Neighbors ...

[The Captain]

So I get home LATE last night after my train was delayed an extra 40 minutes (on top of a 2 hour commute to boot).

I pull up my driveway (it's a long one) get out and go to get my backpack...

...and see my neighbor has one of his heavy duty landscaping trucks parked on MY lawn by the property line

I go to ask him WTF's going on and he isn't even home.  Two of his crew (with whom I can't communicate well) finally get his wife who originally did not come to the door when I rang the bell.

She tells me she'll have them move the truck.  As I turn to go back to my car I keep an eye on them and do a "Oh Hell NO" wave when they start to drive the truck across my lawn.  They then stop and drive the truck back across my property line to his lawn eventually making it to the street.

It's then I notice tire ruts in my lawn all the way across the front.  Yep, rather then mess up his lawn (maybe 10-20 yards) he choose to drive his truck across my lawn to get to the area he wanted to work on - over 60 yards.

Our property is 2.5 acers and his is 1/2 of an acre.  We've had issues in the past with this neighbor treating our property like it was his personal dumping ground (he had his pool drain installed to run-off on our property until we called him on it, he ran his electrical lines/couduit on our property until we made him change it, his crew has even been known to pile his tree branches on our property's burn pile).

I was livid and went back and got the wife and pointed out the tire ruts to her.  I asked her how in the hell anyone could justify this and she started crying and stated he was just trying to be a good neighbor and get an overgrown area cleaned up.

I try to be a good neighbor, and honestly probably would have let him drive his truck across a different area if he had asked, but he didn't.

Now I have ruts that need to be smoothed out.  I should have had his truck towed.

How would you deal with this?

 

[Bob Ross]

Dog poo in a flaming paper bag?

[HoneyBBQ]

I'm confused.  He wasn't even home, so how can you blame him? 

[thyme4change]

Ruts in your grass?  How will you ever recover?

#firstworldproblems

[swamp]

have it fixed and send him the bill.

[Gardening Grandma]

Jun 20, 2013 10:42:49 GMT -5 swamp said:

have it fixed and send him the bill.

And try to calm down.  You will blow a gasket.  

[Chocolate Lover]

Fence? 

[movingforward]

Jun 20, 2013 10:42:49 GMT -5 swamp said:

have it fixed and send him the bill.

Yes, and if he doesn't pay this sounds like a perfect case for Judge Judy

[The Captain]

According to his work crew he drove the truck there, then left it to go run some errands while the crew did some cleanup. 

And yes I know ruts are a first world problem but it's rude to drive and park your truck on someone elses's lawn to avoid messing up your own.  And if the ruts are deep enough (these are) you can't drive a riding mover over them without throwing a belt (we've had this happen before).

If he has a landscape business and I pay another to fix the ruts could he refuse to pay because I didn't let his people fix the damage?  I'm sure he would if I asked but that's not really the point.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

Jun 20, 2013 10:54:50 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Fence? 

"Good fences make good neighbors." 

[thyme4change]

I would talk to him about it.  Ask him how he plans to fix the ruts, or does he just want you to call someone else and get him the bill.  Those are his two options.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 20, 2013 10:59:19 GMT -5 The Captain said:

According to his work crew he drove the truck there, then left it to go run some errands while the crew did some cleanup. 

And yes I know ruts are a first world problem but it's rude to drive and park your truck on someone elses's lawn to avoid messing up your own.  And if the ruts are deep enough (these are) you can't drive a riding mover over them without throwing a belt (we've had this happen before).

If he has a landscape business and I pay another to fix the ruts could he refuse to pay because I didn't let his people fix the damage?  I'm sure he would if I asked but that's not really the point.

You need to allow the neighbor to first try and fix the problem.

[Cass]

They're landscapers.  For all you know they intended to fix it anyway.

[The Captain]

Jun 20, 2013 10:54:50 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Fence? 

He has an illegal fence (no permit, facing the wrong way) around his pool which is why he either needed to drive on his front lawn or our property to get to this area.  Zoning laws (which I actually follow) will not allow me to put a fence on the area in question since it's so close to the street.

The deal about his fence was pointed out to me by the property inspector when we pulled a permit to get our fence installed.  At the time he asked me if I wanted to file a compliant about the fence but since it wasn't really a big deal I declined.  The issue may come up again when they try to sell their house...
 
The lots are laid out in a weird way.  He has his fenced in as much as he can without creating a zoning violation he'd have to fix when he tried to sell the property.

[Tennesseer]

By the way, take pictures now.

[The Captain]

Jun 20, 2013 11:00:48 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I would talk to him about it.  Ask him how he plans to fix the ruts, or does he just want you to call someone else and get him the bill.  Those are his two options.

That's probably the best approach.

