Interestingly the bar owners were and are friends and i ner saw that asphalt company again. Another issue was patrons blocking my drive way, That was resolved by my calling tha bar and telling them I had already called the cops (I hadn't ) and they were on the way to tow the car. Amazing how quickly it was moved
Great story, Steve! I have a nutty neighbor too, perhaps a bit less so than "Bill" though. He approached me one day last spring with photos of pollen on his car which he claimed came from a tree on my property. I told him that I would have a very stern talk with that tree. Some people have nothing better to do I guess.
I love it when you rant. Thats what these "social media" websites/technologies are all about. You don't need credentials to make a channel and controls on what you say are minimal. The audience is all watching you voluntarily, they don't like it, simple, they don't have to watch. I appreciate you taking the time to share some wisdom with a professional(attorney) bias. I doubt you're making these in an effort to make every whiner happy, so rant on sir! Thanks much.
The people that dislike your rants can frig off. I love the stories! You have done a great job with your youtube channel, just keep following your instincts and doing it as you see fit. If someone else knows how to youtube better, I can find and watch the masterpieces they produce. FUk yeah Lehto! Another great youtube movie!
I can get legal advice at many places on the internet, but to get a STORY told with enthusiasm and visuals, well, that is a treat. Examining and explaining the law can be a very dry and uninteresting topic to listen to, but if it is properly salted with personal experience, inciteful opinion and qualified legal knowledge, THEN you have something worth watching. Keep it up.
You know, I'm pretty sure at one time one of my grandparents hooked a concealed fog horn up to a laser sensor that ran their property line. EVERY time the annoying neighbour intruded to mow their lawn or be a dolt they went home with the legendary "SOILED PANTS" item. To make sure the neighbour didn't get used to it the grand parent that set it up was a programmer and coded a thing to turn it on and off randomly, so the neighbour would never know when it was actually on until it went off.
Great story. I have lived in the house I am currently in about 16 years ago. After the crash in 2008 their were a few houses in the neighborhood that were repossessed. This is a suburban neighborhood with fair size but not huge lots. One neighbor that was not there long before the house was repossessed had 13 dogs. I love dogs, but 13 in a back yard barking made all the neighbors happy. The people who bought the house from the bank ended up doing a lot of work to it; yes the all 13 went in out of the house. The patio door would be left open and it was like a big dog house. Then there was the house beside me which changed hands about 3 times in 5 years. My house and their house have a backyard pool. One of the "families" that lived the had the most foul mouths. They also had 3 pit bulls which they assured me were nice dogs. We would be out by the pool and they would be in their pool with the mom and dad arguing very loudly and dropping the F bomb every other word. Then they would be yelling at the kids and it seemed like every other word was the F bomb. I about danced a Irish jig when they moved away. Now I have nice normal neighbors in that house and lets just say I appreciate it. :)
I was at friend's house for a BBQ. The neighbor behind their six foot tall fence was sitting on his shed's roof staring into his yard. They said the guy gets drunk and yells at my friend's wife while he's at work. I took his entire family to the gun range and taught them all about gun safety and how to operate a firearm. Friend bought his wife her own gun. Funny, we don't see the drunk neighbor sitting on the shed anymore. Someone once said- Good fencing makes good neighbors; Even better... An armed society is a polite society.
The guy you sold it to did exactly what I would have done. After the first encounter I would have immediately put a fence up and told Bill to hire a surveyor and prove me wrong in court.
I didn't even make that connection till just now... Now this image keeps playing in my head like you see in videos of people repeatedly tugging on a stump with a non-capable vehicle and failing, except with a perfectly capable truck sitting in the garage in the background...
This is like Deja Vue to me. The next door neighbor planted arborvitae 15 years ago 10-15 feet onto my property when it was owned by the previous owner. He let them grow, so they were 20' tall when I bought the property. So, being in an HOA, I asked the HOA whether arborvitae were considered "trees" (which required a permit to cut down) or "shrubs" (no permit required). The HOA said "shrubs", but told the neighbor that I was going to cut down the 30 arborvitae. He claimed that they were his, because he planted them. I produced the property survey, showing them on my property. I cut them down. The neighbor began to berate my wife and I every time we were outside and wrote numerous complaints to the HOA and township about anything he could think of (all of which were dismissed by the HOA and township). So, being the turn-the-other-cheek guy I am, I put 20 pink flamingos into my yard, all looking into his yard, the day he decided to have a huge party. He installed 30 12-14' tall arborvitae on his side of the property line in the Spring, in clear violation of the township zoning law. When I called the zoning officer, he said he spoke to the neighbor and the neighbor stated that there was a "verbal agreement" between the him and the previous owner (who was dead, so no way to verify this agreement) to have the tall arborvitae, so that was ok even though it was against zoning. I told the zoning officer that it wasn't ok, because I wasn't the previous owner, and the zoning code says that any fence, including a vegetative fence, has to be kept under 6' tall, and zoning rules have to be enforced as written. The zoning officer's response? I should spend $475 to appeal the zoning officer's decision to permit the arborvitae with the zoning hearing board. He even said that he was sure he (the zoning hearing officer) would probably "lose". I haven't gone there yet. Why? Because this neighbor is a neat freak. He goes out and picks up every stray leaf in his yard. His 12' arborvitae are dying from the bottom up. It must be driving him crazy, watching these shrubs die.
I live downtown near a university and have a “shared” driveway with an older, gay hippie with OCD. Not a dandelion shall survive his yard. We each have our own width of drive which do not overlap. God forbid any of my friends park on his side whilst dropping off anything-he will bang an out door right away. So we respect his side. He tried telling me that I must put my one car far up the driveway to park because if my other car were close to the crosswalk and it was icy-it could be a problem as he might slide and crash into my car. I thought yeah-but that would be YOUR problem cuz you’d have to fix my car...but I politely said I was ok with the cars being where they were I didn’t really want to pull the other one way up there...so ever since then he now parks directly parallel to my car rather than where he used to park even tho it is Less convenient to himself! LOL. Somedays I park very close to the dividing line which would be fine if he parked where he used to and somedays he calls the city to complain about my porch items or...branches ...or whatever he finds. Meanwhile I just blow all the dandelion seeds I can find onto his grass...
