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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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
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....
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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. :)
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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!
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.😆
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! 👍
Heck yeah, had a sucky neighbor for 17 years. Too long of a story. But God has been good to me, once he finally sold his house (and moved around the block, only) a new owner moved in and was wonderful for 2 years. Then that new person sold again, and I was once again blessed with another, even better neighbor. Now everyone on my block is happy together, no kidding. No one liked the one living next to me and I suffered the most because of close proximity. I started an email chain for all of us, a neighborhood watch of sorts...so we would know if another has a need. Many of us have had medical things going on and have dealt with them in silence. Like you, it is so good now...I never want to leave. ☺
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.
Yah know Steve, I had a neighbor like Bill once. You wouldn't of guessed, bug for some reason some green clothes line keep ending up in the grass between our properties. Always on my side of the property line. I have no clue where it kept coming from. Poor Tommy every few weeks it'd get all wrapped up around his mower. Must of been extremely frustrating for him.
Great story Steve, a lot of fun listening to it. I would say you have a lot more patience than I do. I think I would have left the nice bushes alone and had a fence installed the next day. As Robert Frost said "Good fences make good neighbors. "
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 been watching your videos for about a month now and really enjoy them. You are a wonderful storyteller and raconteur and since this is your channel, you can rant until RUclips demonetizes you. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
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 love rants! I really enjoy watching you. You saved me from a traffic ticket. (1) window fully down. (2) dome light on. (3) both hands on the wheel. (4) ask permission to get license, ins. and reg. I'm lucky to live in a nice place (suburb of Cincinnati). He asked, "do you know why I pulled you over?" I said, "Yes (and explained)". He said, "go get you're pizza and be more careful."
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.
Good morning Steve, I want to thank you so much for your video on being stopped by the police. I did exactly as you told me to do I pulled over into a very safe spot so the officer would not be in danger of being hit by another car, I roll down the windows, put my hands in the turn into position on the steering wheel. When he asked for my drivers license, insurance, and registration, I told him what I was going to do and ask permission to reach for my wallet. He then told me that both my insurance card, and car registration were expired. I realize that the renewal registration was on the tag so I probably threw it away, and I changed insurance company so the card that I gave him was from the old insurance company. I treated him with the most respect and, thank you Steve he said OK get this taken care of and be on your way. You are the best my friend!!!!
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.
As a Party Chief for a Land Surveying firm for over 30 years I understand where you're coming from. I've been involved in many property disputes, many that have involved regular "Bills" telling me I'm wrong. I'm surprised you didn't build a fence but I understand you are a nice guy. I smiled through the whole video. Keep up the great work!! Cheers from Canada!
I love your rant videos, they are always interesting stories. If people don't like the rant videos, they are free to stop watching and maybe check out the next video you post. That is quite the balancing act Ben is doing today. Have a great weekend!!
Bill sounds like a complete ass but I can't believe that you didn't just get a boundary survey and install a fence. I had to take similar action with a neighbour when I built a house on a block that had been empty and covered in trees. There was one neighbour who was insistent that he owned a strip of my property 12 feet wide and 100 feet long than the lot diagram and the subsequent survey showed clearly belonged to me. Of course he was wrong but he'd just got so used to thinking of the empty block with its glorious Australian bush views as his (or as he insisted later that it was common land) that he could not change his thinking. He even had the gall to yell at the surveyors that they were doing it wrong. One glorious high fence later, he's been silent for the last 7 years and I smile every time I see him. They weren't wrong when they said that fences make for good neighbours.
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.
