Land War Suggestions Solicited

[Navotifarm]

Dheat's dilemna with neighbor's gate and ditch interests me enormously because it parallels my own personal "Challenge." I specially appreciated his concern about quantification as in, how much does one cede? Where to draw a line? And how? Obviously, a major factor. Is INTENT of the neighbor.
I have land which is interior land in that I have to cross other land to get to it. I have acquired part of the front parcel specifically to give my back parcel access but over the years my land has drastically escalated in monetary value. Have three separate sets of neighbors who covet my land and declared war on me which they carry out variously, in large part by interfering with my access. The local sheriffs do nothing on the pretext this is "civil."
I'm pasting here a copy of an email I just sent some local bureaucrats who have good hearts and I would appreciate. Any comments the goodhearted folks on here would care to make, especially those who have. Successfully dealt with malicious neighbors particularly with interference of access. There must be something I'm missing. I wld sure like to know what you see that I do not! Most peoples' knee-jerk reaction is to tell me to move. I consider this cowardly so uunless somebody bartered me a better place to move to, that is not a good option for me.
*****
I am frothing at the mouth with frustration.
My situation seems very simple to me in principle since it concerns. A neighbor's intent to harm but in practice I do not know what to do here.

Would you please help me resolve or at least ameliorate this aspect or microcosm of the macrocosm wherein my neighbors are deliberetely trying to landlock me by interfering with my access? Can you offer possible solutions or at least recommendations as to what I can (legally and ethically) do.

My neighbor, L.O., has constructed a huge, very effective dam across a natural water flow which impounds water across my access, Kokopelli Lane. This dam falsely appears innocent because it is composed of wood products such as brush, pallets, old wood ladders ie things which are eventually biodegradable and mostly non-toxic.

Lecky's intricately-woven construction works as a coffer dam. It is detrimental to me because of the composition of the clay/sand soil causing vehicles to sink and get stuck. Last winter Lecky's Death Trap (so named by a man who came to plow my driveway one winter who over turned) caused my logger's trailer to overturn, pulling his truck with it.

1. People can be injured when their vehicles over turn.
1a. It is very costly to get towed out or to replace a burn-up clutch when one gets stuck in the mud.

2. These "accidents" due to Lecky's sabotage cost others. (and consequently me) $. In the case of the logger, he tells me he did not make a claim on his insurance. Instead, using out-of-pocket money and a lot of his own work, he bought a replacement second-hand truck for $9,000 (which needed a lot of repair which he performed). He also brought in $1,500 worth of extra stone. Presently the logger has portable bridges in Lecky's Lake on either side of my access.

This expense to the logger is costing me, too, since he was supposed to be paying me 1/3 but he's paying me less than 1/5 per load plus skipping payment on some loads. His justification is that I failed to warn him of the hazard.

3. Lecky planted a line of pine trees right under his electric lines which REC has to prune every year, so he is demonstrably not operating at the high end of the IQ scale.

4. BUT, just in case Lecky did not originally intend or know of the harm he is doing, he has been told by several persons, starting with me. I visited him in person. Also wrote him and his Pastor. The logger told him. Each time after he has been contacted, Lecky industriously adds to his coffer dam. He does this when I am off my property but recently I went away and returned unexpectedly, so caught Lecky in the act. When he saw me taking pictures, he scuttled away.

5. This large coffer dam is tight on our joint boundary line, not set back 20 feet, possibly encroaching on my land. Lecky has 10 acres, so he has plenty of other places to pile brush if his only intention is to make a brush pile.

6. Lecky has also created a very dangerous special snake habitat. Snakes notoriously love wood piles! I have poultry and rabbits. The black snakes have been eating my eggs, baby rabbits and chicks which causes me harm and grief. Worse, they are life threatening because there are many copperheads in this area, exascerbated by the major clearing proceeding at present on the adjoining former Anne Robertson parcel by Fried Company. I am an elderly widow. I live alone. I have severe asthma. If I am bitten by a copperhead I am a goner.