I had a similar problem but it was for 6 inches. Our shared fence line was 6 inches into her yard and had been like this over 30 years with our previous neighbor. She screamed and called the cops wanting her 6 inches of dirt. Finally we got sick of fighting with her and we put up a new privacy fence 6 inches in on our property so now between her fence and ours she has a nice 12 inch row of weeds to look at
Reminds me of one of my customers that had a similar problem. His solution was brilliant and brutal. My customer built a privacy fence 5 feet away from his property line and then proceeded to so stack planks of wood and other unsightly items (all legal) on the other side of the fence but still on his own property. The neighbor complained greatly but to no avail. The neighbor's yard always looked like a dump and could do nothing except build another fence but was way too cheap to even do that!
I have Satan the doughboy living next door. Beside us was an old lot with an old cottage on it that was sold. He proceeded to have the old buildings demolished, and begin building his house. His worst offence was, he landscaped his yard to such a degree he had well over 60 tons of dirt that had to be removed. He asked us if we wanted any of it and we said no. Not once. Not twice. But three times. I returned home one day, to find his landscapers had removed a fence on our property and had begun dumping this dirt, which included massive boulders and building debris in our landscaped yard. They were going to half bury a shed we had full of garden tools, car tires and bikes and, level our terraced yard severely raising our back property line a meter over our two back neighbours's yards. I caught them after returning home from work, and asked what they were doing in my yard. They insisted we had an agreement to accept the dirt. I assured them we did not, and but they kept insisting we did. I told them to leave our yard and I would speak to the neighbour who gave them their orders. At this point they immediately went into his house and signed a "witness statement" saying I had agreed to accept the dirt. The next day, we got a bill from the neighbour for 1800 USD for the dirt. A bill we promptly rejected along with the dirt. We had to get a lawyer and sue the guy to get him to pay to have the dirt removed from our yard. He showed up to the settlement hearing demanding we pay a portion of removing the overgrowth from his yard, having his property line marked, installing a 2 meter tall beech hedge down 45 meters of the shared boundary and the installation of a concrete retaining wall inside his yard 20 cm from the property line that holds up our backyard because he removed the hillside (a wall he built without required building permits and permission from us and the local council), and waving this "witness statement" and the dirt bill amounting to a total bill of 22 000 USD. He paid to have the dirt removed by our contractor.
@@TheWestlandgirl In so much as we have 5 legal contracts drawn up by his, ours and the mediation lawyer he signed. But, he keeps trying to change them or ignores aspects of them outright. So we're constantly having to check him. He pulls these stunts with everyone. The contractor that built his house is in court with him because he honestly believed their contract said they'd pay him 750 USD per day they were "late" finishing his house build. He helped prolong this time by going around the house and finding "errors" such as upside down bricks, a speck of paint on his eaves troughs, an invisible speck in his window that "warped the light" to his dislike etc. Even our HOA was involved in the threat of a court case as he was refusing to pay fees. The guy's a peach.
Thanks Steve. You had a Kevin we had a Karen. We bought 25 acres of very steep ground 1 in 3 paddock and bush. I found someone had been mowing inside our fence line - steep enough for tractors to slide on wet grass, thus possible public liability. Discover that the person in an acre that used to be part of our property on the other side of a dirt road dating back 160 years has decided she owns it and is laying claim. I show her the titles - not listening. Turns out to be Crown land and we all need a license to use it. So we made sure she contributed her share of the several thousand dollars to gravel it. She even tried to prevent our contractors accessing our land - delighted she has moved to a coven on the other side of the state.😆
I got a neighbor who has a great dog that I really like; gorgeous German Shepherd. When she first moved in, she went on a vacation for like 10 days and asked me to dog sit the dog and I did. This formed a bond between the dog and myself (and I’m already somewhat of a dog whisperer). So the dog comes by my apartment whenever she’s off leash, which was pretty much all the time. I have no problem with that but I did have a problem with all of the pooping the dog did that its owner did not clean up. I mentioned it to her once or twice in passing that I was picking up a lot of it, and I thought she should try doing that sometime herself, but it led to nothing but angry stares. So I decided to just tolerate it; my dog poops outside on the property which I feel responsible to pick up and I do and then there was a third dog from another neighbor that comes by and poops on our property sometimes as well and I pick that up too. But when the weather is nice, I like to leave my front door open so that my dog can wander in and out at his leisure and I can get fresh air into my place. So the German Shepherd will come up my stairs and wander into my apartment whenever she’s free, and my door is open; no problem for me, but apparently a BIG problem for my neighbor. She seems to be of the opinion that it’s my responsibility to keep her dog out of my apartment; she doesn’t know why I feel entitled to her things. So I explain to her that I don’t have to close my door in order to satisfy one of her unfounded needs and that I was not going to actively discourage her dog from interacting with me. Her latest tactic is to get a restraining order (civil harassment, I suppose) against me; and she has told me she’s planning to do this - to which I said, go ahead. She’s not gonna listen to me when I tell her how silly her thought process is but hopefully a judge or some official in the court system will wake her up to how clueless she is.
Who are these people who are complaining about your “long” videos and “rants”?!? Is it Bill again? Tell that dude sit and spin! The long videos and rants are great! Keep it up! 👍
I have had weird neighbors, but no bad neighbors. But my friend bought a house, and I noticed that there were all these very green patches of grass in the front and back yards. No one had lived at the place for awhile, and it turned out that the people who had dogs in the fourplex next door had been enjoying the luxury of not having to walk their dogs, and just let them out to go doody in my friends yard. This tradition continued after my friend moved in. Another occupant of this fourplex was fond of parking his truck on my friends property in the alley. Some people! The dog owners at the fourplex denied it was their dogs going doody in my friends yard, even though I saw the dogs being let back into the apartments. A call to the city about an abandoned truck in the alley took care of that. The owner of the fourplex kindly agreed to split the cost of the 6' cedar fence, installed in a few days by my friend and I. As I was putting in the lower part of the fence out front a woman walked by and said something like "oh great, another fence!" I smiled at her and said "No trespassing."
check this out....years ago I lived in an apartment complex and someone kept stealing the firewood we stacked on the porch beside the front door. one day my stepdad had had enough and brings one of the longs in and uses a spade bit to bore a hole in the end of the log, and put a 12g shotgun shell in there and covered it with wood putty and saw dust. A few nights later we hear it go off , the next day we see a big hole in the side of the fireplace wall of the maintenance man's apartment. We never had wood come up missing again.
