Something similar happened to us. We purchased the last lot in an already established subdivision. It is also the largest lot. Our neighbors had the opportunity to buy it, but they didn't want to pay building lot price, so the seller wouldn't sell to them. They have been a miserable PITA ever since - 4 years. They constantly throw stuff over the property line, they and their landscapers have cut our trees, they break subdivision rules and regs however it suits them, etc. It hasn't gotten any better. They are notorious in town, her especially. We just keep hoping they will decide that this town isn't uppity enough for them and they'll move.

Honestly, I don't think you can rationize with crazy, selfish people. The only thing you can do is ignore them. I wouldn't try to work with them. If they want a buffer they can plant one on their side.

When our neighbors moved in, they put in a standard septic system in that didn't work because of the high water table, and they put in a trailer that obviously didn't meet the flood elevation requirements. We tried to get the septic issue fixed (it stunk!) but the health department blamed the code office, who put the blame back on the health department. Neither department was willing to take a stand.

I called the cops on them a couple of years later - they were having a huge fight in their yard, and at one point when I glanced out the window I thought that the husband had punched his wife. There was no attempt at cordiality between us after that - for a while I was afraid that they might try to burn our house down or do something to our dogs in retaliation.

Katrina took care of them for us - their trailer washed off the cinderblocks and ended up in the next lot. The family moved away. We heard rumors of guns and ammunition in the trailer - DH took a look and found a case of antihistimine. They either had a meth lab or were supplying one.

Oh, my. This is like a bad soap opera--unbelievable! And I thought we're gonna be hated when we tear the existing house down to build a new one.

Well, we will. And I already know one source of trouble brewing. This is just pathetic.

Sorry you all had these problems but now I don't feel as if I'm the only one - thanks. Zoe, yes the dreaded survey! We had one done and it showed one of these neighbors had installed a temporary fence (10 years) through our place. He told me he knew he had done it because he had trees in the way on HIS property. He said he'd remove it and he did.

Now we have two issues, at least to go through with him. Last week he planted English Laurel right on the porperty line. This stuff gets big and we'll have to keep shearing it when it grows into and over his fence. It also appears that he built a storage shed on our side of the property line also. If it's only a few inches I'll let it go; that won't make any difference because we'll put the fence back 1/2 foot or so. But if it's over the line more than that I foresee fireworks. We will contact our attorney to see if "adverse possession" applies in this case. We usually would have been willing to be ameniable to compromise with these issues. But with the way he's been he's used up our bank of good will. So keep tuned and thanks again. Tom

Tom, you might want to check in with your local authorities. Out here, an outbuilding such as a shed has to be 5' from the property line.Our neighbors outbuilding on a slab is 2-1/2" in from being 5'. He was paranoid we were going to make him move it when we started our build.Our electrician built a shed too close too the neighbors. The neighbors had no problem with it, but the county caught it and made him move it off the property line 5'.

Someone awhile back on a previous post relating to this subject cautioned us about adverse possesion as the same neighbors have "stuff" laying on our property.Hard to imagine them folks using that one on us, but you never know these days.

Ther problem. Not yours.

I don't know where people get the idea they have the right to scream and yell about something that is none of their business! We haven't faced this issue, but everytime I worry about upsetting the builder or the designer or anyone else, my husband always says the same thing, "This is OUR house." Well, this is YOUR property. You paid for it and you must do with it what you think is best to make a lovely place for you and your family to live. PERIOD.
Just smile and then go ahead with your plans. They will get over it.

Gotta love neighborly love.
We've live in our neighborhood just under 6 years. It's a very established neighborhood that was built in the 40's. Our original intent was to remodel our modest ranch home that's on just under 2 acres. Long story short after much review, investigation, etc. we decided to tear down and rebuild. Our neighbors across from us have never been overly friendly and we assumed they'd have some sort of complaint with our build. I guess a few weeks ago they came over to complain to our contractor that our new two story (original was low ranch) blocks their view of a ridge. I can understand that they've lived in the neighborhood for 30+ years and a number of houses have recently undergone major renovations and or teardowns but... To say that we blocked their view of the ridge is a joke. Their house sits way back on their lot and has a ton of old growth trees in front of it, you can barely see their house from the street. Not to mention the fact that only a year ago we had to take down 3 of about 8 large pine trees at the back of our property. The only area we (or they) could see the ridge is in the gaps where the old pines used to be.
I guess some people just don't like change and will look for anything to complain about.