7. In dry weather, since a large part of Lecky's coffer dam is composed of resinous pine branches, it is a fire hazard.

8. Although I do not know who or which agency enforces this, I have been told there is a $500 a square foot penalty for interfering with a blue line water course on the topo map. Lecky's coffer dam effectively interferes with the blue line water course on our local topo map.

9. I understand you (public officials) do not want to get in the middle of the war my neighbors have declared on me. I understand that my neighbors have several times in the past deliberately trespassed on my land looking to find things I am doing so they can cook up complaints about me to you, which you did follow up on, so it is reasonable to suppose that if you follow up on my complaint herein, Lecky will retaliate by again trying to sic you on me in return. This is not a cycle either you or I wish to be stuck in so perhaps you can think of some way to thwart that obvious next step?

10. I understand that there might not actually be any regulations against coffer dams disguised as brush pile edifices requiring set-backs as compared with actual buildings so you might not have, in your big heavy Code books, any regulations which pertain to this particular cunningly-crafted harm Lecky O. and co-horts have constructed. My son tells me that one of the secrets of successful criminals is that they look for laws against doing specific things, then take parallel actions which achieve the same or better malicious result but are not, technically, against the law.

11. But if you so choose and if you are able to, then PLEASE take some kind of action even if it is only to advise me what I can do that I haven't already done (which has mainly been to turn the other cheek which is how the menace of Lecky's coffer dam has gotten so big over the years).

Thank you!
PS if spoons can be bent with psychic energy, it would be wonderful to see if good psychic energies could be directed to my protection and the dissolution of the coffer dam!

[Common Tator]

There is only a $500 fine for diverting a blue line water course? Is there a state agency charged with enforcing that? You may contact them.

Also if local authorities refuse to act, you may consider suing in small claims court for damages. Set up game cameras to catch him trespassing and file a complaint with law enforcement every time you catch him in the act.

[uncle Will in In.]

Have you reported this to the DNR? They have the athority to remove the dam.

[Shadow]

Talk to an attoney, see what if any legal resorts you have. Writting letters such as the one I just read part of in your post goes no where except to cause problems. Frankly if you wrote letters like that and was wanting to cross my land I would not be very accomidating.
This is another example of never buying land that does not have public road access. Seldom does it work. I have land that is on the road and neighbors have to cross it to get to their land and we have a good friendly realtionship. I have a locked gate but they all have keys.
You will not get any help from the local officals or the sheriff. The sheriff is correct it is a civil matter. You will have to hire a lawyer, see if you have any recourse and then if you do go to court and really upset your neighbors by sueing them. Do not know how much property you have but I'll bet it will cost you more than the property is worth. This means the property is not an asset its a liability and is actually worthless. Just my opinion from buying and selling property for the past 50 years. David

[palani]

Originally Posted by Navotifarm

Have three separate sets of neighbors who covet my land and declared war on me

Not a good position. I think I would set up a trust and donate ALL my land to it. From that point in time let 'em argue with the trustee.

As an incentive you might want the trust to post a $1,000 per day use fee (or any portion of a day) all over your ex-land and use some of those wildlife cameras to establish acceptance of anyone who chooses this option. Then let the trust bill 'em and lien 'em up.

[Navotifarm]

$500 a square foot! I have a terrible time typing on this forum becaUse of the time lag and words display where I cannot see them.
The particular issue here, Common Tator, is that this neighbor himself is on his OWN property. His brush pile dam is purportedly on his own property. I am the first person to say own's own land is one's castle so one should be able to have freedom to do as one pleases on his own land. But where's the line? Can you make bombs to blow up hospitals? His brush pile is constructed so as to impound water over my road and cause me harm. Maybe I should rename my access Atlantis Lane??
This matter involves land so it does not come up in general district court. It belongs in circuit court. I tried the court route. Lawyers caused me more harm moneywise than they did me good.

[norcalfarm]

I'm not sure that I understand your post. You say "I have acquired part of the front parcel specifically to give my back parcel access". Does this mean that you have legal access (an easement) or did you buy a parcel and are using that parcel to access your land-locked parcel. If neither of the above, are you traveling a road without legal access?