Sounds like my neighbor when I was a kid. He was retired and had a lot of time on his hands. Got the mailman in trouble, got me in trouble, he even picked arguments with his own daughters about how to live their lives and they were grown. His real name was Bill!
My neighbor is the same way. We share a driveway apron and he’s constantly blocking it. Leaves/dumps dog waste, other garbage from his yard, installed a landscape motif between the two driveways on my side etc. I’ve been patient with him but now is the time to get a lawyer involved.
I have to say that this is my favorite video of yours that I have watched. I absolutely love the fact that there were spikes in the yard that were hit by an asshole when your yard was mowed.
I would have just installed a fence too. For what it’s worth, I’m the director of our HOA and I have to deal with these kinds of disputes. We have had issues where the official survey supplied with the home had errors. Usually the actual coordinates are correct, the the supplied dimensions are wrong. In one such case, the plat of survey had the house in the wrong location. The distance listed from back of the house to the property line was incorrect. A fence company didn’t have a GPS device or property surveying tools and simply measured that distance. They placed the fence onto a neighbors house creating a dispute. Two plats with potentially overlapping property lines. We eventually found that what had happened was that a generic plat was created for the homes and modified as each new house was built. Every house in the development was supposed to be in the same location on the plot and all the plots are one of 4 types and sizes/shapes. This particular house was a corner lot and for some reason they needed to push the house about 4 feet closer to the street. The plat was never updated and this was off by 4’. As i said, the actually coordinates were right, but most fence companies around here lack the equipment to check that. My own suggestion is that you may want to see if the fence company has such a device or can rent one before installing. In our case I had to force the neighbor to tear down their fence, move it, and repair the damage done to the neighbors lawn. Steve im amazes you didn’t do anything legally with the guy. A restraining order or maybe have a survey done to mark the official property lines. Something.
Matthew Poes I commented a similar statement then deleted because of those ‘camo green spikes’ that he emphasized in his statement ...which gave me pause and think I’m in the mood for fish...😎
I have had great times with crazy neighbors. It's so easy to annoy the beejesus out of people like that. Here are a couple of examples from 30 years of home ownership: 1. Had neighbors who got into a dispute with each other over a fence. In the exact opposite of your story, there was a 5 foot strip of land that both neighbors refused to take care that adjoined my lot. I nicely asked both to take care of it and neither did. It got so overgrown rats, snakes and other critters were using it as a walkway - straight into my yard. So I proceeded to spray RoundUp on the entire strip and the entire time I "accidentally" sprayed each neighbor's lawn (and used the entire large bottle). So afterwards there was that there was now a 5 foot dead strip running between their houses but "tentacles" of dead grass going up to 15 feet in each neighbors yard all the way down their yards. The strip was taken care of after that. 2. Had a neighbor who continually blocked a shared driveway to both of our houses. After politely asking him a few times not to (illegally) block the shared driveway and being ignored, I had his car towed about 5 hours before the local NFL team's biggest rivalry game - a game that he had tickets to. He missed the biggest game of the year because his car was missing. Didn't block the driveway after that. 3. Had a neighbor who liked to cut through my yard and woods all the time while walking their dog (and leaving deposits). Again I asked nicely for them not to do so but they ignored me. So I planted poison sumac, which I am not allergic to, all along the path. I saw them a few days later with bandages along their legs staying far away from my house. Break out the calamine lotion!
I had moved into my first home and within a week, the neighbor came over to me and started complaining about my hedges. My entire property was surrounded by 6 to 8' privacy hedges and I really liked it because my boys were young and I was a single father. So he is complaining about how they are two high and the previous owner didn't trim them and how he can't grow grass (I went over and it was like a 2' by 8' area where there was no grass) and he wanted me to cut them down. I told him no because I wanted the privacy and it kept the boys on my yard and balls and toys out of his yard. This went on for like 3 years. One day, I was vacationing in Hawaii with my girlfriend (had just gotten engaged the night before) and my mom calls me in a panic because she had stopped at my house and someone was chopping down my hedges. Turns out this dick had hired someone to cut them down. My mom starts taking pictures and the man threatens my mom. I told her to call the cops who came over and spoke to me on the phone and told him to beat it. The owner had the balls to come over after I got home to complain to me and I told him to piss off and don't touch my hedges. He then threatens to sue me because his daughter is an attorney and the city ordinance says they can only be 6'. I told him to go ahead and never spoke to him again. I truly did my best to keep the hedges trimmed but he didn't like them because his little porch was about 6' from the property like and he didn't get any sun because of them. Tough.
Your rants are an art form. Dispensing justice one green spike at a time.
I had a similar neighbor that argued over a property line. One day a big wind storm came and knocked down two trees that were over 50 feet tall that was on his property onto my land.
The morning I was standing on the disputed property (that was mine by survey) to see what needed done for cleanup and to check the damage. Neighbor comes storming out asking again why I was on his property. I calmly asked what we were going to do to get his cleaned up together to get his trees off of my property. I was actually willing to work with him to help clean it up.
His response was "I'll f-ing get to it when I want to and to get off "his" property."
I said ok, walked inside to get my wallet and jumped in my suv and left. 1 1/2 hours later I returned with my cousin, two chain saws, the biggest damn wood chipper I could rent, a case of beer in a cooler , and a couple of subway subs.
Me and my cousin spent the next few hours cutting the tress off exactly where they crossed the property . Then backed the wood chipper up towards my neighbors house and ran every damn piece off wood through it back onto his property.