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 don't have a "Bill" story...but I do have a "Mary" one...Our housing area does not belong to an HOA, but for about 4 years, we had a woman that lived in the area who decided that she would be the Code Enforcement Nazi for the housing area. Twice a week, she would walk the entire neighborhood, carrying a notebook and camera. She would annotate if there were weeds in the front yards or the alley area, of if there were any discrepancies that she felt were a violation of the city's codes, etc. Then she would compile her list and TWICE a week, send an email to the city with all the found discrepancies with pictures and addresses. Rain or shine almost, you could find her walking the neighborhoods on Tuesdays and Fridays, covering about 4 miles of streets and alleyways each time. When it was brought up at the bi-monthly neighborhood meeting, she would argue that it was her right to do this, and that if all the lazy people who lived in the neighborhood would get off their butts and clean up, she wouldn't have to do it. Complaints were sent to the city, but the city said that there was not much they could do, as she was a private citizen and not an employee. The only reason that it stopped was that Sadly, (and I say that sincerely) she passed away. I don't wish death on anyone, but when she was doing it, maybe a pulled hamstring or two.
I have a neighbor almost like Bill. first time I meet him days after buying my house, he said your property used to go behind my mine but since I mowed for the last 21 years it is now mine. I looked at him made a phone call to my buddy the Realtor asked him the law. he says nope it still yours but ask if Don(Neighbor) filled any paperwork with the county auditor office Don says no I said then stay off my land and stop mowing it! and never claim you own this land again he still mows it then I go right behind him and mow it again. he yells and throws a fit thinking of putting up a fence. neighbors are fun he fights with me about my daughters show cows in my back yard but per the right to farm act he can't stop me through he has tried many times. RTF says 10 acres or $2,500 made off the lands for each year for 3 years.
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!
Back when I worked nights one morning as I got home I had a neighbor who came outside to complain my car was loud. He apparently was trying to sleep and said my car woke him up. Now, telling this story, most people assume I had one of those straight piped or cat deleted exhausts. No. The car was only a few months old (I had bought it brand new) and was completely bone stock. It still is to this day in terms of the exhaust. Now, it is a performance car (Evo X), but it still has the stock exhaust. He said he was going to call the cops. I said go ahead. He said he was tired of me "revving" my car every night and in the morning. I said I don't know what he's talking about, I rarely ever rev my car because that's just a waste of gas, and especially at night when going to work because the engine is cold and that would be hard on the engine. I'd only do that specifically if I was showing someone something and the car was warmed up, not just for the hell of it. He proceeds to rant and rave about how I wake him up every night/morning, how I rev the car, etc. So I look at my phone and see it is now just a few minutes past 9AM. I say hold on, get into the car, and start it back up, asked him if that was loud. He says yes, that's really loud. I say that's not revving the car, that's starting the car. I then push the clutch in, put the car into first, and smashed the gas. Which in my car engages the factory 2-step. That's loud, stupid loud, but perfectly legal. As soon as I stop I say, "That's revving the car, I just wanted you to have some contrast so you know in the future." He then proceeds to rant about the noise ordinance. I then informed him that the noise ordinance ended at 9AM and what I did was perfectly legal and if he wanted to waste a cops time he was free to call them, otherwise he needs to leave me alone or I'd call the police on him for harassment. It was the last time I had a major incident with him about the car. This was just one particular incident that had to do with cars. I had all kinds of issues with him. He constantly complained to my landlord about music that you could barely hear outside being "too loud" to grass that was just mowed the day before being too high, etc. I found out later that he had wanted to get the place I had but didn't have the money in time. This was a late 30s early 40s guy living with his mom and apparently wanted to get the place right beside her. I'm not sure if he was just exacting some sort of revenge or if he was trying to bully me into moving out. It's funny, later I started renting a different house down the block from this. He continued coming over to complain and even started trying to complain to that landlord, mostly making things up when calling him. This is a 100+-year-old house, originally made of log. It's nearly soundproof, so most of his complaints weren't even possible. He made all kinds of crazy complaints, but my landlord was chill and ignored most of them. The yard is huge, nearly half an acre. He lived in a community sort of deal that had the mailboxes at the edge of the property, which was alongside the land that was part of where I lived. Because it was a pain to mow the entire yard, I stopped. He came over to complain one-day last year that the grass was too high near the mailboxes and he had concerns of snakes since we do have copperheads in the area. I told him if he had concerns and he wanted to mow around the mailboxes he was free to do so, but as they were not my mailboxes I was not obligated to clear the area around them. He said it was my land and I *had* to keep the grass mowed. I informed him our town has no such ordinance, part of my land is even wooded. This is a rural area, not a city or suburb. We don't have HOAs or crazy ordinances. He said he would call the landlord. I had such joy in my voice as I informed him I had purchased the property from my landlord and as there was no law forcing me to there was nothing he could do. That was the last time he ever spoke to me, though if we are outside at the same time I get a mix of glares and obvious attempts to avoid looking in my direction.
