Actually these threads do help others going through similar situation . May things like badmouthing, threatening, watching and recording everything seem to be common behaviors of these bullies. I stood down and let them even change my downspout on my house. Ignoring made them react more and more. I would say I learned deal with first issue first time. Show them you did noticenoticenoticenoticenotinoticenoticenoticenoticenoti

My neighbor also offered to pay for half of the fence that we were planning to put in. They had just purchased the home next to us. I told her we would pay for it all since we were already planning on this expense long before they purchased the place. I personally think it was a control factor - so she could decide on what kind of fence goes in, and yes, she DID want a say in it. Being neighborly, I let her make that decision with us, considering that she was going to be fencing in her entire yard and wanted everything to be consistent. I can understand that. We both agreed on a style, but we didn't budge on the ownership. We paid for it ourselves, to alleviate any confusion or future legal matters. Insurance companies often times won't cover damages to a fence unless it is physically attached to your garage or home where they intersect (as opposed to attaching it to a post in the ground). Think of how confusing that would be if something were to happen to the fence - whose homeowners insurance covers it if you both own it? Then you get into the issue of asking your neighbor to pay for half of your out of pocket costs?? Is your neighbor going to pay the increase in your insurance rates if you have to file an insurance claim on the fence? I think it's best just to claim ownership of it yourself, and avoid any confusion with the next owners of your home. And who's to say that if you move out, the neighbor still has ownership of it if it's on your property? Legally, that may not be the case. That's only going to cause problems for the next owner. Where I live, the "good" side of the fence is to be facing my neighbors house if it's my fence on my property. Keep it simple. Give the neighbors the good side, pay for it yourself and call it your own. There will be no confusion, and you will not have any regrets later on.

I agree with you Klimkm, We have a neighbor who always made a point to come on our property - daily - and then rub it in our face. He would brag how he had keys to our home with the prior owners. He would come and touch the garage hours after I painted it to see if it was dry, and then tell me about it later (and he's walking all the way across my lawn to do so). He was really upset when we moved some pavers that came a foot onto our property along the side of the garage. Then he was even more upset that we put up a fence, and literally for two years, every time we walked outside our house he was making a comment that we're trying to keep him out of our yard. Yeah, we are. Deal with it! He would complain that the lawn mower doesn't get all the grass along the fence, so not only does my husband mow what isn't our property on that side, but I also go over there and pull the grass along his side of the fence so I don't have to hear him complain. If I don't, he sprays grass killer and kills my plants in the process. He's an old, rude, chauvenistic man. Really nosey too, like creepy nosey. There were days that I'd check through my window to see if he was out there before I'd head to the garage, and I'd move swiftly because I was so tired of hearing his complaining. I think a lot of long time homeowners don't deal well with newcomers and are afraid of change, especially the older crowd. They are accustomed to having rights to property that doesn't belong to them, so when you block it off, they take it personally. I told my husband that I wanted to put the fence up right when we bought the place, but we waited. Looking back now, it would have been easier if we had done it right off the bat. That was the neighbor to the north of me. I'll call him Joe. The neighbor on the other side of me recently purchased the home, and we both agreed to fence on that side between the properties because she also has little dogs. The neighbor on the other side of her now complains to her about the fence she put up. He's an old retired guy too. The neighbor behind us basically threatened to replace OUR fence in the back - it was an old ranch style fence that went around the perimeter, but the previous owners stapled this ugly lattice work on it for privacy and put it this really shabby "patio" (if that's what you want to call it) back there. It did look bad, and I can only imagine how tired they were of looking at it, but at that time, we were planning a wedding, doing major remodeling on the interior of the home, I was taking care of a sick parent, and money only goes so far. Replacing the fence at that time was not a priority, and everyone in the neighborhood could see everything that we were doing with the place - we were complimented all the time. So, we put up some cheap, Home Depot wooden fence in the back and along the nosey neighbors side that very weekend that she threatened us with replacing OUR fence. It's ugly, but I don't care. I planted trees along the perimeter, and I don't have to look at it. I don't think that people should threaten homeowners with replacing their own property. In contrast, she has this ugly wooden, broken down playset that stands about 20 feet tall, and that's what we see when we look out into our back yard. The green tarp on the top of it became frayed over the winter, and we looked at that thing blowing around all season. It's horrendous. I miracle grow my trees in the back every week. They cannot grow fast enough. The same neighbor - we have about 3 feet between our garages in the back where her garage meets mine. We have our wood pile back there, and it does not go beyond our property line. We have about a foot back from the garage. She takes broken cinder block and throws it back there. There are chunks laying everywhere, and most recently she had a pile of unbroken cinder blocks up against my wood pile. I could not even access my woodpile (it is under a tarp). So, after having had problems with them in the past, we decided to send them a certified letter and kindly asked them to move the cinder block away from my property so I can access my woodpile, so as to "avoid potential injury" should I fall on those rocks. It was moved within a week. Damn right if I fall on those rocks my homeowners insurance is going after her homeowners insurance(there have been other problems with these same neighbors, and I can say with confidence that they do it intentionally).

Yes, the neighbor whose fence you see was fine with our fence; he's complimented us on it more than once. Of course I'll ask his permission before going on his property, and I'm sure he'll be fine with us needing to be on his property to complete the staining. The reason for the tall fence was the neighbor on the other side. She brought in two pit bulls who don't get adequate exercise; she leaves them outside while she's away at work and that's the only exercise they get. She has a chain link fence so her dogs go nuts when I and/or my dogs are in my yard. Her dogs act like they want to rip my face off and it's only a matter of time before they figure out they can jump over her 4' chain link fence. The fence installer suggested a 6' fence because he and his crew were concerned that the pit bulls were going to attack them when he came to give an estimate. In staining the fence, I've found multiple problems with the fence - so many boards have warped - and I'm having problems getting the installer back out to fix the issues. He did such a good job with my neighbor's picket fence that I thought he knew what he was doing, but apparently that wasn't the case.