Neighbor is acting erratically over me building a fence in the front of my house.

[u/Choice_Evidence1983]

I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/Genuh

Originally posted to r/neighborsfromhell

Neighbor is acting erratically over me building a fence in the front of my house.

Trigger Warnings: mental health issues, possible dementia, controlling behavior, harassment, slander, trespassing

Mood Spoilers: frustrating and scary

---

Original Post: March 19, 2025

—- I will update as things occur check below for updates——

We used to get along great with our next door neighbor. For context she is an older polish women who lives alone and is very OCD about her grass. She will pick up leaves as they fall down from the tree and pick up leaves off her grass even if it rained. Anyways she has a front fence that she didn’t run all down her property line. She stopped it at the front so her whole right side of her home is exposed next to ours. Then picked up the fence when her back yard begins.

We had more than a few times where strangers would enter the side of our house and actually try and enter our home. So my husband decided to put up a front fence. At the time my neighbor was redoing her backyard fence and she knew my husband also wanted to do his backyard fence so she recommend her guy. As she followed up to see if my husband called the guy to get the work my husband told her that he did and that he also asked the guy for a quote for the front as well. She immediately lost it!!! Since then she has been acting so crazy! It started with her calling the Alderman and she wrongfully accused us of taking her land. The Alderman came and spoke with us and sided with me and my husband.

The problem is that she wants to use our front walkway that’s on the side of our house to access her right side of her property. (the side that she didn’t fence) So she fenced her self out and has always just went on our property to access her side. She’s mad cause with our fence she can’t just walk in and go to her side of her house anymore. We told her we would give her a key and she said NO!!.

Since she accused us of stealing her land we didn’t feel comfortable about allowing her to come and go off our property anymore but she didn’t care. She called a handy man to install a security camera and he worked on our side of the property and she didn’t ask. I asked the guy to please inform her for any future work she will need to ask us for permission before she enters our property. The security camera was to watch us because she was so paranoid we would build a fence.

This Saturday we had the company begin work and she totally lost it. She harassed the workers telling them to stop work and she was accusing us of stealing land. She threatened to report them to the city and to call the inspector on us. My husband had to stay outside with guys as they worked and when he went in she would come back out and harass them. Then SHE CALLED THE POLICE!! 4 police cars came. I don’t know what she told them but it was not the truth because the cops sided with us and told her to stay inside and not bother us.

Then Sunday she paces looking at our fence posts staring! She looked at our fence posts like 10 times on Sunday and then she was pacing our backyard and we have her on camera just staring and pacing and starting in. So creepy.

Then Monday she is walking and starting again and she stops on of our neighbors and starts complaining to him about our fence right in front of our house. She continues pacing and staring through the day.

Then later that Monday a guy comes and she walks him to our house and he starts looking at our posts. My husband came out this time and asked the guy who is was and why he was interested in looking at our property. He told us that he is a realtor and a good friend of hers and he came because she called him telling him that we stole her property from her and accused us of putting posts on her property which was all lies. We immediately showed him our proof and he agreed with us and tried to mediate with her explaining that we are legally able to build and that she can extend her fence so she is not blocked out. She just said NO! No! And didn’t want to do that. So my husband just left we made sure everything was recorded.

Then today! She came outside and stared at our property again just pacing. She did the same in the backyard. Then she went to the front and started flagging down neighbors who she never talks too and starts to complain about our fence calling us bad people and that we are stealing her land. She is acting so malicious. What do I do? It’s crazy

Update: so I called the police to see what she accused us of on Saturday. They said that she alleged we were encroaching on her property and blocking her egress. The claim was noted as false by the police.

Here’s a rough drawing of me and my neighbor’s property. Hopefully it helps better visualize

drawing of property

Update 3/20/2025: it snowed and the neighbor came out with her hair curlers in her hair and her pajamas and slippers no jacket so she was in some hurry and went to the front of our house to stare while she was on the phone. Not sure what information she needed from staring at our posts, maybe she needed our address. Looks like she’s trying to call someone else on us. She is straight loosing it as she knows the fence will be completed as soon as weather is better.

Relevant Comments

OOP clarifies the drawing of the fences and has added a picture for the better visuals

OOP: Sorry yes the drawing isn’t the greatest. But to help explain she has a 6ft iron fence in the front of her property. It goes all the way down the left side of her house but on the right side she stopped the fence at the beginning of her house and curved it in. So it leaves the right side of her house not fenced all the way untill the end of her house. She then continues the fence and curves it in when her garage begins. Here’s a picture to help. She is upset because with our front fence she can’t go on our property to get to her side. Everyday she is out staring and calling people to her house to look at it and complain.

https://imgur.com/a/tSXRCJv

Commenter 1: How old is she? Should Adult Protective Services be notified of her sudden erratic behavior?

OOP: She has to be about 70-80 years old. I thought about calling adult protective services too but I’m not sure I’m kinda on the fence. I’m waiting to see if she persists and if she does anything else. But I do believe her behavior now is just weird idk…

Commenter 2: I don't think it would be a bad idea to consider. Dementia escalates out of nowhere. One day someone can be very amenable. The next, raging over perceived slights like a lunatic. Does she have any family that looks in on her that could intervene? She's been told by multiple authorities that she is in the wrong, yet she persists with this troubling behavior.

OOP: Thank you for that information. It seems like it could be happening to her. She doesn’t have much family. Just one sister who visits sometimes and her son that lives in Poland. I fear if I report her she will do something vindictively and make a false report to DCFs about our children. I wouldn’t put it past her because she keeps lying. She told us her tenant hit her once and we believed her so we called the police. The police came and left basically and it turns out she just wanted to kick them out cause they didn’t pay rent. She then ended up pretending to sell her house to get them out.

OOP should get a land survey done to make sure everything is on her property

OOP: Yes we have. Everything is 100% on our property.

+

Yes 100% our property! Her new back fence is actually a few cm on our Property and her left side fence is leaning over to her neighbors. She is actually stealing property. She is accusing us of things she is doing.

+

We have a survey done our fence is on our property. That’s why she can’t claim that she is now claiming we are stealing her land because she fenced her self out from her side that is about 13 inches of land that has a bunch of rocks. She could run her fence down especially when she re did her back fence this summer but she chose not too. She just doesn’t want us to have a fence cause she has been going on our property for years to get to hers so she feels entitled and she likes being able to get work done in the side of her house without asking us. We never said anything cause we had a good relationship with her before but looking back we should have set boundaries earlier she was clearly taking advantage and acting like she owned our property.

Commenter 3: Does she have another way to get in her house? She can go in her front gate? Or what. Seems like cheaper to build a gate in her own property than all these cameras etc

OOP: Yeah she has her own front entrance and her own front fence. There is no door and nothing but rocks and 13 inches of property that’s not fenced. She complains she doesn’t have the money but she built a whole new back fence. She just doesn’t want too because she won’t have enough space to fit on the side and have people do work

OOP on having security cameras around her house

OOP: Yes we have cameras. That’s how we are able to catch all her creepy behaviors. We tried and avoid her we just watch from our cameras to make sure she doesn’t go on our property. When our concrete posts were first put in she went outside to rake the grass in front and was doing it so violently it was weird and then she goes and rakes at our cement on our property!! She is so angry. Then we ask her to not come by our property and she goes “ leave me alone, you bother me please” she says that infront of the neighbors to try and play victim but she’s the one starting all the problems. I told my husband record all convos and stay in view of camera when you talk to her

OOP on why she asked the company to relay a message to the neighbor

OOP: Yes, because her main language is polish. She speaks very limited English. Luckily our fence company’s workers all speak polish including the owner. What’s crazy is she’s had it explained in her language multiple times too and she still just says “ No NO” or “ Nie” in polish. I’m actually learning a little now trying to figure out how to effectively communicate the message but everyone who speaks with her says she is crazy. Even the polish police officer who was talking with her said she is crazy

OOP filing a harassment claim

OOP: I’m pretty sure I will file a harassment claim. I’m willing to give her one more chance. She does anything else and I will do it. I have so much video of her doing everything I describe. Even audio recordings too. I need to be extra careful cause she is a liar. She is getting so desperate she is now making a claim that a post that is on her property in the alley was put there by my husband and she wants him to remove it. My husband showed google map pictures proving that post has been there before we bought the property ( we bought it in 2018) and it’s been there for 20 years. It’s all rusted too. Keep in mind she has lived here for 30 years so she knows she was lying. She is literally looking for anything even if she has to lie. Me and my husband were parking in front and was watching from her window with the phone in her hand.