He returned from golfing when we were about 50% complete and there was two wood pile of chips about that size a VW bug on his property. He came running up and screamed what are you doing. I stopped, opened a beer and said, well returning your property to your side of the property line. Best beer I ever had.
Steve you are a great story teller.
Agreed
Great story. I listen while I'm on the road, and your pizza oven story sent me here. I'm glad it did.
Same here
Sounds like another alias for bill is charley from episode F13023. 11:11
Same here! Great story Steve! 🤣🤣🤣
As a boy, our next-door Bill, had a basement garage where he parked his Cadillacs. When we bought our lot, my father planted bushes along the property line which grew up, of course. At the same time, Cadillacs were getting longer and longer. This was the 50s, when Cadillacs were long enough to need navigational lights. Bill finally found it necessary to cut down some of our bushes because he kept running his long Cadillac into them, and then had his driveway repaved to encroach about two feet onto our property to improve his turning circle. My father, while we knew Bill was on vacation, hired a man to erect a two-block high concrete block wall (about 20 inches?) on top of Bill’s driveway pavement just a couple of inches on our side of the property line (denying him the last two feet of the freshly paved area). On his return from vacation, Bill slammed his Cadillac into the wall and over rode the low wall and presented a tow truck driver with a challenge to remove the vehicle. Bill cussed my parents and my mother went out and leaned over the wall and painted it purple and yellow. I do not believe Bill ever spoke to my parents again.
Ah man, I can't believe the builders didn't tell you that they planted rebar bushes. They take a few years to come up, but when they do, they're devastating.
This has me howling with laughter. LOL
As a child I had a similar situation. When I was 5 years old, my parents bought what became our "homestead" for lack of a better word. It was a 1 acre plot about 6 miles from Oil City, PA. It was about 200 feet wide and however long from the center of the 2 lane highway out front. Standing at the road looking at the house, to the left was an area that was essentially a closed down strip mine. The closest neighbor was a family that lived in a 30 or 35 X 8 foot mobile home (actual trailer) that apparently had no bathing facilities or dish washing area because I never knew of any of them to ever have evidently taken a bath in the past year or so. Dishes were piled half way to the ceiling and there were always 15 or 20 fly paper strips, covered with flies, hanging everywhere.
They were not the problem, and were generally pleasant enough people if you were not downwind. The more well off people at the opposite end of the property were less pleasant regardless of wind direction. My parents had the most recent survey when they bought the house (imagine paying $3000 for a 3 BR cement block house on an acre) in 1957. There were 2 or 3 small apple trees about 5 or 6 feet inside our property line, and one day when I was 8 or 10 (it's been a long time obviously) I was climbing one of those trees probably picking apples. The neighbor, a guy about 6'4" or so came out and gave me a ration for being in "HIS" tree. Then he basically threatened my 5'8" father with harm if he didn't get me out of "his tree" & keep me off his property. My dad eventually took me to the house, but looked at the survey and made a decision. A few days later, in the evening, he went up and cut those apple trees down and dragged the wood to our yard to use in BBQ fires. Of course there was a major uproar, but eventually the neighbor realized he had been wrong all along. He never made peace, and a few years later, I understand he won some kind of small lottery and bought another house someplace away from his terrorist neighbors, the Lynchs.
I have a neighbor who was even more of a delight. I came home one day and a fence had been built across my driveway! Seriously--and without saying a word to me or giving me any kind of notice that he disputed the easement where the driveway is located. When I contacted him, he said he did this on the advice of his attorney. I called his attorney and it became clear very quickly that he had never had to do serious title work but assured me that his conclusion in relying upon the intent of the developer in the 1970's was infallible. They must have made a lovely couple. (I wish I had a recording of the conversation where they decided that fencing over the driveway without notice to anyone was a good idea.) I called my title insurance company and emailed them pictures of what the neighbor had done along with the claims of his attorney. It took a couple of days for the title insurance attorney to let the hounds loose, but the fence is gone, my neighbor is poorer than he was since he also had to pay to remove the fence and restore the driveway to its previous condition, and he has apologized and now tries to be as friendly as possible. I suspect he also has a different attorney.
The attorney and the neighbor were both idiots.
What's wrong with people?
I've been blessed with nice neighbors so far. There was one "Bill" who lived next to me in a duplex apartment, who liked to warm up his very loud Dodge Power Wagon early every morning by revving to redline over and over again. So I borrowed some microphones and a recorder from the radio station, and recorded him doing that. Then we put the stereo speakers up against a shared wall early one morning and played back the tape. Dude came running his door, which is when we discovered he liked to sleep in the nude. A couple more times and he got the hint.
Imagine Bill's demeanor if you put in a pizza oven!
I came here afterwards too :)
People say Steve. Put in a pizza oven.
😂
LOL😂
I have a better worse neighbor story. I used to live next to an 85 yr old lady , and mowed her lawn , moved her snow, and took care of her garden for her. She died , and her kids sold me the house , they gave me a great deal because they knew I helped Cleone out a lot ... I rented the house to various people that did not have lawn mowers , and I knew there was a tree root in the yard that you could hit and disable your mower. So I always told my renters that I would mow the lawn for them. But I got disabled , and had to sell the house , it takes years to get approved for disability. The new owners used it as a rental house also. One day a guy came over to mow the lawn , and I was mowing mine. I told him I could mow the section under the ,(Ironically) , lilac bushes, cause I knew where the stump was. He nodded OK, but the gal who was renting the house called the cops and I got arrested for trespassing for mowing her yard....
This was awesome! I was rolling when he said “ same green as 4 color army camo green” awesome
I have a neighbor who has a really nicely manicured lawn. I'm talking Pebble Beach golf course quality. Shortly after I moved in I noticed they were utilizing my yard to access the back of their yard. I asked them about it and they told me they had an agreement with the previous owners to do this so they could keep their yard looking nice. Told them to show me the document. They couldn't. Told them to stop using my property. They didn't. Told their landscaper I would have him arrested for trespassing. Slowed it down, but didn't stop it. Planted a row of bushes. Now it's stopped and they don't talk to me anymore. No loss.
