Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

1
Those who've been around a while will perhaps remember me, the young'ns will be scratching their heads...
I dropped outta sight when my health went to shit. Been in and out of hospital and stuff ever since, yet somehow I still live...?

Right then, last summer I suffered a horrible reaction to a new chemotherapy cocktail requiring hospitalization, during which I suffered two heart attacks. 

I returned home to find that my neighbor had planted a portable toilet in my front yard in prep for a project they had cooked up. They'd also stretched some cheesy erosion fencing around a sidewalk and stairway in my yard...destroying five years effort in ground cover. I spoke with them about respecting the property line and getting the toilet moved because it smelled so bad I couldn't open windows.

A week later I am awakened to my house shaking but was still far too ill (and cautious...covid don't you know) to go out and look. When I did, a day later, my sidewalk and stairs were gone. I now had a six to ten foot deep trench (it's on a slope so its depth varied). 

The next day the contractor on the job called me and asked if I knew where the property line was...? I asked him if he was on site and if he'd meet me (at a distance) out at the edge closest to my house. When he did I told him that he was, at that very instant, standing about 3 to 5 feet into my yard. His face melted. I told him that the sidewalk and stairs where mine and that I expected them restored.  

Thus began an eight month odyssey of deception and evasion involving a wide assortment of characters that exploded last month in a display of hysterical absurdity that even Hollywood wouldn't stoop to. 

Turns out the architect's blueprints for this project, drawn in 2017, not only included the stairs and sidewalk with the property line clearly marked, but plans for their removal. 

I've reached out to some lawyer friends for advice but learned quickly that this is not something any lawyer would touch on contingency, because everyone on the otherside has an insurance company behind them. I'd have to go hourly. Figure between $70-$100...K (as in thousand, $70,000 - $100,000) out of my pocket. 

So I called my insurance company. The missing stuff is covered. With a catch...I have to file a police report for about 30 feet of stolen sidewalk and concrete stairway. 

The cop that takes this report is going believe that I'm insane. Or simply batshit crazy. "Hello Police?  I'd like to report my sidewalk was stolen...!"

But (the plot thickens) in speaking with a lawyer referred to me by a friend, I learned that it is very likely that this also involves a conspiracy between the participants on the other side. Which moves the entire fucking mess out of the realm of misdemeanor theft and into felony territory (she figured a C felony but if the contractor flips on the property owners in order to keep his license, B felony isn't a stretch.)  

What the fuck is wrong with peope? 
Fun times ahead.
Subliterate Buffooery of the right...
Literate Ignorance of the left...
We Are So Screwed

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

2
Sorry to hear about all the crap dumped on you. I hope you health is better and keeping it that way is job one. As for the unneighborly ass next door. I hope you can get full restitution of your property and a large sum for the stress it has cause to your health.

Edit. If you live in a city, you might check with the city to see if they have the proper permits. Most cities require permits for major construction projects along with drawings of area affected.
Last edited by TrueTexan on Sat May 21, 2022 6:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

3
I hear you … cruddy neighbors can be the worst. I’m currently in the process of fixing up my house to move. I have the worst, awful, racist, Trumpers across the road. Yells across the road constantly. Call the cops on us for every little thing like my Dogs barking (in my house) , you name it. Obviously we aren’t cited, as we live in the country and there are dogs barking everywhere…

Our decision to move is mostly based on school districts (this one is going down the toilet) but I’m going to be pleased to be out of here… even though it means back to “suburbia.” People like us just can’t live in concentric circles of Trump country. I gave it the 2 years of Covid to get back to normal & It hasn’t.


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Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

4
When we lived in a piece of the Phoenix metro, I decided to pour a concrete drive along one side of the house. According to the existing wooden fence (there when we purchased the house) there was a dog leg in it, causing a pinch point. Crooked fences just weren't in evidence anywhere in the neighborhood, so I dug around a bit and found the rebar peg used in lots of subdivisions out here. Only some 5 ft off, in my neighbor's favor.

I showed him the pin, and asked if he minded me moving the fence to agree with a straight line to the back pin. He didn't care, as he rents, and it was too skinny to get a vehicle thru anyway.

So I pulled the old crappy fence, replaced with a good footer and concrete blocks.

Years later, no one had said a thing. Just lucky!

Rolandson, in your case I'd work with the city to see what they say, and maybe pay an attorney to have a court issue a cease & desist order against the adverse possession.

S u b R o s a



SR
"Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor."

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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First, nice to see you and sorry for your health crisis. Glad you're on the mend.

