How not to get along with the neighbors...

[Nords]

It seemed too funny to be anything but an urban legend:

"Mark Easton in Riverton, Utah, had a beautiful view of the East Mountains until a new neighbor purchased the lot below his house and built a home.

The new home was about a foot higher than the ordinances would allow, so Mark Easton went to the city to make sure they enforced the lower roof line ordinance. The new neighbor had to drop the roof line at great expense.

Recently, Mark Easton called the city and informed them that his new neighbor had installed some vents on the side of his home. Mark didn't like the look of these vents and asked the city to investigate. When they went to Mark's home to see the vent view, this is what they found."

But it's true. Here's the rest of the story:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/risque/ventcover.asp

.

[Martha]

Neighbor disputes and domestic disputes. Someone can end up dead.

A lawyer I know did a divorce for a woman. The husband was so mad he shot his ex-wife's lawyer. Fortunately she was not badly hurt.

One of my former partners represented a guy who bought a house that had part of its diveway on the neighbor's property. No one knew that to be the case, the property was rural and boundary locations were not clear. The encroachment was discovered in a survey. The neighbor went ballistic and sued our client. Our client said fine, I'll move the driveway and he did. I wasn't good enough and the neighbor tried for money damages in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, "rent" for the 12 years the driveway was there. He also put up flood lights aimed into our clients windows, hung pots and pans from trees up against the property line to make noise in the wind and posted signs on his property about how evil our client was. He simply went nuts and our client had no choice but to spend money to defend himself. We were afraid he was going to get hurt.

After he won the case we told him he should move. I don't remember if he did or not.

[bssc]

Our retirement property is 35 acres and we plan to build in the middle of it. And since it is in a subdivision, all the property lines are well marked to avoid that sort of thing.

That being said, there was a person who put up a giant garage with no house, in violation of the HOA rules, and tried to live in it. There were no cooking or bathroom facilities. Needless to say, the HOA was able to stop them.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Seems to me some of the worst stories about neighbors happen to involve people living on large tracts of land.

That appeared unintuitive to me until it occurred to me that I had the cause and effect backwards.

[Helen]

Our "next door" neighbor (1/2 mile down the road) was murdered by a guy she had sold land to across the road from her. He was a nutcase who blamed her for everything that went wrong in his life.

He kicked in her door in the middle of the night, killed her in her house and took the body.

About a week later he burned the house down and the police arrested him for arson. They didn't charge him with murder until the body was found a year later. Thank God he burned the house down or he would have been living down the road from me for a year before they finally arrested him. One week was long enough.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by Helen

He was a nutcase who blamed her for everything that went wrong in his life.

I think every aspiring landlord should watch the movie "Pacific Heights".

It's hard to think of Michael Keaton as a comedian anymore...

[Zipper]

Looking at the photo, did the extra foot and $$$$$$ costs improve Mark's view.

I think Mark is the real pr*ck in this case.

[BarbaraAnne]

Originally Posted by Nords

I think every aspiring landlord should watch the movie "Pacific Heights".

It's hard to think of Michael Keaton as a comedian anymore...

We owned 6 rental houses for about 10 years (shudder!) "Pacific Heights" was not too far off from reality in our case...

Never again!

[sgeeeee]

Originally Posted by Zipper

Looking at the photo, did the extra foot and $$$$$$ costs improve Mark's view.

I think Mark is the real pr*ck in this case.

I don't agree with you in this case, Zipp. The building code was available to the new homeowner and his contractor. They violated Mark's rights. Mark invested what was probably a good portion of his nest egg in a house with a view. He had every right to expect the city building codes to be enforced.

If I were Mark, the new vents wouldn't bother me at all. They may lower the property value of the new owner's home if he ever want to sell. Of course the new owner has already proven it's not about money.