My sister and her now ex husband lived 1 house away from a guy who had a nice inground pool and a nice fence around it. Apparently, his neighbor didn't like that, arguments ensued. Well, one day we came over to visit, and what this guy had done was to chainsaw the fence down, and pile it on his pool deck. Police, lawyers, etc, became involved. Not sure what the outcome was, but I'm sure he had to pay to get the fence redone.
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 had a similar dispute with a neighbor who was constantly looking to call the borough on everything I did. The biggest dispute was that he thought he can use my driveway any time to access his backyard. Went as far as to saying that I didn’t own my driveway. After I got my property surveyed, and he found out I owned 1/3 of his paved driveway, I never heard a peep out of them again. Luckily they have since moved.
When you mentioned trees you got me really excited. Tree stories are the best law stories. People never realize how much cutting someone else's tree can cost you.
When I was in Ypsilanti on Arcade St. the elderly neighbor would always call the police, saying our cars were abandoned. (Nevermind they had good tags and insurance). Arcade is a short, one way street, our place was about half way up, on the right. Our pickup was parked near the bottom of the street for a couple weeks around Christmas, and almost got towed from one of her reports. She also called the police saying we were running a chop shop out of the garage... we had a friends 76 VW rabbit on a trailer, behind the Dodge pickup. Of course we had the title to both so the police quickly left. Good times...
I have had parking issues in our subdivision recently, new residents (renters) who are parking in fire lanes and blocking access to driveways. I contacted the HOA to get the procedures for towing. But have thought more about it and going to hold off to see if it resolves itself. Your video has given me reassurance that a more cautious approach is the best path for now.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those iron spikes you refer to are property pins (also called property markers or survey stakes). They are iron rods hammered into the ground by the original surveyors of the property; they actually mark the property lines. Of course I'm 16:45 into your video as I type this so maybe this will be the finale to your story - it would make a great ending. :)
Wow! Thanks for sharing your story. have the same neighbor. I'm a older woman, former military. the asshat behind me tried similar bs; but he ratcheted up his complaints by leaving threatening notes on my door. He doesn't anymore. Police told him in no uncertain terms he will be arrested for tresspass and harrassment. Sad but true.
Steve, rant any time you feel the need. I have a 'neighbor' like this (30 years now). I don't know how his kids turned out so nice. Great videos , keep 'em coming. New sub.
Steve you are a great story teller.
Agreed
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.
Your rants are an art form. Dispensing justice one green spike at a time.
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! 🤣🤣🤣
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?
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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!
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!!
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
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....
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!
This was awesome! I was rolling when he said “ same green as 4 color army camo green” awesome
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.
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 tell wonderful, interesting, captivating stories; please never stop, rant away.
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!
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.
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!!
Some people seem to have a hard time paying the rant. Send them a 'bill'.
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.
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.
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. :)
Yours are some of the best rants on the net! Keep it up! :D
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
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😂
Steve your channel rant as much as you like. 👍
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 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
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.
I LIKE your rant stories!
Keep the rants coming, Steve! Entertaining as all get out!
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.
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. 👍
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!
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.😆
Enjoy your stories, rants and info on the law.
Keep em coming!
Steve's neighbor stories are the BEST. I sent this one to my mom.
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! 👍
Heck yeah, had a sucky neighbor for 17 years. Too long of a story. But God has been good to me, once he finally sold his house (and moved around the block, only) a new owner moved in and was wonderful for 2 years. Then that new person sold again, and I was once again blessed with another, even better neighbor. Now everyone on my block is happy together, no kidding. No one liked the one living next to me and I suffered the most because of close proximity. I started an email chain for all of us, a neighborhood watch of sorts...so we would know if another has a need. Many of us have had medical things going on and have dealt with them in silence.