Oh, Tom. I will assume you bought your land, and it wasn't something you inherited, right? Right. So it was land for sale publicly. They could have bought it and they at some point made a conscious decision not to. They now have no room to complain. Good luck and keep us posted!

Amy

My friend tore down and rebuilt on a flag lot...basically, the neighbor in front didn't want ANY construction, and kept going to the town hall meetings to voice trivial objections to the plans. Unfortunately, here, if neighbors have objections, they have to be worked out, or the plans get denied. After one and a half YEARS, the neighbor finally gave up and stopped going to the meetings, and the plans passed. Sigh. I'm hoping for kinder neighbors.

I don't know where people get the idea they have the right to scream and yell about something that is none of their business! We haven't faced this issue, but everytime I worry about upsetting the builder or the designer or anyone else, my husband always says the same thing, "This is OUR house." Well, this is YOUR property. You paid for it and you must do with it what you think is best to make a lovely place for you and your family to live. PERIOD.
Just smile and then go ahead with your plans. They will get over it.

Amy, the land was part of an estate sale and was on the market over 1 1/2 years. In fact the deceased owner had offered to sell it to the loudest of my complaining neighbors but he didn't buy it. Missed his chance! Tom

Interesting thread!

We're closing on our house next Thursday. We bought 3 acres which is surrounded by already built on property (except for the 3 acres directly behind us).

Just this week we layed out the guest parking so that the grader could build it. We oriented it so that it looks across the neighbors horse pasture at a beutiful view of the mountains. I know that he would have every right to put landscaping between us and the mountains. I'm planning on approaching him to let him know that if he ever decided to do something to please include me in the process. I don't think that's out of place, I think its being a "nieghbor". Now, if he says go to hell I'm putting up a bunch of Leyland Cypress.........then I have to keep my mouth shut, but I think making a one time request is not out of line.

Another issue we have is the 3 acres behind us. It is possible that it sells to somone that puts a house, again, between us and the mountains. I think its unlikely though, as we would be looking down right on them and they have other options that would give them more space. However, I'm going to try to buy it if I can get the funds together (which is going to be next to impossible after putting everything into this new house).

My neighbor said something to me when we started the build. I told him we were going to enjoy borrowing the view across his pasture. His response, "please enjoy it, it is not mine, only borrowed". I think he's going to make a great neighbor, and I will reciprocate with as much respect as I can offer.

It is unfortunate to hear some of these stories. Seems the art of communication is passing.

tragusa, I think the art of communication is alive and well. My neighbors have gotten their views across to me clearly. When it comes to the Creator my land is borrowed; when it comes to my neighbor it's mine. If you were a new neighbor who approached me to ask to be included in the process of landscaping on my property I'd consider you to be a potential PITA. But that's just me. Tom

Oh, how I can relate!
The man we bought our land from had divided up his land into 6 acre sections. His relatives live on the end section. He lives on the first section and he sold four 6 acre lots between them. We are on a very small private road.
We built our house 2 1/2 years ago.

This man seems nice but his family is just plain rude. The land we bought had been on the market for a year. His family could have bought it from him. Instead they try to make life difficult for us.

The son-in- law flat out tells us he does not know why the man ever sold to us or our 3 other "outsider neighbors". They use the road as their driveway and literally block us in. My mother left our house the other day and family who was visiting the old man stood in the middle of the road and would not let her pass until they were good and ready and made her wait 15 minutes.

They drive their golf carts on our land and when I politely tell them it is private property, they state it is their Granddaddy's land -not ours.

I found out that the man had a dispute with his family several years ago and decided to sell the land instead of giving it to them. Since then the family has made up and we suffer because of it.

What happened to the commandments of love thy neighbor, and the one about not coveting your neighbors stuff, etc.

"When it comes to my nieghbor it is mine", makes my point. As a society, we have become selfish and expect to get screwed by each other.

I'm not saying that anyone has the right to ask you to do things with your property or vice versa. But I do feel we could acknowledge that we don't live in a bubble. We do have neighbors, and they do have an interest in what's going on around them.

I bet that most often there are simple solutions. In my case, there is one spot that he could put something that would hurt my view. He may not even be aware that it would do that. Should I not say anything for fear of being a PITA?

What's yours is legally yours. I just don't feel like presenting it that way to my neighbor (unless forced too). The people I will live my life next to. Being a neighbor is a relationship that takes work just like any other.

