barfly666
2021-08-23 14:14:01
- #1
Hello,
the following situation: I bought a house located inland, which is accessed via a 4.50-meter-wide and 26-meter-long driveway (my property). The house had been vacant for at least 2 years, and the previous owner didn’t take care of anything anymore. This apparently caused some "frustration" among the neighbors or old "feuds" were transferred onto me. Because of the overgrown garden and twigs that, oh horror, grew over the fence, the esteemed neighbors came straight to me with demands like "You have to do this, you have to do that." Unfortunately, I probably gave in too quickly and had two trees cut down immediately, which led not to calm but to more demands... well.
About 70% of the property was fenced in by my previous owner with a 1.80 m high double rod fence (about 20 years ago), but 30% had already been fenced in earlier by previous owner A also with a double rod fence, so my previous owner naturally did not put up a fence there. The "problem" here is that it was apparently common practice back then not to place fencing directly on the boundary but set back a bit (no problem unless someone starts acting up).
From the old surveyor’s photos, I saw that the fence along neighbor C’s boundary (and another neighbor D) was entirely overgrown with ivy (a nice green "wall"/privacy screen). When my previous owner moved out (left) and the house was vacant, neighbor D removed all the ivy along his border and threw the clippings over. I found the now bare double rod fence with an open view (from the terrace, the living room window) toward D’s messy garden unpleasant and installed a privacy screen in that area. The driveway was still nicely "green" (at least on C’s side), but then C also started to annoy me with "you have to do this, you have to do that, your ivy is growing into my meadow, etc.," so to have peace here, I completely removed the ivy from the fence and also installed a privacy screen and planted the flowerbed according to my ideas. That apparently wasn’t good either; A, C, and D now complain about the privacy screen. When the house was already under forced sale and the previous owner had moved out, A independently cut down arborvitae bushes along his boundary and planted low-growing plants there and at the open area of the driveway just "corrected" boundary stones (thank goodness for Google Street View and the city’s satellite images). He apparently cares about every centimeter (seemingly upset because his double rod fence actually stands more on his property and he still owns 18 cm from the fence inward).
The driveway is as follows:
Neighbor A (to my left), B (me), neighbor C (to my right)
However, I feel the need for privacy and just don’t want to walk down the driveway (or have my visitors or clients, since I am self-employed working from home) under the watchful eyes of neighbors, it just annoys me. The dilemma is that I cannot install a privacy screen on A’s side because it’s not my fence. When I addressed the tree cutting action (by A), I said I wanted to replant the spot to create a uniform appearance with the remaining shrubs, now with cherry laurel, but due to the local conditions, the legal distance rules cannot be observed. In such a case, I would lose out. I want to avoid that problem somehow. The problem arises because A likes to dictate terms regarding my driveway and, for example, wants to greet neighbor D over neighbor C’s property from his fence across my driveway (which is no longer possible because the privacy screen is there toward C, so I already lost here...) and he stormed at me over planting 40 cm cherry laurel, whether I would tend not to plant into his 18 cm in front of his fence, so that my gardening helper looked at me puzzled and said "Isn’t this yours here? Strange." Ergo, stress is programmed if the plants finally form a privacy screen. Basically, I have the problem with planting that on the left side toward A I have about 18 cm "plus" of property but toward C I "lack" 22 cm, so planting is hardly possible unless one agrees on a common boundary planting. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case here. Occasionally, the tone has become somewhat rough.
So, long story short:
Could I, in this situation, put a double rod fence directly on the boundary in front of neighbor A’s double rod fence and simply insert my privacy screen there?
This would save me the tedious planting issue "and your twig is looking over at me." I just want peace here and am a bit surprised by the neighbors (the farther away they are, the nicer they get :-) ) and their behavior. On the one hand, they want lots of tolerance for themselves, but woe if something happens on the other side of the fence. Double standards and such... I really have no time or desire for such nonsense but am sometimes quite impulsively controlled, so I prefer to fully withdraw and keep my mouth shut...
I can somewhat understand the owner from the garden music noise thread... :-)
Meanwhile, I interpret the behavior as follows:
- C, as daughter and heir of the original builder, who apparently was in conflict with the builder of my house and already transferred this dispute to my previous owner (grandchild of the builder) (found documents in the basement), now continues actively with me. Anything to complain about, here and there a little annoyance (stacks her garden cuttings 2 meters high at my fence so the needles fall nicely on my side and the fence was loose in two spots, but then she makes the effort to scatter ivy clippings all over my driveway, very nice... cuts off every twig sticking over and throws it across, so "boundaries" are important, then loiters around in my driveway to gossip with A (annoying when you want to drive into your driveway)
- A apparently felt cheated when buying his house (as a ground floor apartment) regarding the plot division, meaning he has too little land and now wants to compensate by strongly emphasizing the boundaries here. He apparently wanted to bid on my house as well, meaning he was interested.
- D has apparently always been somewhat stirred up by A and the 2 years the house stood empty was always an issue and you could nicely rant about the previous owner, which is no longer possible, so now a privacy screen suffices. It is also outrageous that you do not want to look at an "alternative" garden made up of a mix of building material, a pool house covered with a tarpaulin (also for 2 years), flying garden tools, overgrown sand mound from pool excavation...
