New here. Shared driveway issues w/someone who owns a backhoe, bulldozer, excavator
- Thread starter Orangecrush68
- Start date
I was the owner of a shared drive for 25 years, sold that home 6 years ago and never looked back.
You are doing the right thing. You must protect your property as your inconsiderate neighbor is obviously taking an "I do not care" attitude. You may wish to present him with a bill for the work also. He most likely will not pay it but it will set a precedent for future issues.
You are doing the right thing. You must protect your property as your inconsiderate neighbor is obviously taking an "I do not care" attitude. You may wish to present him with a bill for the work also. He most likely will not pay it but it will set a precedent for future issues.
Tororider
Veteran Member
Like others said, talking now probably doesn't hurt anything. I would also put down some dirt and seed now, or sod it. It's not a bad time for sod and then you are done with it.
/ New here. Shared driveway issues w/someone who owns a backhoe, bulldozer, excavator
#14
OP
Orangecrush68
New member
Good morning everyone and thank you for your replies.
There are 2 reasons I am not talking to him about this. The first is because of me. I suppose it's pride.... I am not going to go up and ask someone to pay for my financial obligations when they are my legal responsibility. He doesn't own my part of the driveway, and he has no legal obligation to pay for that up keep, only his part of the lane, but because of where his house is at the end of the driveway, only he uses HIS owned portion of the driveway. He has all the benefits, but none of the risks.
It would take a lot of nerve, even in a polite way, for me to walk up to him and try to appeal to him about fixing the damage he is causing. I have known him a very long time, over 20 years. I bought my home from his sister. His grandparents actually owned all the land around here on the lake at one time that everyone's houses now sit on. I believe it is likely if I talked to my neighbor's father about this, they would make their son do the upkeep on the low spots his equipment is causing, but my neighbor isn't a child; so I am not going to treat him like one.
The 2nd reason I'm not talking to him is because he is someone who retaliates, in very negative ways. If I ask him to stop doing what he's doing and he doesn't and THEN I put up the fence I think he'll be more mad than if I make it look like what is happening is more organic in nature ie: The low spot begat the fence to keep the low spot from happening again. My other 2 neighbors I know do not like him. I think that is why they both came out to talk to me yesterday. One doesn't like him because he planted some trees on the other neighbor's property and mows part of that neighbor's lawn, and that makes the one neighbor mad. My next door neighbor doesn't like him because after a dispute the heavy equipment operator reported to the health dept my next door neighbor's septic system (my heavy equipment operator does septic systems all the time and knows all the inspectors) to the health department and he had to get a whole new septic system. Not only that but the heavy equipment guy stopped at my place when I was outside one time and said my neighbor's addition was too close to my property and to get something from the county to stop it. i can't remember as I sit here this morning not having had coffee yet what it was, but he said if I got this thing it would stop the addition in progress and force the neighbor to tear it down.
So that is what I'm dealing with. He is now divorced and lives alone so I can't appeal to a wife or anyone that may have influence over him. Funny enough, the way his sister, who I bought the house from, got to own this part of the shared driveway is because when the sister owned this house it was just her and her brother here, the other 2 neighbors didn't have homes built here yet. The heavy equipment neighbor hadn't sold part of the land yet to the other 2 neighbors. So it was just brother and sister living here. Well, sister was parking her car on the driveway and brother was getting ticked off because again, he likes to turn left on my part and her car was blocking that. He I guess told her he'd smash her car if she did it again, so she called up grandma and grandma changed the deed or did something so that sister owned that part of land so he couldn't tell her what to do. However she made it a shared driveway. I don't see how it helped because one neighbor can't block ingress and egress of a shared driveway. However, brother never threatened sister again.
So here I stand today. I have to do something or I am going to have no grass left on the one side of my house. If he retaliates at least the town knows what is going on. I keep my property up, and pay my taxes on time, so I don't know what he can do, we'll have to see.
There are 2 reasons I am not talking to him about this. The first is because of me. I suppose it's pride.... I am not going to go up and ask someone to pay for my financial obligations when they are my legal responsibility. He doesn't own my part of the driveway, and he has no legal obligation to pay for that up keep, only his part of the lane, but because of where his house is at the end of the driveway, only he uses HIS owned portion of the driveway. He has all the benefits, but none of the risks.