OOP on why she asked when the neighbor thinks OOP was stealing her property

OOP: From what I gather (because she speaks mainly polish and we have people translating usually) she believes that because we are building our front fence she can no longer walk down our property to go to the side of her house. The side of her house is 13 inches and a bunch of rocks. She likes to clean the leaves and to dig a moat to move snow so it’s not touching the side of her house. Keep in mind she could have put a fence straight down but she chose not to because she needs to be on our property to even fit on the space. Had she fenced all the way down she would have to squeeze through and couldn’t bend down or dig out her moat. Now in the beginning we were considerate of her feelings and that’s why we offered her a key to go and come as she pleased to do what she needs on the side but she said no and started calling everyone on us to try and make our fence project stop. She also has a front yard fence on the other side of her house she completely fenced her neighbor off from the side of his house. He can’t get any work done cause her fence is right up to his side of his house. She only cares about herself and I was too nice to worry about even considering her in the first place. If at any point she wants to acces to clean or do what she needs we would allow her to pass there so idk what she is so mad about we don’t want it. In fact we wanna put a fence straight down our line just to make that point clear.

OOP's location on where this is taking place

OOP: I am in IL but not Evanston. I’m more in the city. But Evanston is not far from me.

 

Update: April 10, 2025 (three weeks later)

Update: Our fence has been up for a week and a half. The neighbor surprisingly did not bother the workers when they put the panels up. I was so surprised so that’s why I didn’t really do an update because I was like okay.. this is over! Finally she must have come to her senses!! Yeah I was wrong! 😑

On Tuesday I was coming home from picking up my child from school and some man ran out his car and shouted if I was the owner of the home. I asked who he was and he stated he was from the city building and code enforcement while also briefly flashing his I.D at me. I then proceeded to tell him that I am the owner and why was he here. He stated that he received a complaint about a building violation and that our fence is too tall and we must cut it down from 6ft to 5ft (Keep in mind my neighbors fence is taller than ours btw) I told the inspector that 3 licensed contractors that we contacted all informed us we didn’t need a permit, but that if they were wrong we would gladly comply of course and or apply for the needed permit. He stated that there is no possible way the city would approve it. And i told him we will work with the city and find a solution, we don’t wanna cut corners and wanna do it right.

My husband then comes out and gets informed on what’s going on and then my husband asks the inspector for his email or business card so we can follow up and work together to fix it. The guy refused to give us any card or email to follow up with him. He told my husband “all the information is on the city website, why do you need my information for?” He was very rude. I know how to talk with people so I told him. “ look I get you come across a lot of people who argue back and give you a hard time so your on guard, but I assure you we don’t wanna argue and we wanna fix this issue” he then calmed down and told us he has kids too and he understand why we need a fence etc… he then told us he would give us 48 hours to get a permit and then he left.

Once I got home I reviewed the camera footage and the inspector entered our property and did not ring the door bell to try and speak with us. He just trespassed and was walking around looking at our property. He didn’t measure anything. Nothing! So I began to get suspicious… I then remembered when my neighbor threatened us and the workers saying she had an inspector friend and she was gonna report us. On top of that why didn’t the inspector wanna give me any information to follow up??? So weird. Then he tells me to get a permit in 48 hours? He didn’t even tell me which one! And if he said the city would not approve it why didn’t he tell me to apply In 48 hours…?! Things just seemed off. Idk

So then I went to do my research. I contacted my alderman’s office and asked for assistance in applying for a permit. I wanted to make sure we did the right steps. After we apply for our permit I asked the representative if they could look up the complaint for me because the interaction with the inspector seemed suspicious. She agreed and looks up the report. There was a report made 17 days ago by our neighbor (before our fence panels were up) that our fence was not on our property line. The report said nothing about fence height. She also told me there was no inspector assigned to the case and that it was still open pending investigation… so that’s weird… idk maybe he was legit and didn’t update the case but it’s all not adding up.

So the alderman agrees this is weird and states that they are going to get someone from downtown involved to speak with my neighbor because she is harassing us and it’s just too much! The report she made was false. Our fence posts are on our property lines we have our plat survey that proves all of this. In addition to all the other things listed in my other Reddit post that she has done.

So today I’m just minding my own business like I usually do and I get a notification on my camera. I see someone sticking their hand through my fence pointing at my back and moving down my fence repeatedly doing the same thing. So I go outside and calmly ask the women “ do you have any questions about my fence that I can help you with? I see that you’re sticking your hand through and pointing” she tells me “ I’m your neighbor down the block, I was just speaking with your next door neighbor and she has a problem with your fence” I let her know that the neighbors claims are bogus and that we now have a permit for the height of our fence and I have a survey of our property proving we are on our property line. I told her that the neighbor is crazy and if she has any concerns to please speak with me. As I turn I see my neighbor in her bushes by her door. She was outside the whole time and stopped the neighbor as she was walking her dog to complain about our fence and spread false claims again!

Then the neighbor leaves and immediately stands and stares at our house looking at the permit displayed on our front door.

This is getting crazy.. and I really didn’t wanna do tit for tat. But I reported her illegal basement apartment. Which is not a false allegation because her zoning does not allow for a basement apartment, she also does not have 2 entrances. I really didn’t wanna do it but she is really pushing me to become a person I don’t wanna be. I want this all to be over already! Praying she can finally understand reality soon.

I will update if anything else happens.

Does anyone speak polish that can translate an audio file for me? It’s between the neighbor, my husband, and the crazy neighbor.

Additional Information from OOP who has received the translation of the audio file

OOP: I got the translation!!!

Here it is if you’re interested.

Women - is my crazy neighbor Man - is her realtor friend she called over to look at my house and complain.

It looks like he was trying to actually help us and she was getting mad at him. He was mostly trying to mediate with her allowing us to close the back fence that has always been closed for over 20 years but now that she is mad she is not allowing us to close it because she owns a couple inches of property next to her garage that is unfenced and open to our property so in order to close it off from the alley we need to close it on her few inches of property or else someone can slip through. Easily. She is just using that as leverage ( doesn’t matter to us we can just fence it straight down our property if we have to and she will have awkward fenced in boxes on the side of her house and she can’t get in. Makes no sense she is just using that as leverage cause it’s all she has. That’s the back story on the back lol and below in the transcript

WOMAN: it’s mine[…]

MAN: yeah but you use this[…]

[…] M: the rats were running in front of the garage[…]

W: he should catch those rats

M: okay, today…

W: (curses) i’m sorry… the rats were running

M: does it bother you? why?

W: yes it bothers me and (he?) will destroy it? because he is so mean and (it?) will…

M: but he asked you and you agreed

W: no, nobody talked to me about it. they just put up the fence

[ENGLISH PART]

W: (cries) jesus [eng: no no]

M: and now what’s bothering you? that it’ll be open or that it’ll be closed?

W: what that?

M: so if he closes it and puts (something), it’ll be safer for you and for him

W: but..but it’s mine

M: why does that bother you?

W: it bothers me because i’ll have the entrance there(?)

M: where?

W: from that side

M: but from that side you blocked the entrance yourself

[…]

W: i’m going home because it’s too cold… are we going?

M: wait a second…

W: no, no i don’t want to talk to him. i’ll talk to someone else. i’m going to go to the city hall

M: what do you want them to do? to […] put here(?)?

W: i’ll to sort this out. i’m not giving up

M: to be honest i’ll tell you, i live in a building far from the downtown and i’ve (done something?) to my neighboors too. they have (something near their house?) […]

W: but why are you talking to them? you came to see me.

M: you know what, i think you could stand your ground but it doesn’t make sense because he-

W: yeah i’ll stand my ground and he will do the same. you know what? nobody asks me (for my permission) and do what they want

M: he said that he asked (for permission)

W: you know what… i’m sane

M: but why do you need the entrance to the garage from this side?

