Your Land is my Land

[square1]

...Now the buds are out and fungicide spraying is taking place. Next he will be on the property to spray herbicides, a second fungicide spray...

This may be a long shot but worth a call to the New York Dept. of Agriculture. Many States require applicators to be certified if making applications on the property of others. It's a technicality but if he is on your property while spraying his grapes that would be a violation if he is not properly certified. The call is free. Just be straight up with them, don't embellish...oh...and make sure there's nothing you need to hide. If the State Inspector visits everything has potential to be scrutinized.

 

[Jstpssng]

I think I am handling things properly so far. I would like to address the "why haven't you handled this seven years ago" crowd. YEAR ONE someone else owned the grapes. And I asked politely could something be done about this. The answer was silence and a shoulder shrug. YEAR TWO the new owner gave the same response. YEAR THREE I recommended that if he would not repair the rows all the way to the property line, over time the problem would be resolved. YEAR FOUR no change in his trespassing. But I find a riding stable that needs the field hay. YEAR FIVE the farmer sees the riding stable cut and windrow the grass and then comes in with his baler and hauls the hay to his farm. The riding stable calls me and says "they don't wish to fight over hay". YEAR SIX the farmer doesn't want the hay. YEAR SEVEN in April before any pruning is done I put up Posted signs. READ ORIGINAL POST.

Now Lets look at the situation as the year progresses. During pruning time that is when something can be done without damaging buds. Now the buds are out and fungicide spraying is taking place. Next he will be on the property to spray herbicides, a second fungicide spray and post pounding will take place as well as wire repair. During this time the vines are light weight and can be worked with fairly easily. By end of June And early July leaves are forming vines are lengthening and flowers are out. Vines are getting heavier. August Berries are forming. That's more weight. September Berries are getting plump and purple and we are starting to talk about tonnage weight on the trellis. October is Harvesting time with lots of tractors, rain and mud. November til Spring nothing gets done as we live in the snow belt with heavy lake affect snow off Lake Erie.

Finally I've tried to be reasonable, patient and logical but keep getting stubborn resistance. :confused3: And that is why some of the 20/20 hindsight comments have caused this post. I expect that after the survey and my drainage ditch he will either ask for more time or just fill in the ditch. As for me, It would bother me to do this to a neighbor. But I have given fair warning and despite his labors and cowardly temper tantrums, I will figure a way to stop this. :thumbsup:

It's easy for us to armchair quarterback, but you are taking the high road. Unfortunately there are some unreasonable people out there who get what they want by making sure that the aggravation of dealing with it is worse than letting it slide. In other words, handle it the wrong way and you may come home one night to find that he has taken revenge. I can't imagine the gall of somebody coming in and taking your hay like that; it really shows what kind of person that you are dealing with.
I hope that things work out for you. As I have said before when reading posts like this; I'm thankful that I have good neighbors.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

RSKY, I Should have known better than to try to explain to 20/20 hindsighters. I did not know he stole it until after talking to the riding stable. I started wondering the next year why they didn't come back!!!!!!!!! How do you think crooks get away with so much. Because people don't put things all together immediately. The police would just say "prove its your hay". When the sheriff showed up last time they said "Did you see him" answer yes "Well we didn't see it" . And also "What do you want us to do". Look i'm in this alone. A smart A** reply, isn't helping.

DB,

I admire your patience, I really do. Both with your neighbor, and with this thread. Some folks have ZERO reading comprehension, which makes threads like this go sideways often. I know you said you don't live on your property that's in dispute, but does your neighbor live on his full time? Not that it really matters I guess, but if you're thinking long term about some type of permanent "barrier", if he's not living on site, you may get the whole thing in and done before he sees it.

Do you have a family member or friend, maybe retiree that could sit up there in an RV and act as "caretaker" for your place over the spring/summer? Catch the guy trespassing and call the sheriff while he's doing it, maybe get a few pics or video while he's at it?

 

[aczlan]

One thing I would do would be that once you have your survey and you have him in the act of trespassing, call the State Troopers barracks, not 911, a State Trooper will be slightly less likely to be biased toward him.
The other thing that you can do, is if they park their vehicles on your property, you can have them towed you may have to pay for the tow initially but that will depend on the towing company.

Aaron Z

 

[dodge man]

I致e seen it before where the police don稚 want to get involved in this kind of thing. They do not usually understand the issue.

At this point I would recommend putting up a fence after the survey. Then contact an attorney if the fence doesn稚 work.

