Money can cause heated moments between neighbors.
People have different ideas on what expenses should be shared, and in this case, the neighbor wants the poster to pay for an unexpected permit regarding the septic system.
The details are below – read them and judge for yourself!
AITA for not paying to remove well on my property so neighbor can replace septic tank?
My husband and I would like to get another point of view regarding an issue we are having with our next door neighbor.
Little background: we are cordial but not friends.
Sometimes, that’s a better way to be with people so close to home!
We bought our house 8 years ago, they maybe 14.
They own a construction landscaping company and have trucks/workers coming on our residential street daily, I assume to pick up work orders.
Over the years, they have done extensive landscaping to their backyard, using our side yard to get there because they built a huge deck so close to property line.
Absolutely gorgeous landscaping!
Sounds like they’ve got a good relationship going.
The last two years they started to work on adjacent side yard, and we noticed they planted small palms in front of our sprinklers.
LSS, they thought they had approximately 6 to 8 more feet than they had.
This came to light when they moved our sprinklers over when we said something about them planting in front of them!
Property lines can be confusing — but everyone seems reasonable here.
Neighbor approached husband a few weeks ago that they needed a new septic tank and our “unpermitted” well was within 50 feet and would need to be moved.
Hubby says we will move it if you pay for it.
She says, “Well, it may be an issue since you don’t have a permit.”
We make a few calls, our realtor makes a few calls for us to septic co. owner (it’s a small town), and she tells us they can apply for a variance, it had to have been permitted etc., etc. We aren’t worried.
This sounds like an easy solution with the variance!
Neighbor knocks on door, and hubby and I speak to her.
She asks if there’s any way we can work with her and her husband because yes, they can apply for a variance but it costs $1800 and there is no guarantee that county will approve it.
That is a lot of money.
She asks if we can just move our well. Hubby says we will if you pay for it.
She says she shouldn’t have to since we don’t have a permit.
Oh man, now this is getting messy.
This is where I may have been a jerk.
I did raise my voice and told her we weren’t paying for anything, you are trying to make your problem our problem.
She said it was our problem because the county now knows we don’t have a permit, so they may make us move it.
We said we had talked to some people, and we weren’t worried.
And I again said, “Your problem; not ours. Stop trying to make it our problem.”
She said, “We may bring legal action”
Uh oh, them’s fightin’ words…
We said, “Do what you have to do,” and slammed [the] door.
This definitely ended on a harsh note.
We found our copy of the permit that former owners left us, BTW.
Her passive-aggressive threat of the permit angered me, and I did raise my voice to her.
So am I the ******* for raising my voice to Neighbor?
These homeowner issues can really be confusing.
Let’s see what Reddit thinks.
First up, a Redditor says “NTA” and then notes the deck might be a future sticking point.
Next, a user mentions this well shouldn’t be moved until they think about the impact.
A commenter wondered if the neighbor would cause damage with this new septic tank installation.
At first, this reader said “YTA,” but only ironically.
This homeowner losing her cool is valid.
This neighbor should have been patient and waited for all the facts to come to light.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.