[tamsam]

Have you contact the EPA? In most states you need a permit to build a ---- on any water stream or to change the course of a waterway. Good luck. Sam

[blooba]

Actually its not the DNR or EPA that regulates the waterways. It's the U.S. Army Corp or Engineers. www.usace.army.mil
I had to get a permit and approval before building my bridge and dam.

[DENALI]

Skip messing with sending officials letters like that, they don't care unless it immediately effects their own comfort or well being. Grab a $100 in cash and go see an attorney and have them send a letter of immediate cease and desist to your neighbor(s) regarding matter that directly subvert your interests and access to your property. Have the letter note that in case of disregard to said notice that your official intent is to collect damages for loss of value to your said property due to malicious intent to impede access.

[springvalley]

As far as the brush pile, I think i would wait for the wind to be in the right direction and I have no idea how that fire started officer. Thanks Marc

[Navotifarm]

To Shadow "Frankly if you wrote letters like that and was wanting to cross my land I would not be very accomidating." Huh? I am not trying to cross HIS land! I am using my own access across my own land. What is happening in this part of my convoluted situation is that one neighbor, by building a dam, has succeeded (during wet weather such as we have now) in flooding my access which is an entire 20 feet away from ( though parallel to) the boundary line of his land. The law -- according to Virginia Code, anyway, says people are not supposed to put gates up to interfere with another's access on a shared road (one "that has been a common way") unless you give them a key but I can't find anywhere that says you not supposed to render an access inaccessible via ducting water onto it. ha ha maybe he is supposed to provide me with a ferry boat??
More to the point, assuming you to be a good neighbor, would you do something like this??? No, indeed! Good neighbors do not go out of their way to harm their neighbors. Especially for going on 18 years. So to gripe about a letter in response is silly since I would not have written a letter if there were not a problem. My question is, there is a problem. So far it has cost me more money than I make in a whole entire year since I live a frugal life or try to. On a gradient scale, he has cost me horrendous amounts of money, energy, and pain. so my base question, rephrased, is -- if somebody were doing this to you, what would you do? What would you do that was effective and works, that is, without lowering yourself to his level?

[RedTartan]

Originally Posted by springvalley

As far as the brush pile, I think i would wait for the wind to be in the right direction and I have no idea how that fire started officer. Thanks Marc

Ditto. Make sure said neighbor isn't home when the fire starts...

[coup]

in the next hollow over from me a couple of years ago....this family lived across the creek from a traveled road.. they lived there and drove out for around 20 years....a s_b bought the road property and claimed they didn't have a rightaway out.....at first he just threatened to shut them in and then he parked a tractor trailer in there driveway.... the shut in called the law and the law said they couldn't do anything..... the shutin's and some friends tried to walk out and the guy was there with a gun.. he rebuked them.....

my family owned land farther back than the shutin and had a rightaway through the shutin's property...

it got so bad the shutin man went to the hospital,,heart attack...it finally went to court and the shutin's won....don't know the whole story......

i saw a documentary on one of the major networks about a year ago,,titled something like trouble on the mountain,,,,,where two guys were fighting over a driveway and one cracked killing a man and his wife......if you could find a dvd and mail it anonomaslly to the guys,it might help.

you might invite a motorcycle bunch over for a weekend,or spread rumors you are renting to a bunch of mexican gypsies......

i would try all legal channels first............dnr,epa,core of engineers. perhaps have the logger take him to small claims court........please advise of any happenings........feeling your pain as have been there for years.......sometimes you just have to outlast them.........

[Wisconsin Ann]

I, too, would be getting an attorney who knows land rights. They're different in every state, but putting up a dam on a waterway is illegal in all 50 states unless you have a permit..and those are bloody hard to get. (been there, done that)

At the very least, go research boundary rights. Set EVERYTHING down on paper, with a map, and all of your deeds, restrictions, etc., and photos of the dam and pond, and then go to the attorney.

my 2cents.

[Pennsyltucky]

This website might help.