Sir, these rantings and ravings are my favorite videos!
Steve your channel rant as much as you like. 👍
8:22 “so, anyways, I keep going about my life, I keep mowing my lawn. BILL keeps mowing my lawn.” 😂 I busted out laughing 😂 and I don’t laugh out loud at Steve’s videos…says a lot.
I laughed right then too
I had a neighbor who tried to claim part of my property also. I had the property surveyed and put up a fence. He filed a complaint but, when they came out to investigate, my wife showed the survey report and the stake. The neighbor was so angry he tried to dump trash over the fence, but I had installed cameras. It cost him $500 for dumping.
Boy could I relate to this one. The guy had no problem coming onto my property, or the guys property on the other side, but heaven forbid you so much as stepped on his. He tore out a driveway going to his "barn", so he could plant grass, and then would drive up the neighbor's driveway, and through the neighbor's yard to get to it. Complete flipping idiot. Mowed his yard constantly. But as kind of a funny side note, I noticed his wife, equally as crazy I believe, standing in their backyard holding a yellow legal pad one day while yelling at him a list of things to do. I figure his life wasn't very happy. Makes me smile when I think about that. I was thinking about moving when he moved in, and his stupidity sealed it. Now have a wonderful, peaceful home with great neighbors that I love dearly. Enjoyed the rant!!
I LIKE your rant stories!
WTH!! I love it when you rant, forget those people and do you man. It's your channel to do how you want to do it. Love it all around!!
I like your rants!
Yours are some of the best rants on the net! Keep it up! :D
Had a neighbor at my previous home who was just like Bill. I could write a book about the stuff he did. We finally moved and my neighbors now are just the best; I love living here. After a while we heard stories about the woman we bought this place from. Turns out she was the female version of Bill and all our neighbors were overjoyed when she left. Funny world we live in.
I had a good Neighboor, then a bad one moved in. Really changes the feel of the place. New house, I went and talked to the neighbor before I even looked at the house. It matters that much.
Who knows, but those "spikes" might have been property line markers. You never know.
As for property lines, when my sister and brother in law built their house near Lake Tahoe, the neighbor protested that something was on "his" property. This prompted my brother-in-law to get the place surveyed, and what do you know, the actual property line was 5 feet in the other direction from the fence (or marker, whatever). If he had kept his mouth shut, it might have turned out better. Live and learn.
It's amazing how those spikes kept creeping up like that. Ya just never know what you'll find on someone else's property. lol
Mr. Lehto, your restraint with the annoying neighbor is admirable. I have perhaps one of the quickest neighbor problems resolutions ever.
In Ann Arbor i once lived next to a popular bar near the stadium; still in a neighborhood. One night about 10p a asphalt company shows up to resurface the bar parking lot. I noticed the noise right away. I went out and told them you can"t do that at this hour they said we're gonna do it. I said I'm calling the cops......they said call em.........so I did
i called the A2 police and a female officer answered and I told her that there was an asphalt paving company at the bar next door etc etc. She said there are special permits for allowing work past the designated hours that do allow for such activity.She the looked to see if this company had one.......nope they did not have one......She sent out an officer........the officer showed up about 10 min later and the asphalt company packed up and left!
Interestingly the bar owners were and are friends and i ner saw that asphalt company again. Another issue was patrons blocking my drive way, That was resolved by my calling tha bar and telling them I had already called the cops (I hadn't ) and they were on the way to tow the car. Amazing how quickly it was moved
Good fences make good neighbors.
I came here to say this lol
I know this one is older, but this was a great story. I especially love how you told us you placed the spike there without actually saying it.
Great story, Steve! I have a nutty neighbor too, perhaps a bit less so than "Bill" though. He approached me one day last spring with photos of pollen on his car which he claimed came from a tree on my property. I told him that I would have a very stern talk with that tree. Some people have nothing better to do I guess.
The very nerve of that tree!
You tell wonderful, interesting, captivating stories; please never stop, rant away.
I love how he repeatedly mentions the spikes the same color as you would paint an army truck hahahaha real slick Steve.
Nice. I used to live between two houses that had herds of chihuahuas. Nasty little shrill barking things. Hated them. The dogs sucked too.
Lol
I love it when you rant. Thats what these "social media" websites/technologies are all about. You don't need credentials to make a channel and controls on what you say are minimal. The audience is all watching you voluntarily, they don't like it, simple, they don't have to watch. I appreciate you taking the time to share some wisdom with a professional(attorney) bias. I doubt you're making these in an effort to make every whiner happy, so rant on sir! Thanks much.
The people that dislike your rants can frig off. I love the stories! You have done a great job with your youtube channel, just keep following your instincts and doing it as you see fit. If someone else knows how to youtube better, I can find and watch the masterpieces they produce. FUk yeah Lehto! Another great youtube movie!
Some people seem to have a hard time paying the rant. Send them a 'bill'.
I can get legal advice at many places on the internet, but to get a STORY told with enthusiasm and visuals, well, that is a treat. Examining and explaining the law can be a very dry and uninteresting topic to listen to, but if it is properly salted with personal experience, inciteful opinion and qualified legal knowledge, THEN you have something worth watching.
Keep it up.
A "random" spike that was by happenstance painted the same color as your truck 😂😂 classic
Steve's neighbor stories are the BEST. I sent this one to my mom.
Love your stories Steve. Go ahead and rant.
You know, I'm pretty sure at one time one of my grandparents hooked a concealed fog horn up to a laser sensor that ran their property line. EVERY time the annoying neighbour intruded to mow their lawn or be a dolt they went home with the legendary "SOILED PANTS" item. To make sure the neighbour didn't get used to it the grand parent that set it up was a programmer and coded a thing to turn it on and off randomly, so the neighbour would never know when it was actually on until it went off.
How could anyone not like your frozen lasagna rant?! It was great :)
Would’ve built the tallest fence allowed after he scoffed at my survey.
6 feet is usually the tallest legal fence
“I guess someone put those spikes in the ground” - I’m pretty sure I know how those spikes got there.