Second, Jesus fuck, that's nuts. Definitely get the police involved and definitely get your local planning agency involved. Depending on where you live, there should definitely be permits for that kind of work which would mean the city or county screwed up on issuing one for the wrong property. So there would be 4 errant parties: the architect, the property owner, the contractor and the permitting agency.

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

6
One of my guilty pleasures/time wasting "activities" is listening to "horrible neighbor" stories on YouTube, many of which are read from reddit posts. Yours would fit right in.

I sincerely hope that you come out of this in better shape than when it started.
Eventually I'll figure out this signature thing and decide what I want to put here.

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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Holy crap, Rolandson! I’m glad you are surviving all your doctor’s attempts to do you in.

I’m glad also to see your posts here on the board recently. I know you have much more knowledge and experience about lawsuits than most so this is indeed surprising about your neighbor’s shenanigans. This case seems absurd on the face of it but likely a brazen attempt at adverse possession by yet another insane neighbor.

And yes, you and I both know the heartache and headaches bad neighbors can bring. Yet it also seems that bad neighbors and insane family members can become truly fantastic motivators for our spiritual growth. That’s all I can say about that... because that process is much more like trial by fire than sitting and chanting, “Ooohm” in silk pajamas.

Glad to hear from you.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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And I thought I had it bad just getting a CT scan, :sick:
Then my neighbor started building a wall for his back yard. It got closer, and closer and closer. Finally it was definitely past county regs and on my land. He told me and my neighborhood association the lady that lived in my house before me said he could go as far as the coyote trail, which is way into my property.
Had to threaten to sue the idiot who knew better and never pulled a permit. GRRR
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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Glad you’re still among us. All I can say is wow on your property issues. Hope you have the means to fight and get it resolved. Was any of the items in an easement area? Not that a neighbor should be able to touch it regardless, just curious.
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Image

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

11
Your process of recovering the sidewalk and stairs through insurance is the best plan. Let your insurance company lawyers go after the contractor for their reimbursement. The stress and hassles of personally making your neighbor legally pay for his stupidity and hostility will cost you too much anxiety and stress to be worthwhile in the end. Especially when our life and the time we have are all so obviously valuable/limited while this legal game must be played through lawyers. This is the spiritual view, yes, but it is also the truth for both of us based on our life experiences with lawsuits (and neighbors).

And if there need be any universal sense of justice for that asshat, picture him 6’ under with all his construction projects and ego behind him, unable to enjoy any of it while he was alive. Such unhappy people are like drug addicts, always doing the same futile thing, screwing themselves, and hoping for a glimpse at real happiness or lasting satisfaction. Best we can do is stay out of their way and push them off our properties with a long pole when they wander in uninvited. Do not roll around in the mud with them. Conflict is what they unconsciously need to make their boring and pointless existences more exciting.
Last edited by Bisbee on Sun May 22, 2022 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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I remember you very well. So sorry to hear about your health problems and your vulture neighbor. Sounds like you have a good property lawyer who just needs to get the DA to file felony charges against the "conspirators", to be followed by a large civil lawsuit to cover damage to your property and the pain and suffering you've endured. Good Luck!
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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My family was an Insurance Agency. One night dad got a call from a client that his lawn had been stolen.

Seems they went on an extended trip. While gone a 'lawn & garden' truck showed up and started staking stuff out. Neighbors were curious but the folk had drawings of what the new garden and lawn would be. Cut & rolled up the sod, dug up and balled trees and plants, let local kids help out and even bought them ice cream when the Ice Cream truck came around.

And left.

Family came home from vacation to find bare dirt.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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sig230 wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 3:40 pm My family was an Insurance Agency. One night dad got a call from a client that his lawn had been stolen.

Seems they went on an extended trip. While gone a 'lawn & garden' truck showed up and started staking stuff out. Neighbors were curious but the folk had drawings of what the new garden and lawn would be. Cut & rolled up the sod, dug up and balled trees and plants, let local kids help out and even bought them ice cream when the Ice Cream truck came around.

And left.

Family came home from vacation to find bare dirt.
Totally hilarious.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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CDFingers wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 4:56 pm
sig230 wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 3:40 pm My family was an Insurance Agency. One night dad got a call from a client that his lawn had been stolen.

Seems they went on an extended trip. While gone a 'lawn & garden' truck showed up and started staking stuff out. Neighbors were curious but the folk had drawings of what the new garden and lawn would be. Cut & rolled up the sod, dug up and balled trees and plants, let local kids help out and even bought them ice cream when the Ice Cream truck came around.

And left.

Family came home from vacation to find bare dirt.
Totally hilarious.

CDFingers
Maybe now. And they were covered but also had to file a police report. They got a new yard but only a year or three later was it Totally hilarious.
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

20
Thanks all...! Yes, still circling the drain but not so near as to qualify for the state's permission for me to say "enough already"...