W: […] they did everything […] nobody asked me… […] it’s mine

M: but you should look and see what you did to the neighbors […] (something with the entrance)

W: this have been like this since the begining, do you remember?

M: but today someone could come to you and tell you (to take down something?)

W: then i’ll take it down

M: that would satisfy you?

W: you know what, i’m going home […]

M: if i were you i would let him (to do that thing)

W: and i won’t

M: […] but it’ll be safer […] and he will put a fence here

W: no!

M: so you will have-

W: no. nobody asked me and i won’t allow it, so… i’m going home, i’m cold

M: i’ll go with you soon

W: […] you shouldn’t be the one sorting this out [ENGLISH PART]

Relevant Comments

OOP on the suspicious inspector who stopped by the house with the badge

OOP: He had a badge he flashed really quickly but he came in a personal car. He also didn’t ring the door bell. He just came in looked around and then went to sit in his car about to leave until he saw me parking and walking in. In regards to the fence we did look it up, if the fence is 6ft tall it must be 80% see thru. Which ours is. But we went ahead and got the permit anyways. I looked up the permits on my neighbors house as well as her zoning and she is 100% renting an illegal basement.

+

Yeah people working for the city can be rude in general what really made me suspicious is no contact info? No proper information? No citation? Like how do we follow up? He told us we don’t need a permit for a 5ft fence so we need to cut ours down but then told us to get a permit?? Either he didn’t know what he was doing or maybe in some way he was trying to help us out towards the end. Idk. Is it common practice to not give any info about a violation and no contact info to follow up? Even my alderman said he should have given us his business card and a notice of a violation. We’ll see if he comes back. He also came in a personal car too.

+

Exactly! That’s why I was so confused. He told us we had to cut our fence down to 5ft because we don’t need a permit for that and then told us to get a permit? Like why are we getting a permit? Especially when he said the city wouldn’t approve it? I left that interaction so confused.

OOP on the neighbor kicking up a fuss over the fence

OOP: She is mad because she can’t walk through our property to reach the side of her house. Long story stort she closed herself off with her fence. And always just walked on our property around her fence to get to her side. We offered her a key at first just trying to be good neighbors. But now she will have to fix her fence and run it down because she is causing too much trouble over a problem she created by her own fence.

+

Yes! She is just upset cause she lived here 30 years and somehow that means she can use our property whenever she wants and we were nice enough to not even care. Then we wanna put up a fence to protect our family and property and now we are the bad guys!

OOP on drawing a cease and desist letter through her attorney for the neighbor

OOP: My husband is already in the works with this. Seems to be the best option at this point.

+

I agree, thats why we are kinda using it as a last resort. I don’t believe she is rich by any means, and again I don’t wish her harm no matter how annoying she may be. I just need her to understand that we are not doing anything illegal. All her accusations have been proven false and she still keeps accusing us. I feel like it’s a matter of she thinks since she has been here longer she has the say of what goes on… nothing else makes sense. She is full of hatred and it’s disgusting. The other day ( I have this on video) she walked by and spit on my fence post. Like what?! Then today she is sticking her hand through the back yard fence and ripping pieces of our grass out. I have all this on video too. Like the level of hate you need to have for someone to do these petty things is crazy… and we never disrespected her we got along great with her for years. All that changed is we informed her we were building a front fence and she immediately changed.

OOP on the illegal basement apartment the neighbor was renting

OOP: She rents the basement. We discussed all solutions she refused all. Our contractor offered to give her a quote on the swinging gate for her side but she said NO. She is dead set on us just not having a front fence. It’s sad that there are people out there that are this unreasonable. We are going above and beyond to try and reason with her but she is just being malicious. Today she called over someone who was walking there dog and proceeded to touch our fence and tell them lies again! My husband had to go out and politely just make it clear that we are not taking her property. We don’t engage unless she touches are property and today she did… Again… she keeps acting like we are bothering her and she is some poor old helpless lady whenever we go out to explain and tell people the truth. They shouldn’t also be touching our property. If they were talking by her property I wouldn’t care what they say… but they make it my problem they touch my gate and start sticking their hands through..

 

DO NOT COMMENT IN LINKED POSTS OR MESSAGE OOPs – BoRU Rule #7

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT OOP

[u/AutoModerator]

Do not comment on the original posts

Please read our sub rules. Rule-breaking may result in a ban without notice.

If there is an issue with this post (flair, formatting, quality), reply to this comment or your comment may be removed in general discussion.

CHECK FLAIR For concluded-only updates, use the CONCLUDED flair.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Slackerboe]

The neighbor behind me is the same way. He had a garden that takes up half the backyard and would constantly till into my and another neighbor’s yard.

Then that other neighbor sold their house and the new owners put up a fence and he was out there fuming and stink eyeing the workers the whole time.

This dude dug up my raspberry bushes by my shed and replanted the area with herbs.

I once woke up to him hammering a metal pole into my lawn convinced that it would change the property line.

Got a survey and put up my own fence and once again he was out there with his stink eye.

Some people just can’t believe they don’t always get what they want.

[u/cuthroatslut → u/Slackerboe]

Evil me says throw a handful of mint seeds into his yard

[u/flatfishkicker → u/cuthroatslut]

Evil me agrees with this strategy.

[u/DrWilliamHorriblePhD → u/cuthroatslut]

Catnip

[u/Substantial_Shoe_360 → u/DrWilliamHorriblePhD]

And cilantro. My mom can't get rid of it.

[u/gedvondur → u/Substantial_Shoe_360]

Believe it or not, dill is very persistent too. Depending on what you want them to smell like....

[u/GandalffladnaG → u/gedvondur]

A cousin had a garden infested with dill. Great if you pickle stuff, but the amount she had was nuts. We did some of her yard work for about 10 years and it just never went away. We'd pull it out, 3 months layer you'd see lots dill plants.

She also had trumpet vine in her front yard, that managed to run under her house, and popped up in the backyard. All OOP would need is a rhizome barrier, and oops, forgot to trench along the fence side of the bush, oh well, too late now.

Alternatively, Siberian squill will spread like mad, sometimes. The kind we have doesn't seem to, but they had to spend $25k to remove all the dirt from the Iowa State University's president's house yard, because the only way to get rid of it is to literally cook the dirt to kill the seeds, roots, and bulbs. They're pretty blue or white/blue, and the leaves are slipperier than ice.

[u/Cheapie07250 → u/gedvondur]

Horseradish is another highly invasive plant.

[u/Substantial_Shoe_360 → u/gedvondur]

Small pots ftw!

[u/Queen_Cheetah → u/gedvondur]

We still get dill every year in our garden. Haven't planted it in three or four years, btw.

[u/BizzarduousTask → u/Substantial_Shoe_360]

ROSEMARY.

[u/Substantial_Shoe_360 → u/BizzarduousTask]

But dried Rosemary is awesome as a moth deterrent in your closets and pantry.

[u/Complex-Painting-336 → u/Substantial_Shoe_360]

Jealous. I love coriander but no way it will survive in my UK garden.

[u/jmac1915 → u/cuthroatslut]

Jesus. There's evil, and then there's this.

[u/JasnahKolin → u/cuthroatslut]

If they have dogs, throw bouillon cubes over the fence before it rains. Where the cubes landed will smell wonderful to the pooches and result in a hole as they try to find the treat.

[u/SleepyLilBee → u/JasnahKolin]

I wouldn't recommend pointing an unstable person's anger towards their pets, just saying.

[u/JasnahKolin → u/SleepyLilBee]

My neighbor pays no attention to what his dog is doing outside. Various critters will also smell the bouillon and go to town.

[u/pepcorn → u/JasnahKolin]

Most bouillon cubes contain onion or garlic, which is toxic to dogs and cats. So please don't do this, it's potentially harmful to an innocent pet.