But tolerance always (only) from the others: heated pool + dad as retiree + squeaking children + neighborhood children = pool party feeling right in front of the door with a noise level that does not stop even in autumn/winter, no question that the heat pump stands 1 m from the fence, the dog is let out at 1-2 a.m. and then barks vigorously at his own shadow, oh, the view of a chicken wire cage put together from construction leftovers, sure right by the fence in a purely residential area is also much nicer than some "privacy screen"... etc. :-)
the following situation: I bought a house located inland, which is accessed via a 4.50-meter-wide and 26-meter-long driveway (my property). The house had been vacant for at least 2 years, and the previous owner didn’t take care of anything anymore. This apparently caused some "frustration" among the neighbors or old "feuds" were transferred onto me. Because of the overgrown garden and twigs that, oh horror, grew over the fence, the esteemed neighbors came straight to me with demands like "You have to do this, you have to do that." Unfortunately, I probably gave in too quickly and had two trees cut down immediately, which led not to calm but to more demands... well.
About 70% of the property was fenced in by my previous owner with a 1.80 m high double rod fence (about 20 years ago), but 30% had already been fenced in earlier by previous owner A also with a double rod fence, so my previous owner naturally did not put up a fence there. The "problem" here is that it was apparently common practice back then not to place fencing directly on the boundary but set back a bit (no problem unless someone starts acting up).
From the old surveyor’s photos, I saw that the fence along neighbor C’s boundary (and another neighbor D) was entirely overgrown with ivy (a nice green "wall"/privacy screen). When my previous owner moved out (left) and the house was vacant, neighbor D removed all the ivy along his border and threw the clippings over. I found the now bare double rod fence with an open view (from the terrace, the living room window) toward D’s messy garden unpleasant and installed a privacy screen in that area. The driveway was still nicely "green" (at least on C’s side), but then C also started to annoy me with "you have to do this, you have to do that, your ivy is growing into my meadow, etc.," so to have peace here, I completely removed the ivy from the fence and also installed a privacy screen and planted the flowerbed according to my ideas. That apparently wasn’t good either; A, C, and D now complain about the privacy screen. When the house was already under forced sale and the previous owner had moved out, A independently cut down arborvitae bushes along his boundary and planted low-growing plants there and at the open area of the driveway just "corrected" boundary stones (thank goodness for Google Street View and the city’s satellite images). He apparently cares about every centimeter (seemingly upset because his double rod fence actually stands more on his property and he still owns 18 cm from the fence inward).
The driveway is as follows:
Neighbor A (to my left), B (me), neighbor C (to my right)
However, I feel the need for privacy and just don’t want to walk down the driveway (or have my visitors or clients, since I am self-employed working from home) under the watchful eyes of neighbors, it just annoys me. The dilemma is that I cannot install a privacy screen on A’s side because it’s not my fence. When I addressed the tree cutting action (by A), I said I wanted to replant the spot to create a uniform appearance with the remaining shrubs, now with cherry laurel, but due to the local conditions, the legal distance rules cannot be observed. In such a case, I would lose out. I want to avoid that problem somehow. The problem arises because A likes to dictate terms regarding my driveway and, for example, wants to greet neighbor D over neighbor C’s property from his fence across my driveway (which is no longer possible because the privacy screen is there toward C, so I already lost here...) and he stormed at me over planting 40 cm cherry laurel, whether I would tend not to plant into his 18 cm in front of his fence, so that my gardening helper looked at me puzzled and said "Isn’t this yours here? Strange." Ergo, stress is programmed if the plants finally form a privacy screen. Basically, I have the problem with planting that on the left side toward A I have about 18 cm "plus" of property but toward C I "lack" 22 cm, so planting is hardly possible unless one agrees on a common boundary planting. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case here. Occasionally, the tone has become somewhat rough.
So, long story short:
Could I, in this situation, put a double rod fence directly on the boundary in front of neighbor A’s double rod fence and simply insert my privacy screen there?
This would save me the tedious planting issue "and your twig is looking over at me." I just want peace here and am a bit surprised by the neighbors (the farther away they are, the nicer they get :-) ) and their behavior. On the one hand, they want lots of tolerance for themselves, but woe if something happens on the other side of the fence. Double standards and such... I really have no time or desire for such nonsense but am sometimes quite impulsively controlled, so I prefer to fully withdraw and keep my mouth shut...
I can somewhat understand the owner from the garden music noise thread... :-)
Meanwhile, I interpret the behavior as follows:
- C, as daughter and heir of the original builder, who apparently was in conflict with the builder of my house and already transferred this dispute to my previous owner (grandchild of the builder) (found documents in the basement), now continues actively with me. Anything to complain about, here and there a little annoyance (stacks her garden cuttings 2 meters high at my fence so the needles fall nicely on my side and the fence was loose in two spots, but then she makes the effort to scatter ivy clippings all over my driveway, very nice... cuts off every twig sticking over and throws it across, so "boundaries" are important, then loiters around in my driveway to gossip with A (annoying when you want to drive into your driveway)
- A apparently felt cheated when buying his house (as a ground floor apartment) regarding the plot division, meaning he has too little land and now wants to compensate by strongly emphasizing the boundaries here. He apparently wanted to bid on my house as well, meaning he was interested.
- D has apparently always been somewhat stirred up by A and the 2 years the house stood empty was always an issue and you could nicely rant about the previous owner, which is no longer possible, so now a privacy screen suffices. It is also outrageous that you do not want to look at an "alternative" garden made up of a mix of building material, a pool house covered with a tarpaulin (also for 2 years), flying garden tools, overgrown sand mound from pool excavation...
But tolerance always (only) from the others: heated pool + dad as retiree + squeaking children + neighborhood children = pool party feeling right in front of the door with a noise level that does not stop even in autumn/winter, no question that the heat pump stands 1 m from the fence, the dog is let out at 1-2 a.m. and then barks vigorously at his own shadow, oh, the view of a chicken wire cage put together from construction leftovers, sure right by the fence in a purely residential area is also much nicer than some "privacy screen"... etc. :-)