Unfortunately, you cannot pick your neighbors. You may get a bad neighbor who constantly looks for ways to aggravate you or who actually infringes on your rights. Maybe they use your property without permission, build structures too close to the property line or start a dispute about where that line even is.
What can you do? This is tough because it’s hard to get away from it. It’s not as if you can go home and have a break. You live around it all the time. Here are a few things you can do:
- Try to meet them. Talk to them. See if you can become friends. They may not realize that what they’re doing is negatively impacting you, or they may at least stop once they get to know you.
- Document everything. Write it down, along with dates and names. Take pictures of anything that is a violation. Get it on record so that it’s not just your word against theirs.
- Talk to your other neighbors. Are you the only one who is experiencing this? How long has it been going on? Who else has noticed?
- Try to talk to the neighbor you have an issue with. Sometimes, if you simply ask them to stop doing something — going onto your yard without permission, for instance — you can stop it with little conflict.
There is clearly a point, though, where you need to take things to the next level. These simple tactics may not help. They may continue to ignore your rights. When that happens, you need to know what legal options you have.
