Neighbors and Pool Installation (LONG)

[DaveD]

You have a mild one, believe it or not. There's no sense going into long tales of the problems I've had with the psycho#@%^& next door to me. Suffices to say, agreement or not, you are using THEIR property and as such you need to be like the ultimate visitor. Doing everything you can possibly think of to calm the situation and make it as painless as possible for them. Get a new high quality hose and nozzle and spinkler. Make sure the nozzle is similar to the one they had. Ask them politely when they will be home that the spinkler could be turned on and make the appointment yourself. Pick up the debris and do it every day - they shouldn't have to ask. Give them a check for the pineapple stuff they listed. Make damn sure the sod is pefect - give him a bag of scotts turf builder when it's done. Believe me, your responsiveness will go a long way to settling the Hatfield's complaints. If you don't, your being the McCoys' and the feud will continue for as long as they live there. Even if you only succeed in making temporary peace, you will be on the right side morally. It's obvious from your reactions to events that you are indeed reacting somewhat negatively. I know how hard it is to not react negatively - be above the fray. Some will never be satisfied and this may be one of those. If you are making all of the good faith overtures, they will probably react differently. As a final note, keep checking on them like senior citizens. Go and ask them - daily if necessary - if thing are ok and work to resolve their issues. In other words, turn the other cheek as often as it takes to get through this. You won't regret it as long as they live there/

[DaveD]

On the point of the legalities, keep records of what your doing to keep the peace. If it ends up in small claims or civil court, being able to show you went above and beyond will defray any claims he has. As far as the drainage is concerned, you cannot claim adding the pool and other items has not changed your properties drainage - as a result, he can easily claim you caused problems - it may be incorrect but the change makes it a real possibilty in the courts eyes. If you have to add drainage pipe and a flow out grate or pop up flow out cover do it. Again, in court - being able to say do did everything possible to address his complaints and went above and beyond leaves him claimless.

In my case, things ultimately eroded to the point where the police and the Township Building Department were called several times. Once they saw what I was doing to mitigate the situations, both told me they were surprised how much I had done, apologized to me for the trouble and went next door to tell her she didn't have a leg to stand on and that she should be grateful she had such a good neighbor - I know this because I sat and talked with one of the officers over a coffee on a following visit. If I had to supeona the Officers or Township in a lawsuit, she would have looked awfully silly. I eavesdropped on conversation she was having with a lawyer in her backyard. He told her she could not win with the amount of effort I had put into mitigating her complaints.

Again - stay above the pettiness. Go above and beyond and do not respond by being even slightly negative to their pettiness.