‘Grinch neighbor’ spies on man doing legal construction on his property and repeatedly calls zoning to investigate, man has a lawyer on retainer to fight back

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Nov 14, 2024 1:00 PM EST

What you decide to do on your property is your business and your business only. This applies to anything that is within legal limits in your state, neighborhood, or HOA if you're a part of one. Even when you abide by all of the rules set out in front of you, there will always be a neighbor or two who can't grasp that you've gotten approval to, say, do construction on a home you own. 

Completing construction within typical working hours might annoy some neighbors, but it gives them no right to report you. The neighbor in this story has repeatedly called their neighborhood's zoning office so an official can investigate a man's property. This man, who is also the original poster (OP), explains that he owns a small landscaping business but does not work out of his home. No work materials or customers are present on his personal property; he only keeps his vehicles in his driveway.

This past summer, he used some of the work machines on his personal property to get rid of weeds and invasive species, and additionally, build a patio. The neighbor will not let up, and have reported him again since then. The neighbor is planning to travel on the route of kindness but expresses that he's unafraid to bring his lawyer into the mix.

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    Cheezburger Image 10427983872
    via Unsplash+ (Pramod Tiwari)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Grinch neighbor is making us uncomfortable on our own property
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    We recently moved to a new rural subdivision (single-family residential and rural residential zoning- 1.5 minimum acre per property) about 2 weeks into our house we had the zoning inspector
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    called on us. A neighbor was concerned that we were running our landscape business from our property. We told zoning that we are a small company and do not have employees or customers or materials on the
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    property. We just have our small equipment and/or pickup trucks. Zoning said we were fine to operate as usual as we were within their criteria.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    So we continued as normal. In between jobs this summer we would bring heavy equipment skid loader and mini excavator home to remove invasive species, trees and other
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    landscape projects. We also installed a patio and 3 retaining walls. The neighbor called zoning again to come investigate our property. We showed him our
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    projects etc. Zoning concluded that we can only have one truck and trailer on the property. Even though the trucks are personal and business use.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    I ended up doing an open records request to figure out what the neighbors' complaints were as zoning can't go into too. much detail. Well, the neighbor was upset that we have pallets of blocks (for our walls) and other
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    materials for planned projects that have been stored next to our outbuilding. He is upset that when the foliage falls for winter that he will have to "look" at the material. He is concerned for property values and
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    that our trucks cause unnecessary traffic. * We are improving the value of the home. It is insulting to say otherwise. * Our trucks are our mode of transportation AM and
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    PM traffic nothing more than anyone else. Again no employees just us. If anything I should complain about his son driving his loud- modified car up and down the road no less than 6 times a day. (would never
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    involve the kid in this drama - he's a kid). *The block was used for landscape purposes and now we have extra that is to be used for other projects at home.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    Now every time we do ANYTHING outside the dude watches us, i.e. We brought heavy equipment back to move some stuff before winter and took the equipment back to the warehouse the same day. Well, the
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    neighbor stood on the property line and watched to see what we were doing. Using the chainsaw all day to continue removing invasive brush and burning it. The neighbor
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    came out and pretended to practice his golf swing. up and down the driveway. He was stopping behind bushes to "spy" I feel like I cannot be on my property without
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    being "spied" on and harassed. It feels icky. I understand the neighbors' concern in the beginning and we have followed all the zoning rules.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    How do you handle this situation? Am I the ahle and I am just not understanding his side of things? ETA: update Wow I was not expecting such a response
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    Thanks for your responses especially the funny ones. Some of you are quite creative. It was a good laugh. As much as I love fantasy petty revenge. I will not go that route, it just isn't me.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    The constructive criticism is helpful and let's us know different perspectives to look at the situation from. So thank you. When we were doing work I am sure it was scary for the guy. He
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    didn't know what we were doing or our plans. We did have equipment here and were noisy during typical working hours. Since completing those big projects the heavy equipment is gone. The noise and equipment would have been
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    necessary regardless of us or hired help. We had spoken to the neighbor initially when we moved in and had told him that we were working on remodeling and when we were taking trees down we did tell him of
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    our property plans. It just wasn't in detail just simple "we're cleaning up the land". We are going to do our best to let it go and see if ki ing him with kindness works. Again, we want to
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    be neighborly and want to move on from it all. If all fails, we have a plan for documenting and a lawyer on retainer.
    via Firm-Succotash-3288
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    Susan... . 22h ago Privacy fence. As tall as code allows.
    via SusanBHa
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    rosebudny 21h ago • When I read "Grinch" in the subject line I assumed this was going to be about a neighbor being jerks about your holiday decorations. But just maybe...you should go ALLLL OUT this year. Lights on every tree. Giant santas in the yard - front and back of course! Basically anywhere he can see.
    via rosebudny
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    Oh, and don't forget to decorate your stack of blocks and your trucks.
    via rosebudny
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    Retired-alt 21h ago • • Place camera's on house to record all this interactions. Document all complaints made keep a hard copy someplace away from your home. Eventually he will slip. up and you will be able to prove harassment
    via Retired-alt

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