Maybe they had permission from another time? Maybe the owner told them to feel free? Personally I would not get involved unless it looked like young kids who could be in danger.

So very sad about the drowning. I'm confused as to who is suing?

I wouldn't get involved either. Sometimes people post those signs believing that the sign relieves them from being sued; thinking that the public has ben warned in case of an accident. Not sure that is true, however.

The people fishing were breaking the law. You could have called law enforcement. It's entirely legal to post your land. In some cases it is *required by law*, as with a swimming pool. I don't see how a five acre pond can be considered 'an attractive nuisance', but it IS private property. "Private" means "Not yours, fisher-women"! If these women had permission to use the pond, they could have told the deputy that; really doubt it.

The family of the two teens that drowned are suing the landowner of the remote pond who is not the same landowner as the folks across the street. Since the news of that lawsuit, property owners with ponds are putting up signs to protect themselves.

Lucille, I get the stop sign thing and general traffic rule violations but I think a No Trespassing sign is different. Blowing through a stop sign is bad and it is breaking a rule but it's not hanging around someone's private property, using it as if it were your own. Granted these people may have permission but it's not to my knowledge (and not really my business, unless the neighbors asked me to enforce their rule, which they have not). I doubt they have cameras (I know them...they are tech challenged). I've told them in the past about people hanging out and they're kind of "meh" about it....the specific instance was when someone was puttering around the large pond on a small motorboat. They kind of didn't care.....so I stopped mentioning it.

I guess it makes me nervous because they are right in front of my house (a little bit away but visible from my office) and if something were to happen, would I be expected to respond? Would I then be held responsible because I responded? With the suit happy society we live in, these are certainly valid questions (and I should present them to an attorney)....I guess I'm just venting.

In my state, the lakes are not owned by private owners, the State owns them. If they can be accessed by a road (or through the right of way surrounding the road) no one needs to ask permission. That right of way can be 25 or more feet from the road. We actually have people that come up to our beach side and park their boat in front all day. Totally legal.

Sadly, the signs don't mean anything to a lot of people. We posted signs years ago because hunters kept trying to hunt on our land (we shoot critters with cameras only). One day, Stan saw a car parked at the entrance to our drive, so he went down to investigate. A man was digging up plants that were obviously on our land. Stan told him it was our land, and the man said they were his favorite plants, so he wanted them. Mr. Nice Guy Stan told him he could keep the ones he had already dug up, but he couldn't take any more. The man was insulted and left in a huff! I would have made him replant them...while I called 911!

A friend of mine recently found several headless deer on her posted property!

but loon, she said it was a pond, not a lake? And it was in private property. That's enough in the US "private=keep off" unless invited in.

I'd like for people to obey laws and rules and signs on private property. We have several no trespassing signs on our property and for the longest time people disregarded them. They would drive down our very long-winded driveway just so they could see what was back here, or to try to sell us something like a subscription to a newspaper or a case of frozen mystery meat, not caring that we moved back here to have privacy. LOL

We finally plastered up five or six more signs so no one could possibly say they didn't see them and that seems to have helped a lot. In fact, a local judge was coming around looking for votes and he had the good sense to stop and leave his literature underneath one of these keep out signs. I was so impressed by that, I voted for him.

I would ask my neighbors for a list of people that they have given permission to fish on their posted property. I hope they know that if anybody got hurt on that property, they would probably be held liable.

Dees, unless you are a firefighter, nurse, or some other special circumstance, I do not believe that Tennessee has a 'duty to rescue' statute or requirement (unless you are married; you do have a duty to rescue your spouse).

The states that have such a statute generally require just a phone call to the police, I think the exception is Vermont which might require actual help be rendered.

"I hope they know that if anybody got hurt on that property, they would probably be held liable."

Not likely if posted "No Trespassing". That's one of the main reasons people post their property. That and to enable law enforcement to cite/remove trespassers. If it's not posted (at least around here) law enforcement won't cite trespassers.

Our homeowners insurance agent made us take out an extra insurance policy to cover any injuries incurred by trespassers. They said even though our property was conspicuously posted, we could possibly still be held liable if someone got hurt. This is in Arkansas. It might be different in other states, I do not know.

I looked it up, it was called an umbrella policy and it provided additional coverage.

Anyone who uses our property in a recreational way has a signed permission slip. My neighbors are empowered to ask anyone that they don't recognize to see it and to call the sheriff if said document is not produced...

