Anyone have experience with trespassing neighbors?

[CoastRange57]

Arbor laws are actually pretty intense.

This would probably fall under timber trespass. My son had a neighbors whose obnoxious cedar tree was way over my sons fence and roof and making a mess and damaging the roof. We got up on the roof with a powered pole saw and cut everything on our side of the fence, the fence was my sons. Of course the neighbor sh*t and raised hell, but nothing ever became of it. One of my other sons just did the same thing.

I am currently building on my site in Central Oregon. People had been using the property has a short cut between two roads, and I had probably 20 trail cams shots of them on the property. I was up there at dusk a week or so ago and heard voices behind our property, which was a common area. I stepped behind a juniper tree and watched two people walk on my property and start walking around my cement forms and laid out areas. Snapped a couple of pictures and then went out and had a conversation with them about coming onto the property and an active construction site.

They were pretty cool about it, I asked them not to come on the property again and told them that there were multiple trail cams on the site, well out of reach without a tall ladder. This was for their safety and my security.

In this case, I would have about zero tolerance for anybody coming on my property uninvited and then actually doing anything to the flora like that. I would document, post the property, send him a certified letter and if he did it again, then I am calling the police and asking them to cite for trespassing. Pretty clear cut case. Trespassing is not taken lightly on this side of the state. OSP recently sent out a press release where they had 16 trail cam pictures of people trespassing and hunting on posted ground in the City of McMinnville watershed. Probably was pretty effective.

Don't bother me and I won't bother you.

 

[CRBMoA]

Don't manscape another's bush.

 

[DB is Here]

Don't manscape another's bush.

However, If you trim the bushes, the house looks bigger. @Stomper told me that once...

 

[CoastRange57]

I would politely ask him why there is an access panel to your property and see what he says.

Have you thought about putting up your own fence?

If the fence is on your property it is your fence regardless of who paid for or installed it. Secure the access panel.

All my fences are or have been just inside my property lines. Make sure your corner pins are clearly marked. I currently by code have my property lines strung, and staked every 30 feet with tall stakes and bright pink flagging tape. This has to stay until final inspection, and even after I will put in concrete form stakes every 60 feet or so. No small chore with over 1200 feet of property line to do.

In my general contracting days, our contracts required that a properties corners were clearly marked by the owner or his representative (surveyor). In larger projects I would pay for my surveyor to come out and verify the project blue prints that the architects had put provided. They verified corners and gave me a bench mark center of the project which is where everything was measured from and the laser was set each day. It only takes once to have a project get built over a property line, and having to correct that at our expense, because someone failed to accurately set corners.

And after all that, each day myself or my foremen took 20 or so pictures of all work done that day and those were added to the electronic job file. It came in very handy several times.

 

[DB is Here]

I'd show him the video, and advise him that this isn't acceptable w/o your permission. If that didn't work I'd secure the fence from my side so the panel couldn't be removed. Tall, secure fences make good neighbors.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

If the fence is on your property it is your fence regardless of who paid for or installed it. Secure the access panel.

All my fences are or have been just inside my property lines. Make sure your corner pins are clearly marked. I currently by code have my property lines strung, and staked every 30 feet with tall stakes and bright pink flagging tape. This has to stay until final inspection, and even after I will put in concrete form stakes every 60 feet or so. No small chore with over 1200 feet of property line to do.

In my general contracting days, our contracts required that a properties corners were clearly marked by the owner or his representative (surveyor). In larger projects I would pay for my surveyor to come out and verify the project blue prints that the architects had put provided. They verified corners and gave me a bench mark center of the project which is where everything was measured from and the laser was set each day. It only takes once to have a project get built over a property line, and having to correct that at our expense, because someone failed to accurately set corners.

And after all that, each day myself or my foremen took 20 or so pictures of all work done that day and those were added to the electronic job file. It came in very handy several times.

Excellent advice re property boundaries. No one else will look out for ur interests so u have to. My neighbor did a development and their surveyor had the corner stake 3 feet on my side away from the actual corner (which was marked with a pipe inside another clay pipe many many decades ago). I'm sure they thought they could get away with taking out some of my trees that are on the border. I called the city and complained and they made them re-survey it and the second time the corner marker was back where the original corner was marked. They will cheat if they think they can get away with it.

 

[CoastRange57]

Excellent advice re property boundaries. No one else will look out for ur interests so u have to. My neighbor did a development and their surveyor had the corner stake 3 feet on my side away from the actual corner (which was marked with a pipe inside another clay pipe many many decades ago). I'm sure they thought they could get away with taking out some of my trees that are on the border. I called the city and complained and they made them re-survey it and the second time the corner marker was back where the original corner was marked. They will cheat if they think they can get away with it.