Like you, it is so good now...I never want to leave. ☺
I absolutely love the ending of your story.
Pure genius.
I really enjoyed your strategy and sense of justice.
Under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, you have the right to rant.
Moral of the story.......don't F*** with a lawyer.
Just their wives, because lawyers are lousy in bed.
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
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.
Yah know Steve, I had a neighbor like Bill once.
You wouldn't of guessed, bug for some reason some green clothes line keep ending up in the grass between our properties. Always on my side of the property line.
I have no clue where it kept coming from. Poor Tommy every few weeks it'd get all wrapped up around his mower. Must of been extremely frustrating for him.
Great story Steve, a lot of fun listening to it. I would say you have a lot more patience than I do. I think I would have left the nice bushes alone and had a fence installed the next day. As Robert Frost said "Good fences make good neighbors. "
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...😎
Watched this episode before, it came up on autoplay and I listened to the whole thing against because it's just so entertaining.
I have been watching your videos for about a month now and really enjoy them. You are a wonderful storyteller and raconteur and since this is your channel, you can rant until RUclips demonetizes you. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
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.
Oh man you bated us. Now I want to hear the story from the guy who bought your house.
I love rants! I really enjoy watching you. You saved me from a traffic ticket. (1) window fully down. (2) dome light on. (3) both hands on the wheel. (4) ask permission to get license, ins. and reg. I'm lucky to live in a nice place (suburb of Cincinnati). He asked, "do you know why I pulled you over?" I said, "Yes (and explained)". He said, "go get you're pizza and be more careful."
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.
I've listened to tons of your videos. This is my favorite one so far! So funny!
How could anyone not like your frozen lasagna rant?! It was great :)
OMG...I love your stories!! I'm also learning so much about the law.
Good morning Steve, I want to thank you so much for your video on being stopped by the police. I did exactly as you told me to do I pulled over into a very safe spot so the officer would not be in danger of being hit by another car, I roll down the windows, put my hands in the turn into position on the steering wheel.
When he asked for my drivers license, insurance, and registration, I told him what I was going to do and ask permission to reach for my wallet.
He then told me that both my insurance card, and car registration were expired.
I realize that the renewal registration was on the tag so I probably threw it away, and I changed insurance company so the card that I gave him was from the old insurance company. I treated him with the most respect and, thank you Steve he said OK get this taken care of and be on your way. You are the best my friend!!!!
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.
As a Party Chief for a Land Surveying firm for over 30 years I understand where you're coming from. I've been involved in many property disputes, many that have involved regular "Bills" telling me I'm wrong. I'm surprised you didn't build a fence but I understand you are a nice guy. I smiled through the whole video. Keep up the great work!! Cheers from Canada!
Steve, ranting is just fine. Your rants are always interesting.
I actually enjoy your stories, keeps me listening
I love your rant videos, they are always interesting stories. If people don't like the rant videos, they are free to stop watching and maybe check out the next video you post. That is quite the balancing act Ben is doing today. Have a great weekend!!
Ha, ha! @@dalewalker4614
I love these rant stories! Thank you for sharing them!
Bill sounds like a complete ass but I can't believe that you didn't just get a boundary survey and install a fence. I had to take similar action with a neighbour when I built a house on a block that had been empty and covered in trees. There was one neighbour who was insistent that he owned a strip of my property 12 feet wide and 100 feet long than the lot diagram and the subsequent survey showed clearly belonged to me. Of course he was wrong but he'd just got so used to thinking of the empty block with its glorious Australian bush views as his (or as he insisted later that it was common land) that he could not change his thinking. He even had the gall to yell at the surveyors that they were doing it wrong. One glorious high fence later, he's been silent for the last 7 years and I smile every time I see him. They weren't wrong when they said that fences make for good neighbours.
Your stories are fantastic, the ranting is hilarious!
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 like the rants. Makes me feel so much more normal. Good mental health boost for me.