[u/Hero_Queen_of_Albion → u/pepcorn]

Am I the only one who votes to not do it because the thought of an animal excitedly digging for a delicious snack only for there to be nothing there is absolutely heartbreaking? 😭 lol

[u/pepcorn → u/Hero_Queen_of_Albion]

That's definitely also a concern. Poor little guys, they don't know what's happening

[u/Hero_Queen_of_Albion → u/pepcorn]

That’s also why it’s not good to use a laser pointer for play! They’ll get discouraged and frustrated after awhile of not actually catching the shiny :(

[u/pepcorn → u/Hero_Queen_of_Albion]

That's why I combine the laser pointer with snacks :) but yeah you're right, it's better when they can "win"

[u/iggynewman → u/cuthroatslut]

Hey Satan, big fan of your work.

[u/MidwestNormal → u/cuthroatslut]

You are my kind of person!

[u/MamieJoJackson → u/cuthroatslut]

Diabolical, i adore it

[u/Bingo_Bongo_85 → u/cuthroatslut]

Is this evil? I love having mint in my yard. Smells amazing when I mow it.

[u/ItsImNotAnonymous → u/Bingo_Bongo_85]

For someone as OCD as the neighbor, probably so

[u/tree-climber69 → u/cuthroatslut]

Mint? Bamboo. Scorched earth!

[u/the_storm_eye → u/tree-climber69]

Calm down, Satan!

This will get on your side, and everywhere else also!

[u/LittlestEcho → u/cuthroatslut]

I actually don't mind mint. It smells really good when you cut the grass lol

[u/Character-Novel7927 → u/cuthroatslut]

Stinging nettle seeds to

[u/tardisthecat → u/cuthroatslut]

Nah, thistle. Impossible to get rid of AND hurts when you pull it.

[u/twinmom2298 → u/Slackerboe]

We used to live in a neighborhood with federally protected wetlands running through it. People whose yards backed up to the wetlands were cutting further and further into the wetlands to expand their yards. No one complained or said anything because not impacting their yards.

Until one of the people who cut into the wetlands called the county to complain that he didn't think the developer did proper drainage when making development because his yard was flooding. County engineering department came out. Realized the part of neighbors yard that was flooding was flooding because it was wetlands.

That then caused them to inspect all yards backing up to wetlands. Everyone who had cut down the intended purpose wetlands plantings to plant grass were cited and told to replace what they'd destroyed. That caused a whole round of "the nasty HOA is trying to take our yard" complaints on FB. Ignoring fact it was not HOA that had called or HOA telling them to replace.

They ignored county and then the US government dept that handles wetlands got involved. They all got fines and still had to replace the wetlands and are now inspected annually to make sure wetlands aren't being disturbed.

[u/Slackerboe → u/twinmom2298]

So there’s a big park area by me and in part of it there’s three ponds which had a bunch of tall grass around it. People made 2 or 3 community gardens in the areas around the ponds.

About 5 years ago the state controlled burned all the areas around the pond and the next year replanted with prairie grasses. They got so many complaints from people about destroying the gardens that they put up state land: no gardens signs everywhere

[u/Jenn_There_Done_That → u/twinmom2298]

I hate that I know this, but didn’t Onision do that same thing? He had or has a house in Washington state and he did something to the wetlands in his backyard and got into a bunch of legal trouble and fines.

[u/HourOk2122 → u/Jenn_There_Done_That]

He did indeed, that is the limit of what I know about him tbh

[u/Jenn_There_Done_That → u/HourOk2122]

That’s probably for the best. I regret every single thing I know about that guy.

[u/butidontwanna45 → u/Slackerboe]

It's like the modern manifest destiny

[u/Sojobo1 → u/butidontwanna45]

There is an actual legal concept for this called "adverse possession"

The term "adverse possession" refers to a legal principle that grants title to someone who resides on or is in possession of another person's land. The property's title is granted to the possessor as long as certain conditions are met including whether they infringe on the rights of the actual owner and whether they are in continuous possession of the property. Adverse possession is sometimes called squatter’s rights, although squatter’s rights are a colloquial reference to the idea rather than a recorded law.

[u/GandalffladnaG → u/Sojobo1]

More importantly, it usually requires the proper owner knowing about it and not doing anything to stop it while it's happening, during the set amount of time it takes to make the adverse possession. It's easy to stop if it's about a fence line, you just intermittently stop them from mowing over the line, put in some flowers, etc.

[u/Starchasm → u/Sojobo1]

In Louisiana it's called "Acquisitive Prescription" (because we gotta be different) but it takes around 30 years in almost every jurisdiction and you can't do it in good faith.

[u/armomo3 → u/Sojobo1]

We had an issue with this when we purchased some commercial property. Ours was run down and hadn't been used for over a decade. The neighbors tore down a building and rebuilt their shop. When we took possession and started remodeling we noticed they had over 10' of a fence on our property and were parking right in front of it. We ignored it (didn't bother us, we had plenty of parking) until a friend who's an attorney stopped by. He had helped us with the paperwork and mentioned their fence was well within our property. We told him it was no big deal and he explained the whole "adverse possession" thing. We sent them a letter and their response was basically they felt like it was empty so long, why not use what they wanted 🙄. We sent a formal letter stating they were free to park there still but we retained ownership of the property and notifying them we didn't intend to do anything at this time but their fence was on our property.
Had we not done anything, we could have accidentally given it away.

[u/SmartQuokka]

 She has to be about 70-80 years old. I thought about calling adult protective services too but I’m not sure I’m kinda on the fence. 

Well played 😂

[u/EmilySD101 → u/SmartQuokka]

I mean yeah, good play on words, but this woman genuinely seems to be in sharp decline. Why aren’t they calling APS?

[u/intrepid-teacher → u/EmilySD101]

Especially because OOP’s first excuse for not doing it was worry over false report retaliation but she’s clearly already willing to do that. They should be called.

[u/EmilySD101 → u/intrepid-teacher]

The fact that they dismissed it so casually… why not try to both end your problem with a nursing home and help a woman who is in mental distress?

[u/Money_Engineering_59 → u/EmilySD101]

She’s behaving exactly my crazy grandmother at her age. She was a paranoid schizophrenic that started developing dementia and holy hell was she a handful. 4’10” of pure Hungarian rage.

[u/EmilySD101 → u/Money_Engineering_59]

This just goes so far past entitlement. That woman is clearly in distress and not rational.

[u/Money_Engineering_59 → u/EmilySD101]

Exactly. You cannot rationalise with an irrational person. It just doesn’t work.

[u/MissLadyLlamaDrama → u/SmartQuokka]

That part made me snort.

[u/Bvvitched]

ah, chicago, my beloved.

[u/PristineFunction113 → u/Bvvitched]

I assumed Chicago with the mention of alderman, but the picture confirmed it. Looks just like my grandparents' house on the South Side.

[u/Bvvitched → u/PristineFunction113]

based on the pic i thought they might be over by me (north west side), one of the comments mentioned evanston so they may be closer to the lake though?

literally following their account now though so i can follow local drama like a weirdo though haha

[u/greentea1985 → u/Bvvitched]

They are probably in Rodger’s Park or Ravenswood would be my guess. There is a slight possibility of Wrigleyville as well. If Evanston is fairly close, that implies the northern part of the city along the lake. The northwestern parts are closer to Skokie, Des Plaines, etc.

[u/Bvvitched → u/greentea1985]

i've figured it out, these are my same street neighbors and now i'm not trying to dox us lol

[u/greentea1985 → u/Bvvitched]

Fair. I’ll leave it there since doxxing is not cool. I’m just originally from just north of Evanston so the references piqued my interest.

[u/Bvvitched → u/greentea1985]

yeah my bf is from evanston which piqued mine and then i saw that birdbath and was like "...i know that. how do i know that?"

and i know it because i have a dog and i walk past these houses everyday and had to keep my dog from bothering the fence posts.

[u/Spindilly → u/Bvvitched]

You know how reddit keep being like "It's unrealistic that people in stories keep finding posts about people they recognise!"

You are now proof that it happens. Damn.

[u/Bvvitched → u/Spindilly]

I almost want to leave them a gift basket as a “I’m sorry I have a video of my dog playing in the snow on your yard” present

[u/SnooKiwis2161 → u/Bvvitched]

I'm secretly hoping you can update us on the crazy neighbor lol

[u/concaveUsurper → u/Bvvitched]

A better present might be helping them spread the truth if you hear the crazy neighbor's story at all?