Watched this episode before, it came up on autoplay and I listened to the whole thing against because it's just so entertaining.
Moral of the story.......don't F*** with a lawyer.
Just their wives, because lawyers are lousy in bed.
Stories are what I really enjoy about youtube.
Great story. I have lived in the house I am currently in about 16 years ago. After the crash in 2008 their were a few houses in the neighborhood that were repossessed. This is a suburban neighborhood with fair size but not huge lots. One neighbor that was not there long before the house was repossessed had 13 dogs. I love dogs, but 13 in a back yard barking made all the neighbors happy. The people who bought the house from the bank ended up doing a lot of work to it; yes the all 13 went in out of the house. The patio door would be left open and it was like a big dog house.
Then there was the house beside me which changed hands about 3 times in 5 years. My house and their house have a backyard pool. One of the "families" that lived the had the most foul mouths. They also had 3 pit bulls which they assured me were nice dogs. We would be out by the pool and they would be in their pool with the mom and dad arguing very loudly and dropping the F bomb every other word. Then they would be yelling at the kids and it seemed like every other word was the F bomb. I about danced a Irish jig when they moved away. Now I have nice normal neighbors in that house and lets just say I appreciate it. :)
I was at friend's house for a BBQ. The neighbor behind their six foot tall fence was sitting on his shed's roof staring into his yard. They said the guy gets drunk and yells at my friend's wife while he's at work. I took his entire family to the gun range and taught them all about gun safety and how to operate a firearm. Friend bought his wife her own gun. Funny, we don't see the drunk neighbor sitting on the shed anymore.
Someone once said-
Good fencing makes good neighbors; Even better... An armed society is a polite society.
OMG...I love your stories!! I'm also learning so much about the law.
The guy you sold it to did exactly what I would have done. After the first encounter I would have immediately put a fence up and told Bill to hire a surveyor and prove me wrong in court.
I've listened to tons of your videos. This is my favorite one so far! So funny!
Owns a deuce and a half...
Pulls a stump out with an Explorer ಠ_ಠ
The M35 would have been overkill. It also would have messed up my lawn.
I didn't even make that connection till just now...
Now this image keeps playing in my head like you see in videos of people repeatedly tugging on a stump with a non-capable vehicle and failing, except with a perfectly capable truck sitting in the garage in the background...
I actually enjoy your stories, keeps me listening
Your stories are fantastic, the ranting is hilarious!
I like the rants. Makes me feel so much more normal. Good mental health boost for me.
Keep the rants coming, Steve! Entertaining as all get out!
Steve, you should rant more often, it is entertaining.
This is like Deja Vue to me. The next door neighbor planted arborvitae 15 years ago 10-15 feet onto my property when it was owned by the previous owner. He let them grow, so they were 20' tall when I bought the property. So, being in an HOA, I asked the HOA whether arborvitae were considered "trees" (which required a permit to cut down) or "shrubs" (no permit required). The HOA said "shrubs", but told the neighbor that I was going to cut down the 30 arborvitae. He claimed that they were his, because he planted them. I produced the property survey, showing them on my property. I cut them down.
The neighbor began to berate my wife and I every time we were outside and wrote numerous complaints to the HOA and township about anything he could think of (all of which were dismissed by the HOA and township). So, being the turn-the-other-cheek guy I am, I put 20 pink flamingos into my yard, all looking into his yard, the day he decided to have a huge party.
He installed 30 12-14' tall arborvitae on his side of the property line in the Spring, in clear violation of the township zoning law. When I called the zoning officer, he said he spoke to the neighbor and the neighbor stated that there was a "verbal agreement" between the him and the previous owner (who was dead, so no way to verify this agreement) to have the tall arborvitae, so that was ok even though it was against zoning. I told the zoning officer that it wasn't ok, because I wasn't the previous owner, and the zoning code says that any fence, including a vegetative fence, has to be kept under 6' tall, and zoning rules have to be enforced as written. The zoning officer's response? I should spend $475 to appeal the zoning officer's decision to permit the arborvitae with the zoning hearing board. He even said that he was sure he (the zoning hearing officer) would probably "lose". I haven't gone there yet. Why? Because this neighbor is a neat freak. He goes out and picks up every stray leaf in his yard. His 12' arborvitae are dying from the bottom up. It must be driving him crazy, watching these shrubs die.
I live downtown near a university and have a “shared” driveway with an older, gay hippie with OCD. Not a dandelion shall survive his yard. We each have our own width of drive which do not overlap. God forbid any of my friends park on his side whilst dropping off anything-he will bang an out door right away. So we respect his side. He tried telling me that I must put my one car far up the driveway to park because if my other car were close to the crosswalk and it was icy-it could be a problem as he might slide and crash into my car. I thought yeah-but that would be YOUR problem cuz you’d have to fix my car...but I politely said I was ok with the cars being where they were I didn’t really want to pull the other one way up there...so ever since then he now parks directly parallel to my car rather than where he used to park even tho it is Less convenient to himself! LOL. Somedays I park very close to the dividing line which would be fine if he parked where he used to and somedays he calls the city to complain about my porch items or...branches ...or whatever he finds. Meanwhile I just blow all the dandelion seeds I can find onto his grass...
Throw some morning glory seeds around his yard.
I had a similar problem but it was for 6 inches. Our shared fence line was 6 inches into her yard and had been like this over 30 years with our previous neighbor. She screamed and called the cops wanting her 6 inches of dirt. Finally we got sick of fighting with her and we put up a new privacy fence 6 inches in on our property so now between her fence and ours she has a nice 12 inch row of weeds to look at
Go back with a 6 pack and tell that story to the new owner. It is so worth it.
Enjoy your stories, rants and info on the law.
Keep em coming!
Steve, ranting is just fine. Your rants are always interesting.
Please Steve don't ever give up your rants. they are very funny and sometimes even educational .
I like that you're covering more diverse legal topics. There's nothing wrong with rants as long as they are logical and reasonable like yours. 👍
I come for the topic and stay for the rant.
