Just curious, question

[Danaus29]

I know there's a lot of us that will call different offices if a neighbor causes a problem for us (myself included, had to call animal control on some loose dogs) but how many would call just because they don't like the neighbor's landscaping or animals that are contained? How many would even care if a neighbor keeps scrap metal that is concealed and contained?

As far as I am concerned if you're not bothering me, I'm not complaining about you.

Just curious to hear what everyone else thinks.

[sirquack]

If it was specifically the situation you describe with scrap metal, it is completely on them. If they were piling manure on the property line upwind from me, then we might have an issue. But scrap metal even in sight, have at it. I would probably talk to them about their permanent plans if it stayed there for a long time, but I am a live and let live kind of guy.
If it does not directly impact me, let them have their thrills as far as I am concerned.

[rambler]

Have at it. Certainly your business what you do on your property, none of mine.

At some point, sounds or smells can become an issue. A lot of that is the complainer's problem anyhow for building a house on the property line, if they want to be left alone, then build a few 100 feet off the lines. But, at some point there is a concern.

A firing range aimed in my general direction would give me pause to consider....

Storing nuclear waste or something with so much potential to cause harm would be an issue.

But storing metal???? That is an issue _anyplace_????? Why? What the heck business is that of mine???? Landscaping? Huh?

--->Paul

[Prismseed]

Depends on the scope of the metal. A few old items about the yard not so bad, now salvage yard level scrap metal that looks like a landfill, that is kind of a problem.

Also don't miss the forest for the trees. Scrap metal might not be the problem, using a heavy roaring tractor to move it around, banging and and crashing and all at 7 am when I'm trying to sleep in? Problem. Try to see as many aspects as possible, and when possible ask the offended neighbor for details on why precisely it bothers them.

Some people just have a need to whine and complain about every and anything. Here is hoping you never have a neighbor like that.

My biggest peeve with my neighbors is that they let their dogs run loose. Mind you these aren't 'aw sweet puppy' dogs they are big, growling, hackles raised dogs that come out into the road. Major pain when you are trying to get into the habit of daily walks.

[NCLee]

I believe that everyone has a right to do as they please on their own property as long as it doesn't affect the health of their neighbors.

I often wonder what the founding fathers of this country would say if someone tried to impose most today's "rules" on the use of their land. (Sanitation is excluded from that comment, ie septic tanks and such.)

Far too often I've seen and heard about folks moving into an area and then trying to shut down an existing situation because it might affect their property values. And, on the other side of the coin, it isn't right to move into an area and put in something that drives all the neighbors crazy.

Don't build a house on the property next to me and then complain about my roosters crowing. Don't lease the land next to me an put in a remote controlled airplane mini airport.

I could care less about a neighbor's landscaping, the color of their front door, or a pile of scape metal in their backyard. (If they start a scrap metal recycling center, that's a different story.) I bought our 3 acres in the country to do with as I please. Thus, I believe that my neighbors should be able to do the same.

Lee

[Kshobbit]

I have a "live and let live" policy with my neighbors. I do not want to involve the local authorities at all. That said, I did call the sheriff about my neighbor's dog. The dog had puppies in the middle of winter. I heard the cries of the new born puppies and investigated (old dog lover). I had to put bedding in the dog house, carry the puppies over, dry them and put them in the sorry dog house. I carried warm water over to the mama dog and fed her. I continued to do this every day for weeks. I finally called the sheriff, and asked him to please talk to the owners. Thank God, they moved taking the dogs with them. I still worry about the dogs and hope they were finally cared for properly.

[Curtis B]

Kinda ironic this was posted shortly after mine about my problem. For the most part I don't care what other people do with their land as long as it doesn't impact mine. In my case I am their only neighbor, and they decided to have their piles on the side by me literally up against my fence that I paid for and put up myself. I can't say what I would do because even though it directly impacts me, part of me still doesn't want to call. As far as dogs, as long as they don't harass or kill anything of mine I let it go. I know mine have gotten loose in the past and I wouldn't want them killed or picked up, but they know to leave livestock alone.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Some people have a driving NEED to monitor and report. It's just their nature.