It just gets me steamed because we have tried really hard to be good neighbors.  There used to be several trees in this area (well inside our property line) that shaded his pool and dropped a lot of leaves in there.  He asked for our permission to cut them down (hence we can now see more of the ugly fence) and we agreed.  I kinda miss the trees but we have plenty more of them on the lot. We'll probably plant more evergreens there to cover things up and dress up the area a bit (slow growing, I get that he doesn't want the pool in the shade).

[doxieluvr]

Landscape the area. The neighbor will not drive through a flower bed I am sure. You would be creating an inexpensive boundary without needing zoning approval.

[formerroomate99]

You can ask him to fix the ruts, but honestly, this is neither expensive nor hard to fix and nothing to make a big deal over.   

I second the idea of planting a row of evergreens between your place and his, and if they happen to be fast growing and shade his pool, that isn't your problem.  There's no need to tie yourself in knots being a good neighbor to someone who isn't. 

[formerroomate99]

By the way, I have neighbors that send their pit bull to my side yard to poop and who have the police coming from time to time since they like to beat each other up, and I'm not anywhere near as steemed as you are, and I'm not a laid back person.  

You really need to take it down a notch. 

[midjd]

I may be reading too much into it, but it sounds like you may have let your frustrations from the commute delays color your interactions with the neighbor last night.  Yelling at the wife and making her cry (maybe she's a crier, but if you were "livid" it sounds like a tense situation) probably wasn't the best way to handle it. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar and all that.

DH put some DEEP ruts in our neighbor's yard when we lived in the rental (I accidentally drove my car into the ditch because the snow was so deep I couldn't see the road - he used the Jeep to winch me out.) They were annoyed, and rightfully so, but he arranged to have the ruts fixed when the ground thawed, and all was well.

If they had chewed me out over it, I doubt I'd consider them 'good neighbors,' and DH probably would've told them to take us to court rather than fix the ruts himself. He gets mad when people upset the wife.

[souldoubt]

Jun 20, 2013 10:42:10 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Ruts in your grass?  How will you ever recover?

#firstworldproblems

Love it. 

Seriously there are things worth getting worked up over and this definitely isn't one of them. 

[thyme4change]

I agree with mid.  You should probably apologize and own up to being a wanker.  And THEN ask how / when he plans to fix the rut.  

[vonna]

I hope things are better when you have had a chance to cool off.

[greeniis10]

It seems to be a difference of opinion / preference.  That kind of thing doesn't bother me at all.  Lawns are supposed to be used and it will bounce back.  I'd give the neighbors credit for trying to make an improvement, however, my DH would absolutely freak out!  He's one of those "get off my lawn!" people, which I find funny.  Why have a lawn just to look at?

Anyway, I'm not saying you or they are right or wrong.  Just discuss it with the guy and see what his response is.  Then decide from there how to proceed. 

[busymom]

If you can't put a fence there, I'd suggest some big boulders on the corners of your property.  After all, it's just landscaping... 

[gooddecisions]

I have never experienced anyone driving across my lawn and could never imagine driving across someone else' lawn unless they specifically told me to drive through their lawn. I could see why you would be upset. When you confronted your neighbor, she should have apologized and said they would fix it instead of crying and making excuses.

[grumpyhermit]

I have never experienced anyone driving across my lawn and could never imagine driving across someone else' lawn unless they specifically told me to drive through their lawn. I could see why you would be upset. When you confronted your neighbor, she should have apologized and said they would fix it instead of crying and making excuses.

People have lost all sense of common courtesy. I second the notion that you either have it fixed/get a quote, and present the neighbor with the bill. This sounds like it is kind of an on going problem with this guy.

On the other hand you have to decide if its worth going to war with him over, since if he sees no issue with his actions he is likely not going to respond well to being billed.

[The Captain]

Well, I think swamp and a few others may have nailed it a bit, I was tired from a normally long day and having my commute lengthened certainly did not help things

Seeing a landscaping truck parked on my lawn was just the icing on the cake.

No doubt I came across very strongly.  I would like to go over and apologise and suggest working on the landscaping issues together (there are several) so that we could both benefit but am afraid that would just make him think he could take more liberties.

I'll have to cool off a bit more and think about it.  Thanks for letting me use you guys as a sounding board.

[greeniis10]

Jun 20, 2013 12:29:41 GMT -5 The Captain said:

  I would like to go over and apologise and suggest working on the landscaping issues together (there are several) so that we could both benefit but am afraid that would just make him think he could take more liberties.

Good plan!  When you talk to him just try to make sure your expectations and what you will allow and not allow are detailed and he understands them.  If he is reasonable at all he should oblige.  On the other hand, it concerns me that you have such a long commute and are therefore away from home for a long time each day that they probably think they can do whatever they want and you won't know about it.

[Bob Ross]

Another thing you could do is get a container of Roundup, then sneak over there in the dead of night and spray dirty words in their lawn. 

If questioned later, be sure to blame it on "those no good teenagers".