It's crazy, if I didn't know any better I would've thought that Steve was putting those spikes in the ground.
Reminds me of one of my customers that had a similar problem. His solution was brilliant and brutal. My customer built a privacy fence 5 feet away from his property line and then proceeded to so stack planks of wood and other unsightly items (all legal) on the other side of the fence but still on his own property. The neighbor complained greatly but to no avail. The neighbor's yard always looked like a dump and could do nothing except build another fence but was way too cheap to even do that!
Rant! Rant! Rant! I love it when you rant. Keep ranting. It's the American Way.
Its the human way.
I have Satan the doughboy living next door. Beside us was an old lot with an old cottage on it that was sold. He proceeded to have the old buildings demolished, and begin building his house. His worst offence was, he landscaped his yard to such a degree he had well over 60 tons of dirt that had to be removed. He asked us if we wanted any of it and we said no. Not once. Not twice. But three times. I returned home one day, to find his landscapers had removed a fence on our property and had begun dumping this dirt, which included massive boulders and building debris in our landscaped yard. They were going to half bury a shed we had full of garden tools, car tires and bikes and, level our terraced yard severely raising our back property line a meter over our two back neighbours's yards. I caught them after returning home from work, and asked what they were doing in my yard. They insisted we had an agreement to accept the dirt. I assured them we did not, and but they kept insisting we did. I told them to leave our yard and I would speak to the neighbour who gave them their orders. At this point they immediately went into his house and signed a "witness statement" saying I had agreed to accept the dirt. The next day, we got a bill from the neighbour for 1800 USD for the dirt. A bill we promptly rejected along with the dirt. We had to get a lawyer and sue the guy to get him to pay to have the dirt removed from our yard. He showed up to the settlement hearing demanding we pay a portion of removing the overgrowth from his yard, having his property line marked, installing a 2 meter tall beech hedge down 45 meters of the shared boundary and the installation of a concrete retaining wall inside his yard 20 cm from the property line that holds up our backyard because he removed the hillside (a wall he built without required building permits and permission from us and the local council), and waving this "witness statement" and the dirt bill amounting to a total bill of 22 000 USD. He paid to have the dirt removed by our contractor.
@@TheWestlandgirl In so much as we have 5 legal contracts drawn up by his, ours and the mediation lawyer he signed. But, he keeps trying to change them or ignores aspects of them outright. So we're constantly having to check him. He pulls these stunts with everyone. The contractor that built his house is in court with him because he honestly believed their contract said they'd pay him 750 USD per day they were "late" finishing his house build. He helped prolong this time by going around the house and finding "errors" such as upside down bricks, a speck of paint on his eaves troughs, an invisible speck in his window that "warped the light" to his dislike etc. Even our HOA was involved in the threat of a court case as he was refusing to pay fees. The guy's a peach.
Oh man you bated us. Now I want to hear the story from the guy who bought your house.
Thanks Steve. You had a Kevin we had a Karen. We bought 25 acres of very steep ground 1 in 3 paddock and bush. I found someone had been mowing inside our fence line - steep enough for tractors to slide on wet grass, thus possible public liability. Discover that the person in an acre that used to be part of our property on the other side of a dirt road dating back 160 years has decided she owns it and is laying claim. I show her the titles - not listening. Turns out to be Crown land and we all need a license to use it. So we made sure she contributed her share of the several thousand dollars to gravel it. She even tried to prevent our contractors accessing our land - delighted she has moved to a coven on the other side of the state.😆
Great story... lol... Rant all you want. I enjoy it!!!
Great rant. That is why I listen.
i enjoy your rants, they are always quite interesting and thought provoking, rant on please, and best from manhattan, nyc !
This is the best story ever
I love these rant stories! Thank you for sharing them!
I got a neighbor who has a great dog that I really like; gorgeous German Shepherd. When she first moved in, she went on a vacation for like 10 days and asked me to dog sit the dog and I did. This formed a bond between the dog and myself (and I’m already somewhat of a dog whisperer). So the dog comes by my apartment whenever she’s off leash, which was pretty much all the time. I have no problem with that but I did have a problem with all of the pooping the dog did that its owner did not clean up. I mentioned it to her once or twice in passing that I was picking up a lot of it, and I thought she should try doing that sometime herself, but it led to nothing but angry stares. So I decided to just tolerate it; my dog poops outside on the property which I feel responsible to pick up and I do and then there was a third dog from another neighbor that comes by and poops on our property sometimes as well and I pick that up too. But when the weather is nice, I like to leave my front door open so that my dog can wander in and out at his leisure and I can get fresh air into my place. So the German Shepherd will come up my stairs and wander into my apartment whenever she’s free, and my door is open; no problem for me, but apparently a BIG problem for my neighbor. She seems to be of the opinion that it’s my responsibility to keep her dog out of my apartment; she doesn’t know why I feel entitled to her things. So I explain to her that I don’t have to close my door in order to satisfy one of her unfounded needs and that I was not going to actively discourage her dog from interacting with me. Her latest tactic is to get a restraining order (civil harassment, I suppose) against me; and she has told me she’s planning to do this - to which I said, go ahead. She’s not gonna listen to me when I tell her how silly her thought process is but hopefully a judge or some official in the court system will wake her up to how clueless she is.
Great story . "Bill" sounds like a neighbor in a bad Lifetime movie .
‘Steve, love your channel, love your videos, but LOVE it when you rant…”
I had 3 of those neighbors, so my contractor thought it was me until he met them.
Who are these people who are complaining about your “long” videos and “rants”?!? Is it Bill again? Tell that dude sit and spin! The long videos and rants are great! Keep it up! 👍
I have had weird neighbors, but no bad neighbors. But my friend bought a house, and I noticed that there were all these very green patches of grass in the front and back yards. No one had lived at the place for awhile, and it turned out that the people who had dogs in the fourplex next door had been enjoying the luxury of not having to walk their dogs, and just let them out to go doody in my friends yard. This tradition continued after my friend moved in. Another occupant of this fourplex was fond of parking his truck on my friends property in the alley. Some people! The dog owners at the fourplex denied it was their dogs going doody in my friends yard, even though I saw the dogs being let back into the apartments. A call to the city about an abandoned truck in the alley took care of that. The owner of the fourplex kindly agreed to split the cost of the 6' cedar fence, installed in a few days by my friend and I. As I was putting in the lower part of the fence out front a woman walked by and said something like "oh great, another fence!" I smiled at her and said "No trespassing."