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 like these rants, and the stories of course. A good neighbor is such a tremendous blessing.
i enjoy your rants, they are always quite interesting and thought provoking, rant on please, and best from manhattan, nyc !
I don't have a "Bill" story...but I do have a "Mary" one...Our housing area does not belong to an HOA, but for about 4 years, we had a woman that lived in the area who decided that she would be the Code Enforcement Nazi for the housing area. Twice a week, she would walk the entire neighborhood, carrying a notebook and camera. She would annotate if there were weeds in the front yards or the alley area, of if there were any discrepancies that she felt were a violation of the city's codes, etc. Then she would compile her list and TWICE a week, send an email to the city with all the found discrepancies with pictures and addresses.
Rain or shine almost, you could find her walking the neighborhoods on Tuesdays and Fridays, covering about 4 miles of streets and alleyways each time. When it was brought up at the bi-monthly neighborhood meeting, she would argue that it was her right to do this, and that if all the lazy people who lived in the neighborhood would get off their butts and clean up, she wouldn't have to do it. Complaints were sent to the city, but the city said that there was not much they could do, as she was a private citizen and not an employee.
The only reason that it stopped was that Sadly, (and I say that sincerely) she passed away. I don't wish death on anyone, but when she was doing it, maybe a pulled hamstring or two.
I have a neighbor almost like Bill. first time I meet him days after buying my house, he said your property used to go behind my mine but since I mowed for the last 21 years it is now mine. I looked at him made a phone call to my buddy the Realtor asked him the law. he says nope it still yours but ask if Don(Neighbor) filled any paperwork with the county auditor office Don says no I said then stay off my land and stop mowing it! and never claim you own this land again he still mows it then I go right behind him and mow it again. he yells and throws a fit thinking of putting up a fence. neighbors are fun he fights with me about my daughters show cows in my back yard but per the right to farm act he can't stop me through he has tried many times. RTF says 10 acres or $2,500 made off the lands for each year for 3 years.
‘Steve, love your channel, love your videos, but LOVE it when you rant…”
I love how he repeatedly mentions the spikes the same color as you would paint an army truck hahahaha real slick Steve.
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.
Stories are what I really enjoy about youtube.
Back when I worked nights one morning as I got home I had a neighbor who came outside to complain my car was loud. He apparently was trying to sleep and said my car woke him up. Now, telling this story, most people assume I had one of those straight piped or cat deleted exhausts. No. The car was only a few months old (I had bought it brand new) and was completely bone stock. It still is to this day in terms of the exhaust. Now, it is a performance car (Evo X), but it still has the stock exhaust. He said he was going to call the cops. I said go ahead. He said he was tired of me "revving" my car every night and in the morning. I said I don't know what he's talking about, I rarely ever rev my car because that's just a waste of gas, and especially at night when going to work because the engine is cold and that would be hard on the engine. I'd only do that specifically if I was showing someone something and the car was warmed up, not just for the hell of it. He proceeds to rant and rave about how I wake him up every night/morning, how I rev the car, etc. So I look at my phone and see it is now just a few minutes past 9AM. I say hold on, get into the car, and start it back up, asked him if that was loud. He says yes, that's really loud. I say that's not revving the car, that's starting the car. I then push the clutch in, put the car into first, and smashed the gas. Which in my car engages the factory 2-step. That's loud, stupid loud, but perfectly legal. As soon as I stop I say, "That's revving the car, I just wanted you to have some contrast so you know in the future." He then proceeds to rant about the noise ordinance. I then informed him that the noise ordinance ended at 9AM and what I did was perfectly legal and if he wanted to waste a cops time he was free to call them, otherwise he needs to leave me alone or I'd call the police on him for harassment. It was the last time I had a major incident with him about the car.
This was just one particular incident that had to do with cars. I had all kinds of issues with him. He constantly complained to my landlord about music that you could barely hear outside being "too loud" to grass that was just mowed the day before being too high, etc. I found out later that he had wanted to get the place I had but didn't have the money in time. This was a late 30s early 40s guy living with his mom and apparently wanted to get the place right beside her. I'm not sure if he was just exacting some sort of revenge or if he was trying to bully me into moving out.