As you can imagine, the plot is thicker than those first few paragraphs. The contractor playing the role of the hapless 'all around nice guy' who just dug where "they" said and is now being blamed and forced to absorb the cost of restoration (I guess pouring concrete to form a stairway is difficult?) and "it's gonna take time because the crew is busy doing the rebar and no, wait, they can't just yet and it's really going to cost me and...and...and..."

A property owner who refuses to acknowledge anything amiss and will not talk about it...period.

And a guy who is too fucking sick to give a shit at the moment - coupled to - wait...wait...wait...
These are all neighbors.

The contractor and I have backyards that abutt. And (all y'alls gonna love this) the contractor's lawyer is my neighbor on the otherside.

The contractor pulled a "woe is me" thing, explaining that the property owners were blaming him. And that they were expecting him to pay. That he was afraid they were gonna kick his ass off the project. And...The pandemic had really hurt and he really needed the gig...

Knowing what I know, and truly believing him, I figured it was easier on me to wait until he was out of the picture and then address the issue with them directly. If they have a problem with him, then that's between them.

Until...

Evidence of land movement surfaced last month. All of the appearance of a subsurface landslide invading my yard down slope from the excavation. Could be huge, could be nothing...needs a geotechnical engineer (@$3500 just to show up). This I can't sit on, so I bring it up to the property owners next door.
Enter a display of hysterical absurdity neatly separated by a disconnect with reality.

Except, he claims that he, not the contractor, was footing the bill for the stairway sidewalk thing?!?

Now I do give a shit. I'm just letting my insurance company do the lifting.
Subliterate Buffooery of the right...
Literate Ignorance of the left...
We Are So Screwed

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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That is just amazing. I really don’t get how they thought they would prevail and what their objective was. Did they think they could just take your land simply by having a contractor, your neighbor tear it down? That is some crazy weed they’ve been smoking.

That land movement is serious business. Excavations and even placing soil on an area can cause soil to become unstable. Soils engineer probably analyzed the soil angle of repose. Hope your property is safe, they have even bigger problem now.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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What people are thinking indeed.
I haven't any explanation. The prop. owners? Never so much as an an acknowledgment
let alone an apology (which might very well have defused this entirely) until the histrionics, which included such inviting screams as:

"YOU WEREN'T USING IT ANYWAY! (I hope the caps conveys the level of cluster B personality type)

and my personal favorite:

"YOU GAVE IT TO US"...

Delivered at the requisite 120 dB just a bit north of 1500hz (loud and piercing)

This thing now has legs and it isn't going to end well for these guys. And I can't figure out why. We'd gotten along just fine for the 6 years the karens* have lived here (and 20 that the contractor has)

The land movement thing is by far my biggest concern. Fortunately the city has a division in place for this stuff. I'm not sure if the contractor pulled a permit for the excavation. I looked on the city website and couldn't see one. But I am no expert. The city takes this very seriously because about 15 years ago a house slid down a hill and took out another couple of houses, not too far from me.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2008/10 ... swept.html

Some photos. The straight white line on the sat image is the property line, the blue represents the trench, the arrows are the sidewalk and stairs.
The really thin yellowish string in the photo of the trench is the property line. My yard is on the right of the string.
20220522_215421.jpg
IMG_20210803_171416704.jpg

*I've taken to just calling them "the karens..." It's actually the female's name and she does sport a hairdo to match. Plus, hers is the only name on the deed.
Subliterate Buffooery of the right...
Literate Ignorance of the left...
We Are So Screwed

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

23
If there's a permit pulled on this work, you might want to give the building department a call. They might issue a stop work order; that's usually gets people's attention.
The guy singing woe is me I'd tell to pound sand and fix it. Sorry to read about your illness.
"it's a goddamn impossible way of life"
"And so it goes"

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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Holy guacamole.

Your whole story give me a flashback to my neighborhood fiasco. All the way down to the, “All of us neighbors were considering to go to your place together and tell you to stop it. Stop causing trouble for our neighborhood!” Images of pitchforks and torches lighting white faces of mass-hysteria; me a scapegoat excuse to purge their collective anxiety of not being quite as good as they would like to be seen. No, they don’t need to hear the other side of the story... they already know who is the evil that needs to be purged so they can feel clean again.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Y'all mind if I vent for a bit?

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Jeez, rolandson!! Sorry to hear of your ills and property woe. On the upside, did help my attitude regarding my self pity to know others have problems far beyond mine. Here's to wishing us both good will and karma. Hopeful all ends well and in your favor.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

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