It would take a lot of nerve, even in a polite way, for me to walk up to him and try to appeal to him about fixing the damage he is causing. I have known him a very long time, over 20 years. I bought my home from his sister. His grandparents actually owned all the land around here on the lake at one time that everyone's houses now sit on. I believe it is likely if I talked to my neighbor's father about this, they would make their son do the upkeep on the low spots his equipment is causing, but my neighbor isn't a child; so I am not going to treat him like one.
The 2nd reason I'm not talking to him is because he is someone who retaliates, in very negative ways. If I ask him to stop doing what he's doing and he doesn't and THEN I put up the fence I think he'll be more mad than if I make it look like what is happening is more organic in nature ie: The low spot begat the fence to keep the low spot from happening again. My other 2 neighbors I know do not like him. I think that is why they both came out to talk to me yesterday. One doesn't like him because he planted some trees on the other neighbor's property and mows part of that neighbor's lawn, and that makes the one neighbor mad. My next door neighbor doesn't like him because after a dispute the heavy equipment operator reported to the health dept my next door neighbor's septic system (my heavy equipment operator does septic systems all the time and knows all the inspectors) to the health department and he had to get a whole new septic system. Not only that but the heavy equipment guy stopped at my place when I was outside one time and said my neighbor's addition was too close to my property and to get something from the county to stop it. i can't remember as I sit here this morning not having had coffee yet what it was, but he said if I got this thing it would stop the addition in progress and force the neighbor to tear it down.
So that is what I'm dealing with. He is now divorced and lives alone so I can't appeal to a wife or anyone that may have influence over him. Funny enough, the way his sister, who I bought the house from, got to own this part of the shared driveway is because when the sister owned this house it was just her and her brother here, the other 2 neighbors didn't have homes built here yet. The heavy equipment neighbor hadn't sold part of the land yet to the other 2 neighbors. So it was just brother and sister living here. Well, sister was parking her car on the driveway and brother was getting ticked off because again, he likes to turn left on my part and her car was blocking that. He I guess told her he'd smash her car if she did it again, so she called up grandma and grandma changed the deed or did something so that sister owned that part of land so he couldn't tell her what to do. However she made it a shared driveway. I don't see how it helped because one neighbor can't block ingress and egress of a shared driveway. However, brother never threatened sister again.
So here I stand today. I have to do something or I am going to have no grass left on the one side of my house. If he retaliates at least the town knows what is going on. I keep my property up, and pay my taxes on time, so I don't know what he can do, we'll have to see.
In that case just fix your property and put up a fence with tank traps behind the posts in case he runs over it ;-)
Sure sounds like a jerk to me. Maybe he'll go out of business. Not likely but we can hope.
Btw: I do commercial work and wouldn't drive over anyones lawn unless I had permission. He's pro ably just too lazy to swing wide. Maybe he doesn't like to use both hands on the wheel because he is on his cell phone! Don't let him bully you.
Sure sounds like a jerk to me. Maybe he'll go out of business. Not likely but we can hope.
Btw: I do commercial work and wouldn't drive over anyones lawn unless I had permission. He's pro ably just too lazy to swing wide. Maybe he doesn't like to use both hands on the wheel because he is on his cell phone! Don't let him bully you.
vwnotrunning
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You really should follow the advice of others and get a survey done. You should not draw a line without knowing where that line should be. He has more history on the property and may know exactly where the line is and intentionally destroy what you put up. Allowing him to see the surveying stakes would be reinforcement on your part that he knows where the line is.
TripleR
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You certainly know your situation better than any of us and we all have our ways of dealing with or avoiding conflict. When working, I did conflict resolution on a daily basis, so that's just my inclination.
plowindeeper
Gold Member
I'd do my best to keep that supervisor in office.
Dealing with property line issues myself survey first then stand firm.
Dealing with property line issues myself survey first then stand firm.
JerryK
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Yup... survey, mark line with fence.. row of trees.. bushes... whatever you want to mow around... But be prepared that the 'drive' may not be just 12'.. could be wider than that. Whatever it is, live with the survey and protect what is yours... 
TripleR
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Always a good idea. When we bought this farm the person from whom we bought it and a neighbor took us up and showed us their property line. For over twenty years we both took care of our side and we erected a mutually agreed upon fence and we reforested our side.
A few years ago the land owner sold three acres to a relative on which to build a house. The new land owner hired a surveyor and everyone was wrong and we had to take our fence down. Neither of us gained or lost, he just now has trees on part of his property and his lawn is on part of ours. Fortunately we get along and are going to just leave it as is, but it could have been a problem.