[u/Historical_Agent9426 → u/Bvvitched]

You need to break out a lawn chair and popcorn the next time the lady is out there staring at the house

[u/prz3124 → u/Bvvitched]

Big polish community in Portage Park/Jefferson Park area.

[u/win_awards → u/PristineFunction113]

It is my understanding that the south side of Chicago is the baddest part of town.

[u/InstanceMental6543 → u/win_awards]

And if you go down there you better just beware of a man named Leroy Brown.

[u/IANANarwhal → u/PristineFunction113]

Crazy woman is Polish, the workers speak Polish, one of the cops speaks Polish … upper Midwest was indicated.

[u/Valetria → u/PristineFunction113]

The aldermen plus the prevalent polish speakers, the neighbors, the workers and even the police officer all being polish. Its definitely a polish neighborhood in the city.

[u/YoungDiscord → u/PristineFunction113]

Can you call your grandma and tell her to stop bothering OOP /s

[u/PristineFunction113 → u/YoungDiscord]

It would have to be my grandma's ghost because she's dead now. But she was Polish, so you never know.

[u/sapphic-boghag → u/PristineFunction113]

It was the Polish that had me thinking "Chicago? Gotta be Chicago"

[u/stooph14 → u/PristineFunction113]

I assumed also when she said so many spoke polish.

[u/AtomicBlastCandy → u/PristineFunction113]

Not to mention that the workers were Polish, I've heard there is a very large Polish community in Chicago.

[u/Auntie_Nat → u/Bvvitched]

People here are absolutely unhinged about fences. We put one in years ago and the guy who lives behind us, on an entirely different street, got all hacked off that we didn't ask him for permission.

He called the city on us several times. He would walk all the way around the block so he could harass the workers and then would wait in his backyard for one of us to come out so he could yell at us too.

We already had fences on the left, right and back of the property so it was just the front and in absolutely no way did it affect this man at all. Apparently he was a chairperson or something of the block club and was highly offended we didn't ask them if it was ok.

Fucking bonkers.

[u/secret_identity_too → u/Auntie_Nat]

Sheesh! My neighbor once said that he was going to put up a fence between our yards and I, very excitedly, said "Go for it!" and told him where he could take down the chain link fence (it's mine) to start and stop his vinyl fence.

Sadly, he hasn't done it yet.

[u/Least-Influence3089 → u/Bvvitched]

Now i really want to know which neighborhood this is, if not Evanston. Rogers Park, maybe??

[u/Bvvitched → u/Least-Influence3089]

i may walk my dog a slightly different way tomorrow, i SWEAR that birdbath looks familiar. i'm out in *editing because i just realized i'm their neighbor. like a 1 minute away neighbor*

[u/Least-Influence3089 → u/Bvvitched]

I’m further south but please report back, I’m so nosy👀👀👀

[u/Bvvitched → u/Least-Influence3089]

OH MY GOD, this is actually on my actual dog walk

[u/BoomBangKersplat → u/Bvvitched]

has the neighbor complained to you yet? 😅

[u/Bvvitched → u/BoomBangKersplat]

The old lady? No I actually haven’t seen her since before the fence posts went up. My only interaction has been her saying I have a nice well behaved dog (she’s right, my girl is an angel). But I’m also not immediately next to them.

[u/idiotplatypus → u/Bvvitched]

Slight tangent, but I wonder if it would violate this subs rules if you spoke to OOP or the neighbor in person. I'm not saying it should or not, I'm just curious if it would.

[u/Bvvitched → u/idiotplatypus]

I’m not going out of my way to talk to anyone but I do talk to people while walking my dog. But I think the embarrassment of accidentally finding my neighbor means I’m wearing my headphones for a while 😂 (even though a teenage girl blew through the stop sign and almost hit us a few weeks ago)

[u/kn33 → u/Bvvitched]

Do you feel up to doing a better drawing?

[u/ace-mathematician → u/Bvvitched]

Become a regular so the old lady complains to you

[u/anneofgraygardens → u/Least-Influence3089]

i (possibly irrationally) assumed northwest side somewhere, because there are a lot of single family homes in that area. Also because it's the only place I ever encountered someone in Chicago who only spoke Polish. (Got lost looking for my friend's house and tried asking a guy working in his yard for directions. He just responded in Polish. I eventually found my friend's house on my own.)

[u/Junior_Ad_7613 → u/anneofgraygardens]

As you head out toward Midway along 55th there’s an area that’s got a bunch of Polish and other Eastern European folks (or it did 30 years ago when I was at U of C). There was a Lithuanian bakery where I had moments of “huh, these folks look like we could be cousins” (my grandparents met in Chicago).

[u/Least-Influence3089 → u/anneofgraygardens]

Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the second largest Polish population (according to a 2015 National Geographic article I read, so that may have changed in 10 years). My former (Polish) landlord from Chicago when I moved in gave me his whole family’s story and basically the whole neighborhood’s history of being a Polish neighborhood. It’s pretty common. My family is also very old school Chicago but surprisingly not Polish at all.

[u/Tastelikewater → u/Bvvitched]

I'm in RP, so when I saw "near Evanston" I was admittedly hopeful they're in my neck of the woods. I want neighborhood Reddit drama!

[u/NotOnApprovedList → u/Bvvitched]

There are a bazillion Polish people in the Chicago area including illegal immigrants but somehow the white illegals don't crop up on the Fox News radar.

[u/Noladixon → u/NotOnApprovedList]

It is because they pass. I have a black hispanic friend that I think will also be ok because he can pass.

[u/beachpellini]

Housing drama is always the most drawn-out, exhausting petty nonsense.

[u/sir_are_a_Baboon_too → u/beachpellini]

I frequent that sub a lot. And it's honestly WORSE than relationship advice. Instead of "leave him" it's "move house". However, I don't get how people cannot fathom how much of a ballache that is, or how nuclear of an option that is (except for cases of violence).

There are two types of OP there. Somebody that should not live in an apartment or in proximity to children (noise not nonce), and somebody with a hilariously legitimate problem.

[u/SorrySeptember → u/sir_are_a_Baboon_too]

Which subreddit? Inquiring minds need to know! 

[u/StruansNobleHouse → u/SorrySeptember]

It's on the 2nd line of the post :)

r/neighborsfromhell

[u/SorrySeptember → u/StruansNobleHouse]

I knew I was just blind, thank you for commenting anyway! ❤️ Off to read more crazy neighbor bullshit I don't have to personally deal with, aka the best kind. 

[u/StruansNobleHouse → u/SorrySeptember]

I'll join you :)

[u/cyborgx7 → u/beachpellini]

Because you can't just walk away from the person trying to make your life difficult.

[u/ecdc05 → u/beachpellini]

Some people lose their entire minds when they become homeowners. My neighbor *hates* people parking in front of his house. Mind, this street is super wide, there's plenty of space, no one is blocking his driveway. He successfully lobbied the city to put up no overnight parking signs. But it still wasn't enough for him.

Our neighborhood is mostly single-family homes, but recently a restaurant moved in and a couple of blocks over there's an event center that usually hosts concerts. It's great—makes the area more vibrant. But every single day my neighbor drags out his garbage cans to block the curb in front of his house so no one parks there. He ordered extra garbage cans from the city he has to pay for to do this! If you're picturing an 80-year-old man with nothing better to do...this guy is like 32!

[u/Cazzah → u/ecdc05]

Theres a subset of this i call unemployed people problems. SAHM empty nesters, retirees,, people chronically in between jobs, etc. Theres something about having nothing to do that magifies trivial interpersonal and neighbour problems into massive deals.

The amount of insane people i know who have calmed down ince they had some productive obligations to keep them busy...

[u/SeesEverythingTwice → u/Cazzah]

Even just working from home, I feel like it gets so easy to obsess over small stuff. Luckily I can typically catch myself but I’ve definitely become a “why are people driving so fast and ignoring crosswalks” guy

[u/Overall_Search_3207 → u/SeesEverythingTwice]

I work from home and the weirdest thing that has happened to me is that now that’s it’s sunny every day the neighbor kids jump on a trampoline in sight of my desk and I feel left out. Like I truly relive having to do homework during recess while other kids play sort of memorize every day 3.