My husband's elderly cousin lives across the road from us. She's like that. She has very little else to do in her life.

[francismilker]

As long as what I'm doing on my property doesn't physically intrude on your property, it's my business..........PERIOD!

My especially favorite is when city folks move out of town and start griping about the smell of a dairy or hog farm. It was there before they got there....deal with it!

[Danaus29]

Curtis B, the responses to your post are why I didn't give the whole situation up front.

Personally, I don't care what someone does with their property as long as they don't ruin mine in the process. I was on the receiving end of this call. Pretty sure I know who it was. There is/was manure mixed with bedding in buckets awaiting a trip to the garden. I have milkweed and goldenrod beside the front door and the area is loaded with insects (which I like). The scrap is leaning against a privacy fence (my fence, dh's scrap) and not visible from the road. And somehow the board of health knew we had oil in a bucket out front (bucket is covered and NOT leaking, oil is from the van dh is currently parting out so it can be removed). Yes the duck pen did have a slight smell. I would have done something about that last week but we have all had the flu.

In the end the BofHealth said the car parts need to be put away, the scrap needs to be moved (even though you would have to take a 70 foot walk through my yard to get to it, the shed where the ducks are housed needs to be cleaned (um yeah, we've all had the flu), and some water at the back of the house needs to be drained. (no mosquitos which surprised the BofHealth people) The "weeds" will stay and the neighbor who's kids were here snooping through stuff (when I wasn't home) can keep her kids home.

They may end up on the receiving end of a complaint. They have trash trash laying all over their back yard (when it's in a trash bag I would assume it's trash) and they never clean up their dog poop. The kids will be told they don't need to be over here any more.

I am more than a little po'd. We were just making progress on getting ds's house repaired and now we have to deal with this. Just because some people would rather complain about their neighbors than control their kids. Grrrr.

[Curtis B]

Danaus29, your issue is why I am strugling over what to do. I don't want to start a "war". All to often things like this get out of hand escalting into something bigger than what it needs to be. I am sure that if someone was to pick over my property they could find something wrong. Just remember an eye for an eye can cause people to go blind.

[Danaus29]

I started this "war" when I asked these people to keep their dogs off my property. I didn't even call Animal control until after I had asked them to keep the dogs out of my yard and a few days later the dogs were back. I even put up a fence to contain my birds when the one boy found out he was allergic to duck eggs (dogs broke down one fence post). I gave them eggs and tomatoes, treated the kids like human beings, talked to the people who live there nicely even though they burn trash and are major jerks. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be nice. I certainly didn't think it was unreasonable to ask people to keep their 4 huge rottweiler/pitt bull mixes home, but I guess it was. Now they can keep their kids home too. No more free babysitting. I know it was them complaining about the "weeds". Every time the little girl came over she would tell me her mom or her grandma said I need to cut my weeds. And the boy was the only one who knew there was oil in a bucket out front. The parents or grandparents called after I told the boy to get out of dh's stuff.

I hope your situation turns out better.

[Curtis B]

Good luck, I hope this problem comes to an end for you soon. Personaly I am just biting my tounge and longing for the day I can get farther away from the people who have had the common sence and respect breed out of them. I would rather suffer a while and move than have to look over my shoulder and wonder what they could come up with next. That moving day can't come soon enough for me.

[mnn2501]

Originally Posted by Danaus29

I know there's a lot of us that will call different offices if a neighbor causes a problem for us (myself included, had to call animal control on some loose dogs) but how many would call just because they don't like the neighbor's landscaping or animals that are contained?

Are the animals legal? Is it really landscaping or a neglated yard and how ugly is it. I probably wouldn't complain about either of those unless he's keeping gators in the overflow of his septic system with no fence.

Originally Posted by Danaus29

How many would even care if a neighbor keeps scrap metal that is concealed and contained?
.