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/dam_safe...ns/index.shtml

If I'm reading correctly, a dam in Virginia does not require permitting and is excluded from regulation if:

* is less than six feet high;
* has a maximum capacity less than 50 acre-feet and is less than 25 feet in height;
* has a maximum capacity of less than 15 acre-feet and is more than 25 feet in height;
* is used primarily for agricultural purposes and has a maximum capacity of less than 100 acre-feet or is less than 25 feet in height ( if the use or ownership changes, the dam may be subject to regulation);
* is owned or licensed by the federal government;
* is operated for mining purposes under 45.1-222 or 45.1-225.1 of the Code of Virginia;
* is an obstruction in a canal used to raise or lower water levels;
* The height of a dam is defined as the vertical distance from the streambed at the downstream toe to the top of the dam;
* The maximum capacity of a dam is defined as the maximum volume capable of being impounded at the top of the dam.

Now, if you have an easement and the dam is interfering with access to your property, you may have some legal standing to request the dam be removed or lowered. Just my guess that a common sense law has already addressed this issue. Good luck.

[texican]

Sounds like you need a fence, if the dam is on the joint boundary line.

Get a backhoe, or get the logger to dig it out... they have heavy equipment. The day you have the dam removed, build your fence, at least in that area.

I'd see about getting a permit for dynamite in your state. Tell them it's for beavers, and blow the thing up. Don't want to go that route, call your local game warden and find out who the local state trapper is... talk to him, and get some of the signs saying 'traps are out' for beaver or muskrat.

...........................................

If you let people buffalo you, they will. The "law" is nothing... they can't stop someone from being mean to you... their job is to apprehend and prosecute people after they've committed a crime. And, apparently what the guy is doing isn't seen as criminal enough by your local sheriff.

Being nice isn't working.

You might have to open up a fresh can of whup eggs...
------------------------------

I researched 'water trespass' about ten years ago... spent several days in a law library. Someone (least in Tx) can't flood another's property without compensation and permission. If someone does flood another's property, and no complaints are filed for ten years, it's a done deal. If challenged within 10, there are monetary awards for damages.

Good luck to ya... I had similar problems for years, and once I had complete title, I told my adversaries to suck eggs... One of them sicked their welter weight son on me... my back was killing me, so I wouldn't oblige... he thought he'd pounce anyway... As if whuppin me would let him cross my land... I declined the whuppin, pulled my large bore hawg out, pulled the hammer, and told him the next time I saw him on my place, it'd be the last time. The 'father's' showed up, I showed them the same... and they saw that I meant it... they've been lovey dovey since... and they know they're not going to buffalo me...

[Joshie]

Talk to the DNR. My dad, for example, diverted a creek on his own property. Around that time, we read in the paper where the DNR had fined an individual for doing the same thing. It cost them thousands and thousands of dollars. Report the dam.

If you report the damage to your insurance company, and ask others to do the same, maybe the insurance companies would sue the person who is responsible for the damage.

[Cheribelle]

I see real advice here from Denali and Marc, Texican, Joshie, Sure would be happy to have you folks on my side.

[Darren]

Looks like you have two problems.

1. A road that's too soft for traffic when it's wet.

That can be solved by using geotextile. Wait unitil the logging is finshed and use a 20' roll of geotextile to cover the road. You'll have to have that covered with gravel. I suspect the logger put in heavier stone. The geotextile over top of that will allow you to use gravel smaller. Use a crush and run for the size you select. That will solve the access in wet weather issue. Spend the money on geotextile and gravel rather than lawyers. If you're bound and determined to hire a lawyer, get one to sue the logger. Any logger with a lick of sense would look at access issues before they start. The logger is messing over you big time. His screw-ups aren't your problem. If you have a contract he has to abide by it. If you don't have a contract ... good luck.

Forget trying to get government employees involved. You're wasting your time.

2. Snakes.

You'll have to burn the pile or have some who will keep their mouth shut do it. Be aware that you can start a brush fire if it gets out of control. Know your prevailing winds. Know also that Mr. Lecky may get in trouble with the fire department. Some departments may charge for putting out a brush fire. You'll have to wait for dryer weather. And of course have an excuse. Maybe even be someplace else at the time.