I’d Love to Get a Full Night of Sleep
I have never had an issue with a neighbor. I’ve been lucky up until now. I moved into a new home at the end of February 2020. I introduced myself and my family to the new neighbors. Like usual, some were more receptive and friendly than others.
Within 30 days of buying the home and moving in, one of my next door neighbors started construction on a large, concrete block building. The building is really close to the property line as well as really close to his back porch and another building in his backyard. I went to speak to him.
I had a bad feeling, and was proven right. He indeed told me that it was not permitted and agreed that it was probably too close to the property line. He said he’d stop construction on it but didn’t know why I had such a big deal with it as it’s just a shed.
As soon as I mentioned construction and fire codes, he walks off and stated again he’d stop construction on it. Two days later, he continues construction. I tried to talk to him again and he just says “whatever buddy” and walks off.
So I checked with the city and the zoning in our area requires a 12-foot setback for any structure, more depending on the height. This was less than four feet from the common wall between our yards. That wall is the property line. So I call the city.
While describing my complaint, the operator pulls up recent aerial photographs of his property. It opened the flood gates.
She says that he has no permits on file with the city for any of the three other buildings in his backyard, the porch added to his home, the wall around his property, the structure he built in his front yard, etc.
She also says that he has very obviously overbuilt his property and there are guidelines to what percentage of his property he can fill with buildings. The guy has A LOT of unpermitted, uninspected buildings and construction on his property.
The city went out and gave him a notice for work without permits. He has been asked by the city, multiple times, for information on his property and has not replied. That was April 2020 when he got the notice. He has a couple of dogs.
When I first met him, he told me to come meet his dogs so that they won’t bark at me too much. I did and it didn’t seem like the dogs were barking that much. After he got the notice from the city, though, he would just leave his dogs outside for hours on end and let them bark and bark the whole time.
It is just about mind-numbing. The way his yard is set up, he has a driveway on one side that goes from the street out front to his back yard. The other side of his house borders mine, and that is where the dogs are most of the time. It seriously sounds like it is right outside.
With the TV and home theater on, AC running, kids making noise and all of the other household noises, I can still hear his dogs barking. 5 am to 11pm, those dogs will bark. Lately, he has started keeping one dog at a time on his back porch but is confining them to some kind of kennel.
It is only about 4ft x 6ft. The dog(s) will whine, yip and bark for hours on end and it is right on the other side of the wall from me. I feel bad for the poor dog, being confined for hours at a time.
Summer temps are now going over 100 degrees, will get up to 115+ regularly during the summer, and I also worry for the safety of the dog being confined when temps are extreme and it is confined in an area with no ventilation. So, I go over to talk to him about his dogs and their barking.
This was December 2020. He has a large block wall surrounding his front yard. It’s about 7 or 8 feet tall. There is no way to access his front door or his yard without going through a gate, which has barking/snarling dogs on the other side. No doorbell, intercom. Nothing.
So, I knock on the side of his house, that is facing the street. I’m standing in his driveway. Both him and his wife come out to meet me. I asked him if he could do something about his dogs and their constant barking. His reply was blood-boiling.
He said to me, with a smirk on his face, that he doesn’t know what I’m talking about and that his dogs never bark. This whole time, his dogs are barking so much that we can barely hear each other. “You know what buddy, you already cost me way too much money. Get off my property” he then said to me.
I take two steps and I’m now on a city-owned sidewalk and near the street. His wife climbs on something from his front yard and is screaming and cussing at me from inside the yard, leaning over their wall. He comes out of his gate and takes his shirt off, trying to get me to fight him in the street.
I just walked home. I didn’t laugh, argue, yell, talk, nothing. At that point, I just walked home to avoid the violent confrontation that they were wanting. His dogs have continued to bark almost all day, every day since that interaction. But karma came for him.
I was contacted by a city inspector recently about the complaint. The inspector told me that they have been asking him for information for over a year and he has yet to comply so his notice has officially been turned into a citation and he will have to go before a judge.
The problem that the inspector has had is that he has been unable to make contact with my neighbor, as he cannot get to the front door. He said that he has to issue the citation in person and also has to take pictures of the property when he serves the individual.
The city inspector said that he is most likely going to have to get an officer to take him onto the property. I’ve been debating calling the city about the animal noise. If I do, I’ll probably bring up the issue of the confined dog on the back porch.
They handle animal noise separately than normal noise and disturbing the peace calls. He’ll get fined between $50 and $500 per occurrence, as I’ll be required to complete a log of when I hear the dogs. He has clearly shown that he is unable to have a conversation about it and resolve it between the two of us.
I know he’s in trouble with the city already but does he seriously think he can just continue to be a jerk without any repercussions? I’m 40. I’ve had plenty of neighbors through the years and have never had any issue with any of them until this guy.
He’s in big trouble already and I feel like it might be too much under the circumstances but I’d also like to be able to get a full night of sleep without having to listen to the dang dogs.
Story credit: Reddit / son_of_milkman