Am I a bad neighbor?

[EdKing]

Spencer,

I would just continue being friendly and polite to your neighbor, and go on putting your building up. If they are good neighbors, they will come around and be friendly, if not, well you can't please everyone so you might as well please yourself. As long as the building is presentable, and you keep it looking that way, I don't see any reason for them to complain. With only six acres, some of it wooded, you only have so many places to put a building up. If your neighbors were that concerned about thier view, they should have bought a bigger place and put thier house in the center of it.

 

[njrqs]

Spencer

I and my neighbour have 6 acres each. I bought this house after it had been here for 8 years. The houses are both approx 40' off the boundary. Both built to take the high spots of the block.

Both stupid decisions as far as I am concerned as I would have sacrificed some view for more space !

Anyway we bought so can't compain.

But now to make matters worse this clown has built a shed bigger than his house 6' from my boundary.

It makes a stupid looking layout into a total farce and I cannot even begin to understand why he did it.

Yes I think he is an *(T^&%&^)*&% for doing it.

Having said that we have no vegetation (except for the masses that I have planted) so it stands out like dogs (&&*^.

Also they are pigs and have 5 kids and leave garbage and junk everywhere and are going to let kids live in the shed which is against council rules.

To make matters worse they have just installed a septic system and have trashed the fence and strewn rocks all throught our yard.

So given your use and your existing vegetation, yours appears nothing like the situation I am in.

As someone said, with 6 acres you don't have much choice, but 6' from a boundary borders on lunacy as far as I am concerned.

Cheers

 

[GarageSmoker]

I cannot understand the problem here. Their barn is on the line and in their direct view. So what view could you possibly be ruining? If I look outside and see 2 barns at worst I am twice as ticked as seeing 1 and I put the first one in view, so where is my beef?

I am starting to build on 5 acres and so is my next door neighbor. I am going to be sensitive to his view of the horizon which is across my property, but if he decides to put a barn in the far corner of his property which joins mine, another is going up right next to it. If he chooses to put it on the other far side I will look for a different location as well.

I can't see where you have done bad at all.

GS

 

[MossRoad]

It seems logical to locate your barn along a property line near an access road. It also seems logical to locate it near another building of the same type. And if you already let them use your property to access their building, I think they have nothing to complain about.

Just out of curiosity, what color will it be? You might be able to use earth tones and tree plantings to really soften up the view from their side. I've seen some very nice browns, beiges and greens in the woods and they look great.

Hope this helps /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RanchMan]

Spencer -

I have to concur with a lot of the comments offered by DumbDog, Gerard, Coboydoc, BillG49 & EdKing.

Do I love everything my neighbors do? Absolutely not. That being said, as long as they aren't breaking any laws (or bylaws, as in the case of a homeowners association), as long as they are paying the bank and paying the taxes, they are the ones with the property rights to their plot - not me.

Myself, one of my neighbors has about 2700 acres and encompasses 3 sides of my property. Has he done some things that annoy me? You bet. Have I done the same - probably so. Are we "nice" and civil to one another? Absolutely - he can do with his land as he sees fit, and I can do the same. In reality even though I might not “approve” of some of his activities, he has property rights just as I do, hence the mutual respect, if not the mutual agreement on activities/projects.

I try to be considerate to my neighbors, but at the same time, there's a big difference between being considerate and going overboard in the interest in "community property/can't we all just get along" bunk. My take on your situation? You aren't anything like the people Neil has to put up with. Put up your barn, paint it a nice earth-tone or dark green to help camouflage it, be pleasant to your neighbors (assuming they remain civil to you) and enjoy it.

If they still have a problem with it, then that's just it: They're the ones with the problem, not you. Whether it was you that moved in or someone else, there was always the possibility a "close" neighbor would put something up. They knew that possibility existed when they purchased the property - even if they were in denial as to it ever happening. They could have moved in to a location that had restrictions on such buildings or saved up their nickels and dimes and bought more property to keep the neighbors further away. They made their bed and have to sleep in it.

To add insult to injury, I find it amazing that somehow their pole barn is fine just where it is, but locating yours beside it is somehow "inappropriate." Personally, it always irks me when someone who doesn’t own a piece of property somehow feels they are entitled to dictate how it is used. (Where did these “non owner property rights” come from? /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif)

Good luck.

 

[Golfgar4]

Spence, you've always been reasonable and pleasant here on TBN, so I have no doubt that's the way you are. So show your neighbors how pleasant you are, and paint a really big /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif on the side of the barn facing them. When they see that every day, they're sure to smile, right? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Seriously, it's on your property, and it's your barn. You get to decide where it goes. From the pictures you posted, it sure doesn't look like it's going to be any kind of an eye sore. Like some of the others said, they should be grateful to you for letting them use your driveway.

What's that old expression about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[DocHeb]

Having the two barns near each other seems to make sense - sort of "writing-off" that section of both of your properties for a utilitarian purposes. Just make sure your barn looks better and has better landscaping. I'd suggest spruce trees or arborvitae for the screening.

This is sort of like my neighbor asking me to take some of my extra fill dirt and pile it on our common property line (he has 1/2 acre, I have 20 acres) so he can continue to use his rifle range in his backyard. I said sure, I'd like to have a backdrop for my rifle practice also.

He looked real suprised /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif - "you mean you'd shoot towards my property!?" I replied, "well yeah, you'd shoot towards mine and I'd shoot towards yours."

His reply - "never mind about the dirt".

 

[BigDave]

Spence,

First, my solution: Paint it to match their barn, it will look like the barns belong together. Also it's a color they picked, so maybe they will find it pleasant.

Second, another neighbor story: I live in a 3 home neighborhood, each of us has about 5 wooded acres. I have the center house, which is about 300-350 feet from each of the other two. I told both of my neighbors where I was planning to put my shed (12x18), and I had each of them over to show them my sight. The spot I picked was 40' from my house, near the exit for my basement for convenience. So the barn is about 275' from the closest house. They have about 60' cleared on this of their house side, so their is about 215' of woods between their house and my shed. BTW, my shed matches our house in exterior color & materials. Guess what, after I had it put up, they complained. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif They took it as an insult that I put the shed on their side of my lot and not the other. After I bought my tractor, I put my FEL & chipper down the hill on some rubber mats under a tarp on the corner of my leach field near their property line. The tarp is about 300' from their house. Anyway, she called me up to complain: "You know I can see it." I told her, I plan on moving it, once I have some time off to prepare the site. Unfortunately, I plan on putting it behind my shed. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif My neighbor on the other side won't even talk to them, he keeps calling me to ask them about neighborhood issues. I guess that's what you get by living in the middle. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[DUMBDOG]

I like your attitude!

 

[ChuckinVA]

Spencer,

Maybe they are a little jealous of the new pole barn !/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I am sure you will keep the area up and not leave things laying around.They probably don't know you well enough to realize that yet. Give them some time and consider the tree buffer as an alternative later if there is continued friction.