Anyway, I didn't mean any of my comments to you or anyone specifically. I was making generalizations. Being a neighbor is a sensative subject for me, as I had a horrible experience at our last house.

Am I living in LaLa land?

Since we currently live on 1/6 of an acre, I know all too well about issues w/ neighbors. Who was it who said "Better neighbors fences make"? I hope our luck is better when we move to SC (literally, the next hill over from tragusa3), but with 7 acres, we should be able to 'hide' from our neighbors if they are problematic. We bought unzoned land, so we're going to have to take the good with the bad, but so will our neighbors. I plan to fence at least a portion of it, since people in the area seem to believe that their somewhat dangerous-looking dogs should be allowed to roam free. I've already met a couple of the neighbors, and they seem OK. I intend to be friendly and helpful w/ them up until the point that they give me a reason not to be.

Bottom line is ITS YOUR PROPERTY! When they pay YOUR taxes and your building bills, they can tell you what to do.
do what you have to do to get your house built. Stop asking for their approval
They will get over it. If they want privacy more privacy then your providing, they can do it on their property.As far as the trees, why do they think the trees that have been there when they enjoyed it as a "park" will all of a sudden fall on their property?
People love to tell new neighbors what to do.
been there and it is JMO
good luck
cindy

Tragusa,
Your comment about enjoying the neighbors views reminded me of something that happened a few months ago.
We have a subdivision behind us and a builder was building a house on a lousy lot. The house is poorly built and has no redeeming features. One day I was driving through the neighborhood and picked up a real estate flyer for the house. The only picture on the flyer was a photo of our house and our pasture. I was so shocked as our house had nothing to do with this house.

The header was Enjoy the View.

This photo was also the only photo on the MLS. I called the agent and asked why our house was on the cover of his flyer. He commented that since the builder's house had nothing redeeming about it he decided that the view was the only way to sell it. I told him to remove the photo as it looked as if our house was the one for sale.

goat man

given that your neighbors are so "friendly", just make sure that you follow any rules established by your county for clearing and grading. Does you county require a site or grading plan? And take plenty of pictures to document what your lot looked like when you started clearing.

This happened to my neignbor when he built his house. Some of our neighbors called the county when he started clearing his lot. He failed to get his grading permit - so the county shut down his project. The they made him get that plan - plus a re-forestation plan. Then he had to plant over 400 trees to compensate for the trees he cut down. Cost him a bundle.

I learned from his mistake - knowing what I was dealing with. Got my site plan first , and put the house where I wanted it (in the middle of the lot, back off the road). A lot of trees had to come out - but that was OK'd by the county.

I would not plant leyland cypresses if you live in the mid atlantic region since there is an incurable disease that is killing them. I recently lost 11 leylands that were over 35 feet tall. I would not plant a thing for them - only plant what you want and where you want it.

Sorry to hear about your neighors. Best of luck.

tragusa, You and I just have very different points of view on this issue.

sniff dog, We have the county and state forestry clearing and grading permits. Also the application for the permit, a 3'x3' yellow sign was posted at the land for a month before the permit was granted. The neighbors had that time to file comments with the county and no one did. If the leyland cypress make the one neighbor happy it's an inexpensive fix. My GC will supply and put in 8 footers for $30 each. We only need 5 and they should be an effective fill in within a few years.

lsst, was the realtor going to have the open house at your place too?

Tom

Tom,
He probably would have tried or at least would have given them a tour of the view! LOL.
The Home Disaster forum here has interesting stories similar to yours.

Here is a link that might be useful: Home Disasters

I can relate. We purchased a lot that the neighbor used for his own private play area for his kid, his picnics with family, extra parking for guests, etc. He never thought the land would be bought and a house built because it's a weird shaped lot. Well, we bought it. From day one when the man went to clear the land, this neighbor has been screaming and complaining. The gentleman clearing the lot called me because what the neighbor saying made him uncomfortable and he thought I should know what I moving next to.

The neighbor complained to just about everyone who has been there to do work. When we had the pilings put down we made sure we had insurance just in csse any vibration damaged his property. The contractor who did the pilings brought out a meter to register the vibration and there was none near his home. Two years later (we're building real slow!) the wife appoached my DH and says "can you give me the name of the people who put your pilings in because we think we have damage from that." She pointed to the crack on the side of her house. My husband told her that the crack was from her house sinking and he'd give her the name of the contractor, but after 2 years she had no case.

A few weeks passed and she approached my husband again, but this time to apologize. She said "We found out the crack was from the house sinking". They obviously don't have any pilings under the porch in the front and it's sinking and pulling away from the rest of the house.