My current project consisted of two separate adjacent lots. I wanted to combine them to gain some space on setback requirements to put our house farther up the hill for view and distance from the road and the neighbors. When I had it surveyed, ( $ 1,500 later) I gained almost 5 lateral feet on one side from the previous in error survey over 28 years ago. Over 476 linear feet that amounted to almost 3,000 more square feet overall. Clearly documented and marked, I am sure the absentee property owners on the one side will complain at some time, but they did not comment when sent the documents by the county. They are SOL at this point.

 

[SUPER X]

The guy does look Non threatening and appeared to be trying to do good job .
If he was hacking away , or snooping around ? He might just be that rare good person that's occasionally seen. I'd chat with him on a day of low stress to find his motive .

 

[CRBMoA]

I DON'T understand why the neighbor keeps whacking at the shrub when a new owner buys the house.

I don't just walk into the house I grew up in because I USED to live there!

If Bobby Bush-Trimmer is so tight with his homies, he would KNOW that ownership has changed.

You don't blow past a fence without reason and authority.

The OP is not the problem here.

 

[slimmer13]

I'm actually dealing with the same issue. I've got some trespassers trimming my vegetation too.

 

[American123]

I'm actually dealing with the same issue. I've got some trespassers trimming my vegetation too.

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I'd be more agreeable to those than some OCD HOA President wannabe. (we don't live in an HOA)

 

[Sporting Systems]

Talk to him first, ask what his labor rate is and if he'll take care of everything else on your property too. Before PD or attorneys get involved, just ask if there is something you need to know, depending on his reaction, you can:

1) ask him to stop.
2) ask him to stop, if he does it again, then ask PD to serve a notice of trespass to him
3) If he does it again, after the notice of trespass, have him arrested for trespass. Add more cameras everywhere, because he will likely shift his attention to other property get you back.
4) after steps 1-3, plan on having all kinds of issues from there after, because the guy is warped. A another arrest for trespass and A restraining order would likely be next.

If he's normal, you'll be fine. If its not a huge issue to you...you could just let it lay if he insists on trimming your bushes.

 

[Phantom Man]

Did anybody ask already about the quality of his work?

 

[oldcorpgunny]

You need to be concerned about "adverse possession" and any claim he might be making. I used to have to deal with this sort of stuff when I worked for WDFW.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

It's good to be aware of that but in this case the neighbor wouldn't have a chance, fe wouldn't meet criteria 2-4 below (trespasser would have to meet all criteria). That doesn't mean the trespasser doesn't think he can though. Who knows what that guy is thinking.

From here: Adverse Possession: When Trespassers Become Owners | Everett Estate Attorneys

 

[oldcorpgunny]

You need to be concerned about "adverse possession" and any claim he might be making. I used to have to deal with this sort of stuff when I worked for WDFW.

As I said, I'm very conversant with this issue and the adverse possessor only has to use the land "openly and hostilely (that means he has to have been told to stop by the property owner" for a period of 10 years and he can make the claim. There is a process called "stacking" where the adverse possessor can do what he does intermittently, with different owners, until such time as he has accumulated the necessary years. You have no idea how long he was doing it previous to your ownership. You can end his claim immediately by giving him permission to do what he does and then sue him in superior court.

 

[BPOR11]

My imagination is goin crazy right now.

Gonna stop there

 

[ilikegunspdx]

From here: Adverse Possession: When Trespassers Become Owners | Everett Estate Attorneys

 

[jbett98]

I'd just build my own solid fence across the back and be done with it.

 

[PepperoniPizza]

I have video of my neighbor (behind my house who I've never met since we moved in about 5 months ago), coming through his fence, 15 feet onto my property which is clearly defined as not his yard as it is not inside his fence, and then take a hedge trimmer to several of my bushes.

This neighbor is actually the reason I bought the cameras in the first place because this happened once before when a tree was topped, but I had no proof of who did it, only suspected it was him. Now that I have video evidence, I have already contacted an attorney to see what the best options are to nip this in the bud, but I'm curious what others have done in the past. If there is anything I should be avoiding, etc. I purposely have not spoken with the neighbor yet because I did not want to jeopardize pursuing anything through counsel, but if they say it's not really worth pursuing, then of course I will report it and have a chat with the neighbor.

To be clear, that fence is the property line, and actually, it's a bit over on my property, but that's not the topic.

Edit to add: His access panel normally is closed, I didn't know it was even an access panel until I caught this on video. Didn't know he even had it built into the fence.

Any good experience or input from the NWFA crowd?

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Does this really need a whole thread to itself? It never occurred to you to maybe go and speak with the man like a grown adult person? What experience would you be expecting beyond dealing with this as any other adult person should with communication? Your excuse for not speaking with him is horse manure in my opinion and means absolutely nothing. If anything speaking with him first would be the best way to avoid any kind of real dispute that would require counsel. You should avoid what you're doing now, which is seeking some basic advice from knuckleheads that are gonna give you joke answers and a well-deserved ribbing. When did speaking to a neighbor require this much handholding, goodness gracious...