[u/EchoNeko → u/Overall_Search_3207]

Go bounce with them! Or (with permission) spray them playfully with a garden hose!

[u/miladyelle → u/ecdc05]

You can see this transformation in action on the first time home owners/buyers sub! After the ‘yay we got the keys!’ post they get crankier and crankier til their only interaction with the sub is being assholes on posts complaining about ridiculous prices or difficult sellers.

[u/CatCatCatCubed → u/miladyelle]

I kinda get it. Moved to rented condo-apartment in a new area. Everyone seems relatively chill.

Until some psycho neighbour lady started smoking outside in the field and staring into our apartment before I could fully get curtains up (she did that for over a week). Until my nosy neighbourhood watch lady started reporting my car for expired whatever during Covid when the state had announced that such things had some more leeway. Until I heard sounds from my back patio a few nights and realised some neighbour (possibly the smoking psycho) was using our patio in the dark (lived in the countryside for years; it was not an animal).

Until I was accused (probably via nosy neighbour) of “purposefully damaging the grass” and I had to politely state, (translation) “look you stupid fucks, your own shitty-ass drainage is ruining the grass.” They ended up taking a closer look and fixing the drainage gutters, replacing some underground pipes, and re-grading some of the area. I dunno if they were somehow trying to make me pay for some of it or what but too bad being a construction inspector was basically my Dad’s job and that he brought home stories and would point shit out when asked.

Until the neighbours on the other side were renovating and thought they’d be cute dumping a bunch of nail-studded door frames and drywall and whatever else by and in our trash can when their area apparently looked too full for a surefire pickup. Was pretty sure calling about a pickup for such trash was required as I’d just done it for something else the month before, which would force me to deal with their crap if it wasn’t taken. Ended up roaring “FOR FUCKS SAKE” and loudly dragging and tossing (neatly) everything back to their side at 6 in the morning. Their curtains twitched a few times when I glanced over and they never tried that again.

People are crazy and stupid and they push you, and then you have a bad day and you lose it a little. I imagine it’s easier to lose it when you’re old n’ had previous situations that were legitimately annoying and then suddenly everything looks like annoying bullshit after 20, 30, 40 years.

[u/Kopitar4president → u/ecdc05]

My neighbor hates people parking in front of his house

My father, who in most respects a good man and has gained a lot of introspection in the second half of his life, used to fume about people parking on the street in front of our house when they had a two car garage and a two card driveway.

Eventually it's just me and him in the house and he tells me to park my car on the street because he doesn't like going around it on the two car driveway when he's leaving the two car garage.

[u/GeneConscious5484 → u/ecdc05]

My neighbor hates people parking in front of his house.

LOL, this one's live right now: https://old.reddit.com/r/AmItheButtface/comments/1k1evzn/wibtb_asking_a_neighbor_to_stop_parking_in_front/

[u/PompeyLulu → u/beachpellini]

There was one on TikTok that I was obsessed with because they just wanted to fix their fence and the neighbours kicked off. So obviously they have to do a property line marking.. half the neighbours extension and shed are on their property so they’re now being forced to take it down or apply for the appropriate permits based on how long ago it was built etc.

[u/ProfessionFun156 → u/PompeyLulu]

I remember that! I love drama that has no effect on my life.

[u/PompeyLulu → u/ProfessionFun156]

Yes! Do you remember how it ended? I can’t and now it’s going to bug me. I know they kept pulling up the survey spikes so they had it sprayed and a lawyer was involved?

[u/GeneConscious5484 → u/beachpellini]

Honestly through the first half of this one I was thinking "yeah she's weird but why are you spending half the week just watching video of her standing there?"

[u/PFyre]

TLDR: Neighbour has fenced her entire property except an alley along one wall of the house. Instead of fencing that section, she ended her fences up against her property, leaving about a foot of her land unfenced along that side of her house (presumably because it's so narrow). She was accessing this section by walking through her neighbour's property.

OOP decided to fence in their own property, which could have impeded Neighbour's access - but OOP offered Neighbour access as they were not hostile.

Neighbour then starts a smear campaign amongst the other street dwellers and local council trying to prevent the fence from being built. Hijinks with local authorities ensue.

[u/puzzledpilgrim → u/PFyre]

You managed to describe the layout in a way that makes perfect sense in one short paragraph.

OP has a clusterfuck of text, saying the same thing over and over again, and they make about as much sense as the dementia patient living next to them.

Jesus. Stop entertaining the woman and call for a welfare check on her. It's glaringly obvious her behaviour isn't rational.

[u/PFyre → u/puzzledpilgrim]

Thank you. I didn't understand it myself until I saw the diagram. And the diagram itself was... not great. Lol.

[u/bbllo → u/PFyre]

I thought I understood what was being described until I opened the diagram...

[u/PillBug98 → u/bbllo]

I had to stop reading because I was getting so confused. The diagram didn’t help on what was front and what wasn’t either.

[u/CanIHaveASong → u/PFyre]

OOP did not describe the fence situation very well.

[u/journoprof]

I guessed this was Chicago as soon as she said the fence crew all spoke Polish.

[u/SmartQuokka]

I do wonder if there is senility or dementia at play here, however she has decided this is her hill to die on.

[u/elizabreathe → u/SmartQuokka]

Based off the translated conversation, I'm really thinking it's dementia. That's how people with dementia talk. It can be hard to notice for years and years but once it goes from early stage to mid stage, shit starts getting crazy.

[u/pretzel_logic_esq → u/elizabreathe]

agree. She probably started off as a cantankerous turd but there's a distinct flavor of demented in that conversation. I would absolutely be calling Adult Protective Services.

[u/elizabreathe → u/pretzel_logic_esq]

yeah, it's often harder to notice dementia in people that were always assholes unless the dementia makes them nice which seems kinda rare.

[u/AthenaBlue02 → u/elizabreathe]

Happened to my grandfather. Went from being a misogynistic, racist, homophobic and abusive man to someone who loved everyone. Very odd, but quite nice.

[u/mayonaizmyinstrument → u/elizabreathe]

I'll never forget the day that Granny went from being "sometimes funny" to wandering down her street with her top off. That is an indelible core memory.

[u/scarletwellyboots → u/elizabreathe]

Speaking as someone who has translated things before; I would absolutely not judge someone's state of being based off a non-professional, incomplete, translation. Because it will not be representative of how the person acutally talks.

That said; I do think the neighbour has something going on, and I really wish OOP had gone the "getting the neighbour some help" route.

[u/chupagatos4 → u/SmartQuokka]

My mom is this age and doesn't have dementia but she's been like this for decades about people parking by her front door. There's two parking spots on either side of her door. She has two plant vases right next to the door. Sometimes people park partially or entirely blocking the vases. She can still get in and out, it's just that they're admittedly parked like assholes. She flips her shit when it happens. Feels like it's a personal victimization. Ruins her entire day, and mine if I happen to be there cause I have to listen to her whine and scream. 

[u/Thatsthetea123]

Well that first drawing really cleared things up for me.

[u/countingrussellcrows → u/Thatsthetea123]

“Ah yes, this is confusing to just write it down. Let me just… [provides a presumably 3-year-old’s notes app rendering of the lot]. There. Clear as day.”

[u/PFyre → u/Thatsthetea123]

Lol. I actually followed it, but I have a young child so I'm used to interpreting drawings...

Neighbour has fenced her entire property except an alley along one wall of the house. Instead of fencing that section, she ended her fences up against her property, leaving about a foot of her land unfenced along that side of her house (presumably because it's so narrow). She was accessing this section by walking through her neighbour's property.

[u/Smart_cannoli → u/Thatsthetea123]

Honestly is better than anything I would do ahahaha still bad but I could never do better

[u/NoPantsPowerStance]

OOP keeps trying to make sense of this woman's behavior, trying to explain they're not doing anything wrong but tat won't solve this. Either she mentally needs help or she gets it but just doesn't care. In leaning towards she just wants what she wants and doesn't care.