Just let it be. If the owners don't seem to care, then I wouldn't. I know it bothers you. Rule breakers bother me, because it's like they are the only people in the world that matter.

There is a house just newly built next door to me. For some reason, the builders left the front porch held up with a piece of long plywood until they could complete it. The column pieces were probably on backorder. Kids down the street (preschoolers, mind you) kept coming up and playing in the dirt, driveway, porch, etc, throwing rocks, sticks, whatever they could find...WHILE the parents were down the street talking in their yards, and halfway watching their kids. I didn't want the kids to get hurt, but their parents were out there, like I said, halfway watching. I just figured if one did get hurt, then at least I can be a witness to their parents allowing them on private property. There are no trespassing signs, but common sense should rule! Don't teach your kids to play in construction sites, or to go onto private property unless invited to do so.

So, if you saw something happen, like an accident, or they set something on fire.....then call the police. The sign is meant to protect the owner IF someone does get hurt on their property, and later try to sue. Then, you can be a witness on what you did see happen, and the signs on the property will take care of the rest. If the owners see anything missing or damaged, then you can tell them about anyone you saw, but remind them that you've tried to warn them before, and that you are not their camera. They really should put an actual one up.

Unfortunately posting your property with No Trespassing signs will not necessarily protect you if someone trespasses on your property and gets hurt. The laws vary by state. We have 135 acres in upstate PA that we posted when we bought the property and every year we walk the perimeter to make sure the signs are still there (for some reason squirrels like to rip them off the trees).

I'm amazed at the people we find on property. We're in a private community and there are 45 other homeowners who have 2 to 4 acres each. We bought our lot when the developer went bankrupt. The neighbors were thrilled that there would only be one home on the land rather than the 25 that were originally planned. But they had become accustomed to hiking, fishing, hunting and riding their ATV's here. They were definitely annoyed when we explained at the Homeowner's meeting that we posted the property to keep it private and that they had to ask us for permission to use it.

One neighbor rode his ATV up our driveway and right by the house. We went out and asked him why he was trespassing - he knew it wasn't his land but he didn't realize that we bought all the acreage and figured he could still use it. He said we had more land than we needed and he liked to ride his ATV on our paths.

One morning we woke up and looked out the window to see a hunter come out of the woods behind our garage. Neither of us wanted to confront him so we just stayed in the house until he left. But we've discovered deer carcasses, tree blinds, fire pits, paint ball remnants and clay pigeons on the land.

We spoke with a local attorney and he said that we can't rely on the posted signs to protect ourselves from a lawsuit. It doesn't make any sense to me but that's the way it is.

That is horrible! I would find an attorney who would write a letter to each homeowner, warning them to stay off your property, stating the laws, and what you will do once you see someone on your property, which is to report them to the authorities. These neighbors are crazy! They have no right to build blinds, hunt, or ride their ATV's on your property. You certainly do not want hunters anywhere near your house.

Phoebe it is horrible. We've owned this for almost 20 years and now that we've become friendly with the neighbors most of them respect our wishes. But since we're only here part time we don't want to antagonize anyone - DH's fear is that people who willfully ignore posted signs and trespass just might decide to break our windows (or worse) while we're away.

We have called the Game Warden when we hear hunters on our property. Luckily he's a neighbor!

People just never cease to amaze me.

We post all around our property. We just bought it a few months ago and we're surprised at all the trespassers on our cameras. The signs have made no difference. But that's OK. As soon as my fence is finished, we and our 5 huge pit bulls can move in and keep an eye on it ourselves. We intend to make it perfectly clear that we will no tolerate any non invited "visitors";even if we have to turn into crazy country curmudgeons who brandish our firearms at people. I'm halfway there anyway, as I have pulled my gun out on some teenagers (future lifetime guests of the state) who kept coming in our yard at our house in the city to screw with the dogs,and IMO, to case the house. But if your neighbors don't care about it,I wouldn't worry until they trespass on your property. If something happens to them,you only have to say that you didn't notice anything,and didn't think to keep an eye and ear out, since the owners are only there on the weekends,and no one is supposed to be there. When people trespass, they put themselves at risk. If you break into someone's house and get shot and killed, should your family get paid for that? No. So if your kid,who you are responsible for, decides to trespass.on someone's land and drowns, why in the world should you get a paycheck for that? Why would you get rewarded for raising disrespectful, entitled brats and then turning them loose unsupervised on the world? Yeesh.

MYOB