Hoofta, this got out of hand quickly.
Recap. I few years back, I built a very large koi pond, around 10-12 thousand gallons. Its awesome and I love it. Then decided to build around a dozen raised garden beds. All of which are well made and look pretty good. My wife and I love to garden and decorate the pond with rocks and plants.
Recently I have become concerned about a small child or a neighbors dog falling in my pond. A dog would tear the liner if it tried to get out and a child would be, well devastating. I currently have a high end motion sensing camera and a small fence directly around the pond. This fence is in the way and hinders my ability to clean and maintain the pond. So I recently decided for keeping critters (that want to eat my koi) and geese out, I would build a fence(we also occasionally get river otters in the pond behind us.) In our local city rules anyone can build a fence provided it is setback 2 feet from property line, unless you obtain written permission from all neighbors adjacent to the fence to build it on the property line. This is where the story gets interesting.
I have known my neighbors for almost a decade. Have gotten along with them pretty well besides a few small issues but nothing too intense. The other neighbors are an apartment and a rental house so permission was simple to obtain.
I sent my neighbor and his wife a text saying why I felt i needed one and wanted to offer to put it on the property line so A. They would have an entire side of their lot fenced for free B. Their would be no odd gap of 4ft if they ever wanted one C. Was willing to make it shorter and less obvious along their side of the yard.
D. Would need to dig up and move 6 sprinklers.
Most of the fence would be 6ft but I said I would do a picket fence of 4ft with Gaps between the boards so it would still appear inviting. (My neighbors hate geese, and shoot at them with bb guns all the time. I don’t mind geese but would gladly keep them in the wetland outback, and think a fence makes more sense than killing baby geese for no reason.
So I asked them about it and explained my offer.
(The building permit guy said I was playing with fire not having the pond fenced in more permanently). I immediately received a message from the husband saying he did not want it on the property line and asked why. I said insurance can see google maps and I don’t feel safe with it exposed.
Instead of just telling me he wanted it back the 2 feet. He began explaining that thats not possible, google maps isn’t up to date and kind of felt like gaslighting a lil. Then said 2 houses in our neighborhood adjacent to a fence had lower property values. Keep in mind the houses are across the street and are much smaller with less amenities. I was annoyed and confused. Just tell me no and move on.
I then informed him that due to him never being able to connect to my fence, that I will go the 6ft because that is what I prefer and would look better all symmetrical anyway.
Also a 4ft gap between would be odd with a short fence.
He then made another comment about wanting to follow city code and stay back.
(Knowing him well this appears to be a classic way of letting me know he does not want a fence at all and apparently thought I would concede to his property value concern?
I asked Ai and all responses concluded a fence almost always increases values.
By this point I was getting annoyed, not at the 2 feet, but him telling me he was very against it.
So now when I build my fence I know they are pissed and must despise me for building it.
Just when I thought it was over, his wife sent a paragraph saying how she has no desire to have a fence and does not want it affecting her home value. Then said “make sure you follow the law buddy”. At this point I was ready to put on some boxing gloves and I told her she was being ridiculous, I am following code and this is what inspectors told me to do. I said im fine building it back 2 feet ( will have to move a lot of sprinklers) but all I needed was a no as im not asking for opinions or feelings. Not happy with my pushback, my neighbor added my wife to the convo. My wife has a lot of personal stuff going on and a dying mother, so all around horrible timing. Then proceeds to ask what they could have possibly done wrong. At this point I was confused and frankly pissed off. I made another sarcastic comment about how I am following the rules and said I was trying to be cordial by offering to lower the height. This fell on deaf ears and my wife gave us all an ass chewing in only the way a mother can. Obviously I handled this like an idiot but is this really that big of a deal?
For a side note they have a really ugly gazebo on stilts thats like a tree fort with tiny windows.
Never leash there dog and it occasionally craps on my yard.
Have a really plain yard and the fence would only block the view of the apartments.
So am I the asshole for asking them to put a fence on our property line? One last thing, they often complain or make little comments about us parking in our driveway. Ya because apparently thats tacky and we should always park in the garage.
They complained when I built the koi pond, cut down a tree, built raised beds, and got a small storage shed (legally).