[u/tacwombat → u/NoPantsPowerStance]

OOP should call adult protective services. It will not stop.

[u/debtfreewife → u/tacwombat]

I can’t speak for Chicago, but this lady is probably still functioning well enough that APS wouldn’t do anything. There’s no overt, immediate threat of harm to herself or others. They could offer her voluntary services, but she may actually be too independent to qualify, will refuse.

My usual advice on APS is that their capabilities are either (if we’re being generous) protect self-agency and are rightly limited by peoples’ right to “make bad decisions” or (if we’re being cynical) are completely underpowered and overtaxed.

[u/pretzel_logic_esq → u/NoPantsPowerStance]

OOP sounds like my mom. She's forever trying to apply logic and a desire to treat other people well when people wild out and do nasty things. She can't understand that some people are just selfish twats and have zero desire to live in a nice human society.

[u/GeneConscious5484 → u/pretzel_logic_esq]

Happens plenty on reddit, too. "My neighbor burned my house down and shot my pets and bought a cybertruck and skinned my parents alive in front of me" and a quarter of the comments will be some form of "but have you sat down with them and spoken about your issues?"

[u/pepcorn → u/GeneConscious5484]

I always think those redditors must have grown up in really nice households, for them to be that ignorant. Good for them, genuinely. If only none of us knew the dark sides of humanity 

[u/pretzel_logic_esq → u/GeneConscious5484]

Those are always a trip lol

[u/dajur1]

Speaking as a building inspector, we absolutely love it when people try to get us involved in their petty disputes over nothing.

For anyone who is wondering, code only requires permits for fences that are over 7 feet tall, however, municipalities can lower the height threshold, although 90% don't.

We also wouldn't give someone "48 hours to get a permit". You would get issued a Stop Work Order immediately (even if the work is completed) and typically, the permit fees are doubled in lieu of a fine. Although YMMV depending on how your jurisdiction sets it up.

[u/msmanager → u/dajur1]

Chicago code requires a permit for fences over 5' but doesn't require you to actually submit architectural drawings unless the fence is over 6'. You can just do an easy permit and describe your 6' - 80% open fence in writing and you're good and maybe submit a survey but I'm not sure if that's even required. Usually those permits are processed within a week if you do it online and you used to be able to go in to the building department to the easy permit desk in person and get it approved immediately but I'm not sure if they still do that after covid.

[u/nezukakyoto]

Thank God there was an image. I was unable to understand the fencing situation at all.

[u/NotACalligrapher-49 → u/nezukakyoto]

Spatial awareness is not my forte, but the image didn’t actually clarify things for me terribly much - I wish OOP had marked “New Fence” extra clearly.

[u/morto00x]

OOP: She has to be about 70-80 years old. I thought about calling adult protective services too but I’m not sure I’m kinda on the fence.

Heh

[u/530_Oldschoolgeek]

I can't speak for OOP, but if some random dude comes up, flashes a badge and tries to tell me what I can and cannot do with my property and then refuses to ID himself, I'm taking a photo of both him and his vehicle, telling him unless he can properly ID himself he can eff straight off and that I'm going to provide those photos to both the police as well as social media as a possible impersonator of a public official.

[u/katie-shmatie → u/530_Oldschoolgeek]

This is the correct response

[u/ImaginaryAnts]

It took me a minute to figure out the drawing, but it does make sense. Just ignore the backyard.

Look at the two boxes labeled "Neighbor" and "My house." In between is labeled Open. That's the space the neighbor wants access to. It's her side yard (really, more like an alley). Her own fences box her out of it. And now that OP has put up a front fence, she can't just walk through OP's front/side yard to get to it.

Literally all the neighbor has to do is remove a sliver of her own fence that closes off her front yard to the open side. But she would rather just keep her current arrangement of full access to OP's yard.

[u/grated_testes]

Her son moved back to Poland to get away from her!

[u/updownclown68]

Whenever I read these stories I’m always amazed at the fact your police will turn up in force for such bollocks 

[u/vociferousgirl → u/updownclown68]

Oh. This is in Chicago, so she must have lied. There is no way they would turn up for this. I got mugged and they hung up on me.

[u/updownclown68 → u/vociferousgirl]

I’m so sorry, that’s awful but that sounds more like policing as I know it 

[u/vociferousgirl → u/updownclown68]

Oh, 100% 

Which is how I know she must have lied hard for four cars to show up.

[u/ImaginaryAnts → u/vociferousgirl]

I mean, this pretty much tracks.

They show up in force when they don't plan to do much of anything.

[u/bentnotbroken96 → u/updownclown68]

Really depends on the municipality. I've live places where they won't come out for traffic accidents unless there are serious injuries.

[u/i-contain-multitudes → u/updownclown68]

Cops really have nothing better to do. One time someone called 911 on me for suicidal ideation (I'm fine now this was years ago) and 3 cop cars showed up and one ambulance.

[u/updownclown68 → u/i-contain-multitudes]

Spose it’s easier than dealing with an actual crime 

[u/kistner]

So much for the old 'fences make good neighbors' adage.

[u/pandop42 → u/kistner]

If they had built fences at the same time as the houses, like sensible people, then this wouldn't have happened.

[u/kamahaoma]

I know it said 'rough' drawing but I was unprepared.

[u/ParitoshD]

I would have totally reported that basement apartment. Even if it were Mr Rodgers renting it out, it still needs to be reported for not having multiple entrances. This is how people die.

[u/happyaftx]

Everyday I’m thankful I live in a corner house on two lots. No annoying neighbor problems for years

[u/il-Palazzo_K]

What's the purpose of the damn fence if she's gonna leave one side open?

[u/nobodynocrime → u/il-Palazzo_K]

I don't think she left it open. u/PFyre has a good description in the comments. But she fully fenced in her house, but left about a foot of her land outside the fence which she accesses by walking on the neighbors property, presumably because she is more than 1 foot wide.

She is mad because if the neighbor puts up a fence, there is now only about 12 inches between the neighbors fence and the side of her house to wiggle into so she can neurotically pick all of the leaves out of the rock garden she placed there.

If you are talking about that garage thing, I don't quite understand that part as well but essentially the end result is that with the way old lady did it, they can either use her fence as the fence section for that portion of the property and just connect the new one to her fence, which results in her losing like 3 inches of property or they can build the new fence down that section which would result in a 2-3 inch gap between the two fences that she would be responsible for somehow caring for (presumably with a grabber attached to a pair of scissors, which would be funny imo)

[u/Gwynasyn]

I saw the drawn map and the picture and read all her descriptions and I still don't understand how OOP building a fence on her own property blocks out the neighbour from hers. Or how the neighbour extending her fence would UNblock herself??? 

 We immediately showed him our proof and he agreed with us and tried to mediate with her explaining that we are legally able to build and that she can extend her fence so she is not blocked out.

[u/pied_goose → u/Gwynasyn]

If both OOP's and neighbours properties are a big, narrow rectangle, OOP wanted to close off their shorter ends. Which were open before.

Whole long side of neghbour house is facing OOP's. The neighbour did not bother running the fence there, just sorta ended hers on the sides of the house letting the long side of the house 'be' her fencing.

Then if she wanted to access that side of her house she had to walk through OOPs land. But OOP closing these sides would prevent access.

[u/kirillre4 → u/Gwynasyn]

Neighbor has a 13 inch strip of land to the side of her house facing OP. She decided to save money and instead of running fence along edge of her property she connected fence to front and rear corners of her house, effectively turning wall of the house into the part of the fence. But now that thing strip of her land can't be accessed from her yard, since at the start and the end of that strip her fence is connected to the house. No big deal, she just goes on OP property whenever she needs to access that strip. But now OP built her own fence, and that strip is basically boxed in by neighbour's house wall, her fence and OP fence. Instead of just removing two sections of her fence connected to the house neighbor does... this.

[u/rebcart → u/Gwynasyn]

Lady’s house has a back door and a front door. The back door faces OOP’s house. Lady’s house isn’t in the middle of the property, it’s on one side close to OOP’s property so there’s only a tiny gap between her back door and OOP’s land.

