Homeowner comes home to discover his native pollinator garden has been damaged, discovers neighbor's trespassing $3,800 robotic mower is the culprit, repeated attempts to stop it crossing their shared boundary fail—homeowner takes more drastic measures

The Events

This homeowner's neighbor purchased a $3,800 robotic mower that, despite its “smart” boundary settings, could not be contained. It repeatedly crossed into the homeowner's yard and damaged his prized native pollinator garden. The garden presented an investment of time and energy itself and was a point of pride for the homeowner, so they were crushed to see the cherished plants damaged.

Repeated attempts to resolve the situation and the originally apologetic neighbor's attempts to contain the robot via settings bore no fruit. So the homeowner went out and got $95 of metal landscaping edging and installed it along the boundary, well within his side of the property line. 

You can probably see where this is going… The mower hit the metal edging, damaging the blades of the mower. Now the neighbor is demanding that the homeowner cover the cost of repairs and a replacement mower rental. The neighbor insists that the homeowner should have warned him, and another neighbor is arguing for a split of the costs just to keep the peace. 

So who was in the wrong here? Is it the neighbor or the homeowner? Or do they both share in the blame? 

Negotiating with neighbors

Disagreements in lifestyles, opinions, and needs are always going to create a need for negotiation. Reaching common ground and hashing things out is going to have to take place to avoid conflict. The problem is we have all grown so conflict-averse that we perceive the hard conversation as conflict instead of a necessity, so we avoid having the hard conversation in the first place, allowing our misgivings to fester and bad feelings to grow.

The boundary

I think the boundary isn't just between our properties… It's in our heads too. 

It's really not that hard to go over to the fence and have a conversation about these things. Maybe flick one text message saying, “Hey, let's look at this at the fence.” And then go out and deal with the situation face-to-face

I stand by my feeling that a lot of the problems we have today stem from the abundance and “ease” of communication actually making things worse in the long run by adding uncertainty of meaning and interpretation to messages and back-and-forth exchanges, drawing out what could have been a quick face-to-face discussion.

But, in this particular instance, the homeowner did a great job of initially trying to set a boundary, adjust his neighbor's expectations, and fix the issue. But this didn't fix the problem, with the neighbor's attempts at recalibrating the machine.

Responsibilities of Out-of-Control Technology

How responsible are we for the impact of wayward technology that we control?

I mean that alone is something that we could probably talk about for hours, and it's a growing and ongoing source of debate. 

Are you responsible for what you program a robot or AI software to do? Are you responsible if it does what you didn't think to tell it to do? Are you responsible for it malfunctioning?

I think of it like this: If you park your car on a hill, let's say it's a manual transmission, for the sake of the argument, even though they are rapidly going extinct. You set the parking brake, but it fails, and your car rolls down the hill and hits another vehicle. Are you responsible for the damage to that vehicle? Well, yeah, probably. You did everything right, but something in your possession and under your control did something unpredictable, so you're going to have to pay anyway.

The same is true for any technology system, automated, software, or mechanical. If it does something it shouldn't and damages something of someone else's… well, you're going to have to get your wallet out. Proverbially speaking. 

But suppose your car rolls down the hill and strikes your neighbor's landscaping boulder that they have in front of their house. (I don't know, maybe they like boulders, ok?) You're not going to expect them to pay for the damage to your car… You're probably going to be paying for the damage to their boulder. The same is true here. Damage done by the robot should be paid for, but damage done to it when its “parking brake" fails and it goes somewhere it shouldn't, shouldn't. 

Still, in keeping with the discussion and spirit of the original online community where this post was shared, the homeowner gave two options, allowing readers to select A or B as to how he should approach the situation. 

So which should it be? A or B? Have a read of the original story below and some of the key responses. Then let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

A or B: My neighbor's $3,800 robot mower kept crossing into my yard and damaged my garden. I added $95 of edging on my side, and now he wants me to pay for the repairs

Story source/Upper_Criticism3388

My neighbor and I share a straight property line between our front yards. Last spring, he bought a $3,800 robotic mower that uses a boundary wire. He was pretty excited about it and showed me how he could control it from an app.

Around the same time, I planted a small native pollinator garden on my side of the yard. It was just some native flowers and grasses that cost a few hundred dollars and took me a weekend to put together.

A few weeks later, I noticed his mower had crossed over the property line and damaged some of the plants. I sent him a photo, and he apologized and said he would adjust the boundary settings.

The same thing happened again a few times over the next month. Each time he said he would recalibrate it, but eventually the mower went further into my yard and damaged a larger section of the garden. My doorbell camera captured multiple instances of it crossing the property line.

I checked the property records to confirm the boundary and installed $95 of metal landscape edging a few inches inside my own yard to protect the garden. The edging was completely on my property, and there are no HOA rules against having it.

About a week later, my neighbor came over and said his mower had hit the edging and damaged the blades. He showed me a repair estimate and also asked me to cover the cost of renting a replacement mower while his was being repaired.

He believes I created a hazard near the boundary and should have warned him before installing it. I think his mower repeatedly entering my yard and damaging my plants is what caused the whole situation.

Another neighbor told me I should just split the cost to avoid creating bad bl**d over a lawn dispute.

A) I pay part of the repair cost and move the edging back to give his mower more clearance. A few hundred dollars is not worth creating a long-term feud with a neighbor.

B) His mower crossed onto my property multiple times and damaged my garden before I installed anything. I refuse to pay for the mower repairs and use the camera footage if he tries to make me responsible.