THE STUPID NEIGHBOUR BLOG

Jaak writes:

Our neighbor has problems. In his head.

He's had issues to the point where other neighbours have moved out of their houses. We decided to stand our ground. My father was a concentration campsurvivor, so pfft to my neighbor.

In 2005 he punctured our central air conditioning unit. Our househeated up to 40 C. The windows aren't built for a window airconditioning unit. We hired a contractor. The hose for the freon ran along the property line. Our neighbor chased him off.

Now we also have a son, who was 6 months old at the time. The police get involved, as the necessities of life are within their jurisdiction (remember that kid who died of heatstroke when it was 40 C? If not, rest assured the police do). The repair was finally taken care of while the police restrained him.

Now my neighbor stalks me while I drop off my son to daycare. He and his wife have done this 6 times in the past year. The police say they need more than this. In the meantime, he's paved over 1/4 of our front lawn for his car. The police say that is a civil matter. I hired a surveyor to make sure of our property and the related rights. When they attempted to take the measurements he physically threatened one of them. The police were called but they didn't fine or charge him for interfering. Some people thinks it is because he's a retired cop.

Now he likes to point his finger like it's a gun and then say "pow". I hate this. I can't get a fence until I get a survey, and I can't get a survey because he threatens physical interference and no one will doanything. Advice is appreciated.

Ca1v1n Replies:

First sorry it took me a month to get this posted, I was attempted to organize my inbox and well nevermind... got lost in the shuffle. Your best bet for getting a survey in my opinion would be to have it done while he is on vacation or out of the house. Now, this may be difficult to arrange, however if you have read the Harry Potter series of books you may be familiar with a particular trick. Harry's uncle and aunt were sent a letter saying they had won the "Best Lawn" competition and to come to a certain place at a certain time to pick up their prize. This of course was a trick, but it allowed Harry to get snuck out of the house by his friends from Hogwarts. Something as simple as this may work. Perhaps two phony tickets to a "Fraternal Order of Policemans Dinner" at City Hall or something of that nature. Get the survey done and the fence built ASAP after that (same day if possible). I also recommend you get some video footage of the violent hand gestures.

This reminds me of something that happened to my father-in-law. He had a 10 year battle with his neighbour over a property line. Every year the survey was done and the property line marked. Every year the survey confirmed what my father-in-law believed to be the accurate properly line (which the neighbour contested). Once the markers were put in the ground the neighbour promptly moved them 2 feet to the right... every year for 10 years.

Finally two years ago (by some strange coincidence) the person doing the survey turned out to be a "golf-buddy" of the neighbour. Suddenly after 10 years the survey indicated the property line was 2 feet to the right of where it had been. THE SAME DAY the survey was done my father-in-law arrived home to find a fence had been built. They had literally put it up in a matter of a couple hours.

Turns out the neighbour had everything planned. Had all the materials sitting in his garage ready to go. Now the lawyer said my father-in-law would probably win if it went to court, but all things considered, why not just forget about the whole thing. This isn't a city lot, but a large rural lot (we are talking 200' in size) so 2 feet one way or another does not really matter. He got a free (and very nice) fence out of the deal and would have many thousands of $ in legal fees even if he did win. So he washed his hands of the whole thing.

This would never work in a urban area, where lot sizes are small and 2 feet can make a huge difference.