On the other hand I'll bet that just as many people find your RANTS very entertaining>
I'm guessing there are far more of us who enjoy his rants than those who dont.
check this out....years ago I lived in an apartment complex and someone kept stealing the firewood we stacked on the porch beside the front door. one day my stepdad had had enough and brings one of the longs in and uses a spade bit to bore a hole in the end of the log, and put a 12g shotgun shell in there and covered it with wood putty and saw dust.
A few nights later we hear it go off , the next day we see a big hole in the side of the fireplace wall of the maintenance man's apartment. We never had wood come up missing again.
Sounds like my neighbor when I was a kid. He was retired and had a lot of time on his hands. Got the mailman in trouble, got me in trouble, he even picked arguments with his own daughters about how to live their lives and they were grown. His real name was Bill!
I am here for the rants.
Every neighborhood has a Bill or two. Being an attorney gives you a big advantage in dealing with him.
My neighbor is the same way. We share a driveway apron and he’s constantly blocking it. Leaves/dumps dog waste, other garbage from his yard, installed a landscape motif between the two driveways on my side etc. I’ve been patient with him but now is the time to get a lawyer involved.
I have to say that this is my favorite video of yours that I have watched. I absolutely love the fact that there were spikes in the yard that were hit by an asshole when your yard was mowed.
I would have just installed a fence too.
For what it’s worth, I’m the director of our HOA and I have to deal with these kinds of disputes. We have had issues where the official survey supplied with the home had errors. Usually the actual coordinates are correct, the the supplied dimensions are wrong. In one such case, the plat of survey had the house in the wrong location. The distance listed from back of the house to the property line was incorrect. A fence company didn’t have a GPS device or property surveying tools and simply measured that distance. They placed the fence onto a neighbors house creating a dispute. Two plats with potentially overlapping property lines. We eventually found that what had happened was that a generic plat was created for the homes and modified as each new house was built. Every house in the development was supposed to be in the same location on the plot and all the plots are one of 4 types and sizes/shapes. This particular house was a corner lot and for some reason they needed to push the house about 4 feet closer to the street. The plat was never updated and this was off by 4’. As i said, the actually coordinates were right, but most fence companies around here lack the equipment to check that.
My own suggestion is that you may want to see if the fence company has such a device or can rent one before installing. In our case I had to force the neighbor to tear down their fence, move it, and repair the damage done to the neighbors lawn.
Steve im amazes you didn’t do anything legally with the guy. A restraining order or maybe have a survey done to mark the official property lines. Something.
Matthew Poes I commented a similar statement then deleted because of those ‘camo green spikes’ that he emphasized in his statement ...which gave me pause and think I’m in the mood for fish...😎
I like when you rant- adds to your personality.
I like these rants, and the stories of course. A good neighbor is such a tremendous blessing.
What?! I watch for the rants.
I absolutely love the ending of your story.
Pure genius.
I really enjoyed your strategy and sense of justice.
I love the rants that are based on law!
I have had great times with crazy neighbors. It's so easy to annoy the beejesus out of people like that. Here are a couple of examples from 30 years of home ownership:
1. Had neighbors who got into a dispute with each other over a fence. In the exact opposite of your story, there was a 5 foot strip of land that both neighbors refused to take care that adjoined my lot. I nicely asked both to take care of it and neither did. It got so overgrown rats, snakes and other critters were using it as a walkway - straight into my yard. So I proceeded to spray RoundUp on the entire strip and the entire time I "accidentally" sprayed each neighbor's lawn (and used the entire large bottle). So afterwards there was that there was now a 5 foot dead strip running between their houses but "tentacles" of dead grass going up to 15 feet in each neighbors yard all the way down their yards. The strip was taken care of after that.
2. Had a neighbor who continually blocked a shared driveway to both of our houses. After politely asking him a few times not to (illegally) block the shared driveway and being ignored, I had his car towed about 5 hours before the local NFL team's biggest rivalry game - a game that he had tickets to. He missed the biggest game of the year because his car was missing. Didn't block the driveway after that.
3. Had a neighbor who liked to cut through my yard and woods all the time while walking their dog (and leaving deposits). Again I asked nicely for them not to do so but they ignored me. So I planted poison sumac, which I am not allergic to, all along the path. I saw them a few days later with bandages along their legs staying far away from my house. Break out the calamine lotion!
@@DumbledoreMcCracken From the woods. I just transplanted it.
I had moved into my first home and within a week, the neighbor came over to me and started complaining about my hedges. My entire property was surrounded by 6 to 8' privacy hedges and I really liked it because my boys were young and I was a single father. So he is complaining about how they are two high and the previous owner didn't trim them and how he can't grow grass (I went over and it was like a 2' by 8' area where there was no grass) and he wanted me to cut them down. I told him no because I wanted the privacy and it kept the boys on my yard and balls and toys out of his yard. This went on for like 3 years. One day, I was vacationing in Hawaii with my girlfriend (had just gotten engaged the night before) and my mom calls me in a panic because she had stopped at my house and someone was chopping down my hedges. Turns out this dick had hired someone to cut them down. My mom starts taking pictures and the man threatens my mom. I told her to call the cops who came over and spoke to me on the phone and told him to beat it. The owner had the balls to come over after I got home to complain to me and I told him to piss off and don't touch my hedges. He then threatens to sue me because his daughter is an attorney and the city ordinance says they can only be 6'. I told him to go ahead and never spoke to him again. I truly did my best to keep the hedges trimmed but he didn't like them because his little porch was about 6' from the property like and he didn't get any sun because of them. Tough.
Thoroughly enjoyed this during lunch, thanks for the laughs!