I try to keep mine out of sight, so if his is concealed and contained I have no problem.

Having said that I have one neighbor who's kids (younger teens) run wild, on top of them and their friends being obnoxious as only teenage boys with no parental supervision or discipline can be, about a year ago they started throwing trash over my fence (where it was it was impossible to come from anywhere but their yard). I complained to the parents once and they swore little johnny and his friends would never do anything like that -- seeing that's how they worked, I never complained again, I just started throwing the trash back over the fence - eventually it stopped. No need to get the law involved. If they want to raise juvinile delinquents, thats their business, they know I have both a dog and guns.
Too bad about them cause all the other neighbors in the area are fine.

[Old Vet]

That is why I moved to the country. Too many neighbors think it is their right to run my buisness.

[farmerbrian]

I will certainly bring stuff up with neighbor if they are doing something I think is unreasonable and affects me negatively. I will try (or at least hope i try) to consider their side of the issue first though. Better to bring stuff sooner rather than later though if its really bothering me. But not too much is gonna bother me either....

as others have said calling in outside authorities would be my last option because it leaves about 98% chance your relationship with that neighbor is permanently destroyed or at least heavily damaged

[Danaus29]

mnn2501, my animals are legal. Theirs since they roam free and are not fenced are not. The "weeds" are my milkweed and goldenrod. Even the BofHealth was puzzled about the "weed" complaint. My scrap was concealed. The complainers' kid had to walk past my house, down my driveway, past my house again, and between my privacy fence and a car before the scrap could be seen. Truthfully I'm sick of looking at the scrap. But since I'm the only one who can see it and dh has been busy with other stuff I haven't complained to him. It's clean and organized, not laying on the ground or harboring rats.

The other complaint against us was trash laying all over the yard. Dh does have his scrap but true and honest trash? Not one piece to be seen anywhere! Good thing I made my kids clean the yard Sunday. People around here just leave junk lay in their yards which gets blown over here when it's windy. Ticks me to no end but what can you do? it's not like the trash has their name on it. So we do a weekly yard clean-up.

The part that gets me is the ones who complained (99% sure of who it was) leave garbage bags of trash setting in their back yard for weeks on end before they burn the stuff. They have broken chairs and all kinds of junk piled in the middle of their yard. They go for weeks without mowing (but since this is rural we don't have any grass height limits, just the state noxious weed ordinance) and haven't moved the pile of junk to mow or even run a weed eater around it. We've used the weedeater in tight spaces at least twice a month.

For over 20 years I've had milkweed and goldenrod in front of my house and never before has anyone complained until the people a couple houses down moved in.

[tyusclan]

Originally Posted by Prismseed

Depends on the scope of the metal. A few old items about the yard not so bad, now salvage yard level scrap metal that looks like a landfill, that is kind of a problem.

Also don't miss the forest for the trees. Scrap metal might not be the problem, using a heavy roaring tractor to move it around, banging and and crashing and all at 7 am when I'm trying to sleep in? Problem. Try to see as many aspects as possible, and when possible ask the offended neighbor for details on why precisely it bothers them.

Most folks in the country expect the neighbors to be up and around by 7. If you want to sleep in turn on a fan or some other white noise so you can't hear the neighbors. Expecting them to alter their schedule to suit you is asking a bit much IMO.

I think if anyone has a complaint about something a neighbor is doing they need to go and offer to buy the property. Then they can remove the problem from their property or do whatever they want with it. Otherwise, they need to leave'em alone.

[coup]

my curious question is,,,,why do people that live outside the law then turn and call the law??? i say if you live outside then you give up the right to call the law.........i say it is pretty low down....

for your question as long as it stays on their place,i will be quiet and outlast them..........

[zant]

My only close neighbors are 500 cows,I guess I could complain about ther poop and mooing but I knew there was 300acres of cow fields surrounding me when we bought the farm..But then the owner may complain about me out in the fields handfeeding his calves..