A drainage ditch? Do you need one there? If not I wouldn稚 go that route.

 

[lennyzx11]

I think one thing possible to do would be to plant a few rows of a crop parallel to the boundary just inside the line on your side.

Then if workers drive through the crop rows, there is a basis for recoupment and criminal charges for destroying your "crop".

Then also would help against an adverse possession claim also in the future.

This is a little more civil than starting a war. We had one of "those neighbors" and it got to be a huge PITA. Finally, I went over and spoke to him one to one with the premise of asking him what could we do to bury the hatchet.

He died of cancer a few years ago and we were never friends but we were civil toward each other after the talk till he died though.

 

[s219]

Needs to be some sort of immovable barrier (3x3x6 concrete blocks or similar) or park some sort of artillery or tank there. Or just drive a bulldozer back and forth down the line and let him take his chances doing a u-turn across the line. Could also consider land mines (just put up signs of course).

I am only partly joking here. Since the jerk obviously has no concerns/worries crossing over the line repeatedly, maybe there needs to be some hazards to make him think twice about it. He clearly has no respect for his neighbors or trespassing, so give him another reason. Maybe the selfish S.O.B will respond to fear or the thought of $$$ needed to repair his equipment.

 

[Creamer]

I think I am handling things properly so far. I would like to address the "why haven't you handled this seven years ago" crowd. YEAR ONE someone else owned the grapes. And I asked politely could something be done about this. The answer was silence and a shoulder shrug. YEAR TWO the new owner gave the same response. YEAR THREE I recommended that if he would not repair the rows all the way to the property line, over time the problem would be resolved. YEAR FOUR no change in his trespassing. But I find a riding stable that needs the field hay. YEAR FIVE the farmer sees the riding stable cut and windrow the grass and then comes in with his baler and hauls the hay to his farm. The riding stable calls me and says "they don't wish to fight over hay". YEAR SIX the farmer doesn't want the hay. YEAR SEVEN in April before any pruning is done I put up Posted signs. READ ORIGINAL POST.

Now Lets look at the situation as the year progresses. During pruning time that is when something can be done without damaging buds. Now the buds are out and fungicide spraying is taking place. Next he will be on the property to spray herbicides, a second fungicide spray and post pounding will take place as well as wire repair. During this time the vines are light weight and can be worked with fairly easily. By end of June And early July leaves are forming vines are lengthening and flowers are out. Vines are getting heavier. August Berries are forming. That's more weight. September Berries are getting plump and purple and we are starting to talk about tonnage weight on the trellis. October is Harvesting time with lots of tractors, rain and mud. November til Spring nothing gets done as we live in the snow belt with heavy lake affect snow off Lake Erie.

Finally I've tried to be reasonable, patient and logical but keep getting stubborn resistance. :confused3: And that is why some of the 20/20 hindsight comments have caused this post. I expect that after the survey and my drainage ditch he will either ask for more time or just fill in the ditch. As for me, It would bother me to do this to a neighbor. But I have given fair warning and despite his labors and cowardly temper tantrums, I will figure a way to stop this. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the background! You are in this situation though no fault of your own but you still have to deal with it. I can appreciate your situation. Growing up on the ranch we had a neighbor that quite often would open gates or take the fence down to let our cows out of the pasture just to cause us more work. The Sheriff would go talk to him but of course he denied it and because the sheriff did not see him do it there was nothing he could do. It was quite annoying. One time - after many years - he went too far and sued for damages to his wheat crop but since the sheriff had been called so many times and had been in the middle of the discussions and there was obvious evidence of the fence being cut the case was thrown out and then he pretty much quit with the shenanigans.

I am hoping that ideas like the Ag dept and sprayer damage and other creative ideas will flow out of this thread to give you something you can use. I feel your pain and frustration.

 

[Tomtint]

A few years ago we purchased a 7 acre lot to build a house on. ..in my neck of the woods most house lots are between 1/4 and 3 acres.. so a larger lot is very rare. What you find out is that all the abutters of that larger lot.. seem to think that they are all entitled to use it how ever they see fit. We had to get it surveyed and marked, then have the local sheriffs dept send notice to the invading neighbors to remove their belongings from our property. One of them had a paved section with a basketball hoop installed on it.. he was not happy about taking it down... but having clear and unquestioned property lines is absolutely critical when it comes time to sell a property on. Nothing can ice a sale like property line disputes.

 

[radios1]

charging him to use your property would be a bad idea, since he would have the paper to prove he's allowed to use your property!..