House flipper confronts neighbor over 9 inches of fence space, homeowner maliciously complies: 'Anne showed up at my front door with a stack of papers and asked me if I was going to pay her'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 8, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

The only thing worse than a bossy neighbor is a bossy neighbor who's just flipping the house next door to you before moving on to the next home. House flippers get that reputation because that's often their M.O.: they buy the house, modernize it as quickly and cheaply as possible, and then put it on the market again for the next person to buy. There are plenty of successful flippers, but a lot of people take on projects that are too big for them to handle, leading them to spend years working on the same house. 

This person had a neighbor who had flipped 8 houses in 12 years, which is an impressive track record! But that also means she isn't in the business of making friends with the neighbors in the houses she's currently renovating. Even when she found a home she liked, she still didn't treat her neighbor very nicely. Instead of asking nicely, she demanded that this person redo the fencing to give her a little bit of extra room on the property. If only she'd just asked politely and showed her neighbor some respect, maybe she wouldn't be in this predicament. 

Next, read the satisfying tales of employees who got fired unexpectedly: 'His cunning plan didn't work, and the company folded in under a year.'

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10491200768
    via Jenn Simpson on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    About 5 or 6 years ago I built a fence in my back yard. I talked to my neighbors and we decided on a good place to build the fence. We knew an approximate property line based on some survey pins, but were both too cheap to pay for a surveyor. We shook hands and I built the fence. It was a great deal for my neighbors, I paid for everything, built the fence, and all they had to do was give me a thumbs up when it was done.
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 03
    Then, a year later, they sold their house. That meant I got a new neighbor, more specifically, I got Anne! Anne was from the big city, Anne was a realtor, Anne had flipped 8 houses in 12 years, Anne loved this new house and planned on staying for a long time, and Anne had a dog. Razzy was a German Shepherd mix that spent most of the day outside while Anne went to work. Razzy was aggressive towards children, animals, insects, and any plants that waved in the breeze. Razzy
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 04
    also, as Anne once told me, LOVED to chew on furniture. That's why Razzy stayed outside so much. About 6 months after Anne moved in I saw a surveyor walking around in my neighborhood and he was paying special attention to my back yard. The next day Anne showed up at my front door with a stack of papers and asked me if I was going to pay her for the 9 inches that my fence was encroaching
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 05
    onto her property. I explained the handshake deal with the last neighbors, but she was having no part of it! She wanted the fence moved or she wanted money, no discussions. She had spoken to her lawyer friend and was perfectly happy to take me to court over the fence. She told me "I don't know how you guys do it out here in the sticks, but where I come from we follow the rules!"
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 06
    So, I got rid of the fence. The next day I unscrewed the horizontal rails from the brackets, stacked the fence panels up against my garage, and pulled up the fence posts with my work van. About a week later Anne shows up at my front door again. She wants to know when I'm going to be building a new fence. Turns out, without my portion of the fence she has not been able to let Razzy out unattended for fear
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 07
    that he will run away, attack something, or get hit by a car. She also told me she can't keep him in the house all day while she's at work anymore. Her furniture and carpet are all but ruined. I told her "Well, Anne, I'm not going to be rebuilding the fence. I don't want any legal trouble and the best way to stay out of trouble is to not build near your property."
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 08
    The look on her face was priceless!!! I thought she was going to cry! (She probably did when she got back home.) She tried to protest, saying that she really needed the fence back and she would even help pay for the new one. She told me how much she loved the style and aesthetic of the old one, it was just the location that she had a problem with. I stood firm. There would be no new fence.
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 09
    She never got a fence. She made half-hearted attempts to put up some bamboo fencing, but Razzy tore through that stuff like wet newspaper. Eventually, I sold my place and moved away. I took the old fence panels with me and I still look at them everyday when I let my dog out in the morning.
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 10
    TLDR: New neighbor with dog didn't like where the old neighbor and I built a fence. She threatened legal trouble, so I completely removed the fence. Dog destroys her house. I keep the fence.
    via u/Kid_Endmore
  • 11
    Cheezburger Image 10491201280
    via Sandra Seitamaa For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 12

    She's got to learn somehow!

    SnooWords4839 Well, Anne, this is how we take down a fence here in the sticks!
    via u/SnooWords4839
  • 13
    gHHqdm5a4Uy... I always try to approach neighbors in kindness because you have to live next to each other and see each other all the time. Absolutely idiotic to open with threatening legal action.
    via u/gHHqdm5a4UySnUFM
  • 14
    Heynowbebe Not as dramatic, but we also wanted to do a handshake agreement based on old posts for the fence line as we didn't want to pay for a surveyor. Neighbour insisted because he was certain he would gain some of our land (he thought his house was too close to the edge so he should have more). Reluctantly we did the survey, turns out the posts
    via u/Heynowbebe
  • 15
    were wrong and we gained metres into his already smaller yard.
    via u/Heynowbebe
  • 16
    RealUltimate Pa... "Move your fence or I'll sue you!" "You got it, ma'am!" "...oh, I am so stupid" Genius should have used the money she was gonna sue you with, and either built a new fence, or trained her dog to not destroy everything in existence
    via u/RealUltimatePapo
  • 17
    UniqueIndividu... I did something similar. The wooden fence between our properties had one broken post. It leaned a little, but not that much. He filed with the county to demand I repair it. So I removed it. We both had pools. Mine was enclosed with a chain linked fence, his had no fence. So I reported him for having a pool without a fence. He
    via u/UniqueIndividual3579
  • 18
    offered to pay for half of a new fence, I told him to *&%&. He had to pay for the new fence.
    via u/UniqueIndividual3579

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housing neighbors neighborhood neighborhood-drama apartments neighborhood-stories terrible neighbors apartment dogs german shepherd fence fences
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