There's a lot more to say about this guy, but I'll stop here.

My plan for him in the future is if he harrasses or bothers anyone who works on my house I'm going to have my attorney write him a letter. He's going to be a Big PITA, but we're ready for him.

If I were you I'd ignore the neighbors and do what I want.

Tom, fair enough. I don't feel we're in disagreement, just emphasising different specifics. I've had a few experiences where noone was trying to work with anyone and that is where I was pulling my input from.

goatman

sounds like you have the legal stuff in order.

on the leylands - it might not be a cheap fix for you if you planted them on your land. Leylands get huge - and they are an absolute pain in the rear to get rid of when they get that big.

of course - you could also bull doze them down after you move in and park an RV there instead - since it is your land.

best of luck with the build.

sniffdog, the leylands will be 200' from our house and just filling in where we removed alder from a grove of 2nd growth doug fir.

Now I'm wondering how'll they react when they see the amateur radio antenna tower go up. Tom

skagit goat man, I am sorry for your neighbor troubles. There is no reason why you need to please them, it is your land. That said, you need to decide what works for you and hopefully it will smooth over eventually. Some people are never happy.
We enjoyed having vacant land behind us for years. The time came when the land was sold and two homes were built. One home is directly behind us. I have listened for years as their children scream while they are in the pool or the children ride every motorized vehicle they own along our property line back and forth all day long. For years I wondered if that was their land because of the way the homes were situated. The last time I was at town hall I looked at the map and sure enough it is. We are bothered by their noise, but never have voiced it as it is their land even though they are inconsiderate of others.
I have what looks like a used car lot to the right of me and a neighbor who did not want me to take down a scrub tree that was filled with caterpillars each year. Treating it with chemicals was not an option. They have a child that I was considering as well as others. A snow storm one winter took care of the problem for us or so we thought. Half of the tree was down. The neighbor was sad that we were removing the whole tree as it took away their privacy. Long story short...After spending many work hours of digging out this scrub trees many invasive roots we planted 3 aborvitaes to replace it. We are now 3 years later and the remaining small scrub trees have grown on his property and are invading the aborvitaes. So much for all that work. It is a mess and I can not keep up with it. Oh, I forgot to mention he took down several pine trees this past winter and left a mess on our lawn while doing so. My husband is disabled and not able to do yard work. He was furious that this ended up on me. I am proud of our property and decided not to make waves and just clean it up. The neighbor was well aware of my efforts and never offered help. End of story.....we tried to be more neighborly than we should have. The abvorties are coming with us to our new home and the mess can spread forever as far as I am concerned. We tried. Lesson learned.
As I said above do what pleases you. Good Luck!

I don't have the exact issue but similar and I am the complaining neighbor. My situation is different in that the land owners don't live on the 40 acres behind my house that they cleared, but since they cleared it, it has become like a wind tunnel through our property. It us so bad every day, that trees that weren't near the clearing but on the other end of our property are snapping and falling, we can't enjoy having a bond fire anymore, its a total mess! I wish there was something we could do about it. I have said anything to the owners of the cleared land, most because I have no idea how to contact them or who they are! If I could contact them, I would ask them to come up with and pay for the solution to the problem. However, I'm not sure there truly is anything I can do without some lengthy court process, but I'm not too into that! I'm not sure my property is sellable any longer!

Oh, wow! I wasn't even paying attention to the date. I was just reading and responding to the content. 😆

@Jules J Yes this thread is dated way back, in any case, it's their land and they can do pretty much anything they want on it for as long as there are no zoning restrictions.

As the court battle goes on, it will be cheaper to plant some trees on your property vs. a lengthy court battle, at least you will get to enjoy the trees and benefit from them vs. paying some attorney and the outcome might still not be in your favor.

Good luck

In reference to @Jules J problem. My first instinct is that @GN Builders L.L.C is correct that there is nothing you can do...

However, common law often holds, "adjoining landowners are expected to use their property reasonably without unduly interfering with the rights of the owners of contiguous land. Actions taken by a landowner that appropriate adjoining land or substantially deprive an adjoining owner of the reasonable enjoyment of his or her property is an unlawful use of one’s property."

---

I have only seen this used for water issues, but conceivably could be used for wind. The idea being that you can't change your property such that it increases water runoff to your neighbors such that they have flooding. I guess an attorney could argue that the same applies to wind.