It's funny, later I started renting a different house down the block from this. He continued coming over to complain and even started trying to complain to that landlord, mostly making things up when calling him. This is a 100+-year-old house, originally made of log. It's nearly soundproof, so most of his complaints weren't even possible. He made all kinds of crazy complaints, but my landlord was chill and ignored most of them. The yard is huge, nearly half an acre. He lived in a community sort of deal that had the mailboxes at the edge of the property, which was alongside the land that was part of where I lived. Because it was a pain to mow the entire yard, I stopped. He came over to complain one-day last year that the grass was too high near the mailboxes and he had concerns of snakes since we do have copperheads in the area. I told him if he had concerns and he wanted to mow around the mailboxes he was free to do so, but as they were not my mailboxes I was not obligated to clear the area around them. He said it was my land and I *had* to keep the grass mowed. I informed him our town has no such ordinance, part of my land is even wooded. This is a rural area, not a city or suburb. We don't have HOAs or crazy ordinances. He said he would call the landlord. I had such joy in my voice as I informed him I had purchased the property from my landlord and as there was no law forcing me to there was nothing he could do. That was the last time he ever spoke to me, though if we are outside at the same time I get a mix of glares and obvious attempts to avoid looking in my direction.
My sister and her now ex husband lived 1 house away from a guy who had a nice inground pool and a nice fence around it. Apparently, his neighbor didn't like that, arguments ensued. Well, one day we came over to visit, and what this guy had done was to chainsaw the fence down, and pile it on his pool deck. Police, lawyers, etc, became involved. Not sure what the outcome was, but I'm sure he had to pay to get the fence redone.
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...
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 like your rants!
I had a similar dispute with a neighbor who was constantly looking to call the borough on everything I did. The biggest dispute was that he thought he can use my driveway any time to access his backyard. Went as far as to saying that I didn’t own my driveway. After I got my property surveyed, and he found out I owned 1/3 of his paved driveway, I never heard a peep out of them again. Luckily they have since moved.
When you mentioned trees you got me really excited. Tree stories are the best law stories. People never realize how much cutting someone else's tree can cost you.
Rant away!
It's your page, after all.
This is one of my absolute favorites of your videos!
Steve I love your channel exactly as it is and I'm glad you won't change for anyone. Those who complain DO NOT speak for all of us. Your a class act!
“I guess someone put those spikes in the ground” - I’m pretty sure I know how those spikes got there.
When I was in Ypsilanti on Arcade St. the elderly neighbor would always call the police, saying our cars were abandoned. (Nevermind they had good tags and insurance). Arcade is a short, one way street, our place was about half way up, on the right. Our pickup was parked near the bottom of the street for a couple weeks around Christmas, and almost got towed from one of her reports. She also called the police saying we were running a chop shop out of the garage... we had a friends 76 VW rabbit on a trailer, behind the Dodge pickup. Of course we had the title to both so the police quickly left. Good times...
Every neighborhood has a Bill or two. Being an attorney gives you a big advantage in dealing with him.
I have had parking issues in our subdivision recently, new residents (renters) who are parking in fire lanes and blocking access to driveways. I contacted the HOA to get the procedures for towing. But have thought more about it and going to hold off to see if it resolves itself. Your video has given me reassurance that a more cautious approach is the best path for now.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe those iron spikes you refer to are property pins (also called property markers or survey stakes). They are iron rods hammered into the ground by the original surveyors of the property; they actually mark the property lines. Of course I'm 16:45 into your video as I type this so maybe this will be the finale to your story - it would make a great ending. :)
Wow! Thanks for sharing your story. have the same neighbor. I'm a older woman, former military. the asshat behind me tried similar bs; but he ratcheted up his complaints by leaving threatening notes on my door. He doesn't anymore. Police told him in no uncertain terms he will be arrested for tresspass and harrassment. Sad but true.
Steve, rant any time you feel the need. I have a 'neighbor' like this (30 years now). I don't know how his kids turned out so nice.
Great videos , keep 'em coming. New sub.