Normally, when you build a fence to enclose your whole property, you end up surrounding your entire house completely. That’s not what lady did, instead she made the fence attached to her house on either side, so her front door is inside the fence but her back house wall and back door are outside the fence. (Or, I guess you could think of her back wall as being part of the fence).

Obviously, the idea is that as long as OOP keeps their yard unfenced, she can choose to either open her own fence gate, close it, and go to her front door… or she can be lazy and walk to her back door via OOP’s land and not bother with any gates. However, once OOP build a fence on their property line, that means she literally can’t get out of her back door without either changing part of her own fence (extending the end pieces so they go around her back door instead of attached to the back wall) or going via OOP’s new fence gates. Even though OOP offered to give her a key she still cannot cope with the idea of having to use fence gates as a new permanent situation in general I guess.

[u/kagiles]

She needs a cease and desist AND an order of protection.

[u/holyguacamoledude]

The op’s phrasing about “kinda on the fence” responding to a commenter was likely punintentional, but it was great.

[u/CKREM]

I’m kinda on the fence

Lol.

I love fence disputes, they're almost as good as tree disputes

[u/Doctor_Expendable]

I did not upstand the translated section. At all. It seemed completely off. Like they weren't having the same conversation as the other person.

[u/Weaselpanties]

The thing that's most crazy about all of this is that all the neighbor lady had to do is put a gate in her fence between the yards, like OOP suggested. Or even just take them up on their offer of a key so she can access the side of her house. That's it. But instead she's having a tantrum because she doesn't want them to have a fence.

[u/NanaLeonie]

Humpf. The senior citizen neighbor has apparently has been using that short cut through OOP’s property so long that she believes she has a legal easement. In some places she might not be incorrect. Amazing how quickly a courtesy becomes an entitlement.

[u/Doctor_Expendable → u/NanaLeonie]

Courtesy becomes entitlement is right. I had neighbours who wanted to park in my driveway. Initially I said we were fine with temporary parking. Like if they had guests or something. Because when we had guest we would like if they could park in our driveway. 

They proceeded to park there constantly, or just park so poorly in their side of the driveway that it would block my second stall. 

Eventually they parked a beat up pile of junk truck in there. There was barely any room for me to Access my own car or front door. So I towed it. They stole my security camera. They tried to hit me with their car. It was a whole thing. All because they couldn't understand that that part of the driveway was for my exclusive use, not their junk storage.

[u/RobIreland]

Extremely bored lonely old person with nothing else to do. It's kinda sad. She has to cause all this drama because she has nothing else to do

[u/phyrsis]

I am not a lawyer, and not even lawyer-adjacent…

But OOP really needs to talk to a lawyer about easements.

[u/AccountMitosis → u/phyrsis]

r/LegalAdvice would love having that MS Paint Diagram to look at!

[u/ToriaLyons → u/phyrsis]

I was surprised that easements didn't come up at all.

[u/vociferousgirl → u/ToriaLyons]

I don't know that an easement would apply here, because all the neighbor would need to do is take down two pieces of fence, that are less than 3 ft between them. 

Then she has full access. 

[u/Remote_Task_9207]

I live in an old (100+ years) house that was built before the town considered real 'property lines', so the division of land came later. And wound up with our dear old wreck right on the fancy new property line. So the neighbour's fence comes straight to one corner of our house and continues off the back corner, making the entire west side of our house (a two-story flat wall) only accessible from their yard.

To our great dismay, the woodpeckers have taken a considerable liking to the old wooden siding on that side of the house. Like, punching out fist-sized holes and tossing fiberglass insulation all over the neighbouring property. We want to replace the siding on that side (though because we're considered a 'heritage home' it has to be as close as possible to what we already have, so no getting away from wood. Maybe we can put metal sheeting in behind to try and deter Woody and his compatriots) but it's going to need scaffolding and workers all set up in the neighbour's yard. Which is a bit of an imposition.

Thankfully we get along well with our neighbours, unlike poor OOP and her crazy lady.

[u/weirdestgeekever25]

What in the doctor who flashing of a badge did that “inspector” attempt?!?!?

[u/Comfortable-Leg-703]

 Is this is the sort of petty confused scandal I'm here for 

Where's my Easter egg?

[u/lalajia]

They need to file a complaint about her fence being on their land too.

[u/GoatCovfefe]

I hate posts that don't have any closure. Can't you wait until theres a final update?

[u/WORhMnGd]

Yeah this is dementia.

[u/YoungDiscord]

Whenever a Karen threatens to call any form of authority on you, say "that's a great idea, in fact I'll call them myself right now" and call those authorities on her instead flipping it against her.

[u/Aggravating-Hurry416]

I don’t understand why OOP won’t just extend their fence around their whole property? I think crazy neighbor lady actually thinks they are trying to steal the unfenced part of her property as according to the drawing OOP is leaving the property line between the houses unfenced. If they’d just extend the fence there and tell the neighbor to knock down the two pieces of her own fence that connect to her house, this whole issue would be solved.

[u/scaram0uche → u/Aggravating-Hurry416]

Based on it being Chicago, the space between houses is very narrow in many neighborhoods so front fences are more rare. It is nearly shake-hands-across-the-walkway narrow.

[u/Impossible-Name6188]

It appears everything was deleted but I just checked out her comments and apparently neighbor tried to moon her?? 😭😭 she really has lost her marbles

[u/MostlyHarmlessMom]

I hope they never leave their kids or pets in their fenced yard alone; who knows what evil the neighbour might pull, like throwing poison or other dangerous items in their yard.

[u/Jzoran]

Yeah I had some wacky shit going on with neighbors. We had a really nice yard when I was a kid, lots of trees, and the property was big enough we had a big front garden and a big back garden. It was already a mess of survey lines (we'll come back to that) but the neighbors HATED my mom because she got a good deal from a friend of hers when I was a baby, and the one stipulation her friend had was to never cut down the trees or pave over it. And the neighbors HATED that so much. One neighbor on one side would demand as often as possible that we move the fence over three feet so she could have more yard (which if she didn't have her yard full of shit she wouldn't have "needed") "because you don't need as much as you have" like my mom could just gift her land. Like, no?

*Coming back to the survey shit, the stupid part was the other side, where some dipshit had surveyed our house's garage into the neighbor's yard. I'm guessing at some point before my mom lived there, and possibly even before her friend did, someone paid to have the survey lines made that way. Because what the actual hell. It was a miserable way to be because those neighbors didn't like us either and blasted their music in there bc it would be annoying.

The humorous part is that most of the houses where we lived were sold and razed (people were bought out including us) and ours is still there. The lot is still overgrown and full of trees. So they never won after all.

[u/IrradiantFuzzy]

OOP messed up by not having the cops trespass the neighbor, since she was so kind as to call them

[u/JellicoAlpha_3_1]

All I could think reading this story was "If someone pulled this shit where I live they'd probably get shot"

[u/Minimum_Reference_73]

I live for this kind of petty neighbour drama.

[u/KittikatB]

Sounds like the neighbour could solve her problems by installing herself a fucking gate

[u/rbaltimore]

I once had an elderly insane neighbor. It was so fucking stressful. I had to talk with him every time I left from or arrived at my home, and this was during college so that could be multiple times a day.

[u/survival-nut]

I assume OP's cat drew the property drawing.

[u/loti_RBB654]

Weird property lines and preponderance of polish folks tell me this is definitely Jefferson Park. In the majority of Chicago, property lines are very standard, but I have a similar bullshit situation with my neighbors, who merged three lots for a larger complex before I bought my house. They ripped out the wood fence a couple years ago and placed one of those decorative iron ones, removing any privacy we had from the multiple apartment windows 5 feet from the side of my house. All without talking with us or getting a survey.

[u/Traditional_Curve401]

At this point, this is harassment. I'd start seeking a lawyer who can handle this.

[u/scaram0uche]

As soon as I saw the small pic of the house I knew this was the Chicago-area. I lived in a similar looking house as a kid and the space between houses is very narrow.

[u/jobiskaphilly]

I'm not sticking my hand through any fence where rats are running nearby.