However, if there is any way to deal with it by planting fast growing trees, that will be cheaper for sure.

Arboreal arbitration.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tree-law-is-a-gnarly-twisted-branch-of-the-legal-system.amp

Yes, the original post is very old but it has valuable information that is perennially applicable.

This is happening in my neighborhood now. A wealthy elderly couple have a very nice one story brick home with a stunning screened in porch on its east side. The east property line is about 10’ from the porch. The lot to the east was for sale for years. It recently sold and a house was begun immediately, no more than 10’ from the line. It will be two stories.

The 90-year-old neighbor lady apparently knows words that are not lady-like and used them liberally on the contractor. From what I hear on the neighborhood grapevine, I wouldn’t be surprised if she gave him a swift kick or two.

She and her 90-year-old spouse could have bought the lot easily, but they were complacent.

If you want to control something, you must OWN it.

When you clear your own land you become one of those hated developers. Someone did the same to the land they live upon.

@bry911 That would be an interesting argument pertaining to the wind.

I have seen a few cases when customers made changes in grade elevations because of additions or other reasons and diverted run-offs to neighbor properties instead of designated swales on the property and they lost and had to correct the issues.

Wind on the other hand considered an "act of God" so that would be a difficult but interesting case to argue or win because of that.

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor I couldn't agree with you more. I see some developers come in and they take everything out of its path, it's a shame, especially in wooded areas.

I haven't done many development totals of 5 and 22 home was the biggest and I always made sure that most of the original setting is kept undisturbed as much as possible.

Clear for the road and walkways, driveways, and some on the frontage and backyard use, everything else stays the same, it makes a new development look as if it's been there for years.

Wind on the other hand considered an "act of God" so that would be a difficult but interesting case to argue or win because of that.

I would think both wind and rain are "acts of god." The idea behind water is that you can push your property's rain onto my property. I guess you could make that same argument for wind. I think this has been successful against a structure blocking sunlight and know that a stockyard was blocked because of the odor.

@bry911 thank you for pointing that out. The land clearing also affected how water flows on our property. During the rainiest season in my area, it flooded in areas of my property that had never flooded before and the area where we have yearly flooding, it was worse. I can't afford to do anything about it, so I will be letting bygones be bygones. It is truly unfortunate but there is nothing I could really do without expensive and drawn out legal battles that I don't really want to get into.

@Jules J - Have you actually tried talking to your neighbor? Does your neighbor even have any idea what is going on?

If you want to control something, you must OWN it.

Oh, so agree.

@bry911 I would but I do not know who they are. They don't live on the land. When we asked the logging company they couldn't give us any information either and I can't remember the name of the logging company either. Otherwise I would cordially communicate with the owner.

Is this in the U.S.? If so you can usually look up ownership at the PVA office. In most areas here i can do it online, but if there is no physical address you have to find the plat number at the clerk's office.

All you have to do is go to the township/city/etc office to find out who owns the land. It's not a big secret. I can find out who owns land around me from the online county assessment site.

It’s easy to find out. There are land apps available for your phone that you can buy. DH buys the app for Missouri ($30/ year for one state or you can buy for the entire U.S.). It’s called OnX Hunt. If we’re out driving and see a beautiful pasture with trees and a pond, etc. we open the app and it says that pasture is owned by John Q. Jones and consists of 127.5 acres. It’s designed for hunters but it’s great for DH as he’s an agribusinessman dealing in large volume sales of seed, fertilizer, ag chemicals, etc. I’m sure realtors use it too.

Yes, very easy to find property owners from your local county GIS maps.

Haahaaahaaaa! My husband had his radio antenna next to our house and he hid it among the trees (my request) though was able to get above the tree tops. It was ugly but he hid it well! And I loved listening to radio Cuba and all the other ham operators! Good luck!

I am guessing the OP's neighbors now make up the members of the local Zoning Board of Appeals.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Land Use class in law school reading 100's of cases of issues similar to this. Now building my home and dealing with our town conversation commission isn't as enjoyable. Jules could probably explore legal remedies, but I agree it most likely isn't worth the money unless you land is truly unsellable and worth a great deal. As trained lawyer (I don't practice) I advise most people away from legal remedies. My husband doesn't agree, hence we have pending action against our original engineer who was not as he claimed and did not fulfill his contract and it has gotten us absolutely nowhere.

I am going through the same thing, but my neighbor thinks her right of way to her property gives her right of way for me to clear my land to the line right of way is a ease off acces