A new homeowner recently decided to clear out a rusty chain link fence on their property, only to find that their neighbor’s front gate was left hanging in the air.

With a bit more space and a couple of new gates installed, the neighbor’s reaction has been anything but neighborly.

Now, there’s a legal standoff over whether the old fence should be rebuilt.

Read on for the story.

AITA For Removing MY Fence That my Neighbor has Been Relying on For 40 Years?

Okay let me give you the lay of the land. We recently moved in (2 months or so) and share an alley way with my neighbor, it leads to both of our backyards.

The chain link fence that divides the property is on my property and his front gate is attached to this fence; without said fence his front gate would be useless and floating.

The alley is 5.5ft wide, his side is 3.2ft of it (3inch is the property line). My property line is 2ft from the house, the fence post sit at 22-23inchs away from the house.

Sounds like he’s holding up more than just his end of the property line.

His back yard is in the shape of an L, encompassing both mine and the second neighbors backyard.

So you cannot enter my backyard without first climbing into his, or perhaps parachuting down from the sky.

His backyard and mine are completely fenced off as well.

Given that I only have 2ft of space in the alley, I gave him notice that I will be removing the rusted chain linked fence that divided the alley to allow for more walking clearance, leaving my backyard fencing up of course.

Since removing this part i’ve put up two new gates, one that mirrors his front gate and one before you enter my main backyard enclosing it completely.

The front gate was purely out of courtesy because without it anyone could just talk around his floating gate and into his backyard.

So, you’ve basically turned his backyard into a gated community.

Now the issue. This man has gotten his lawyer involved, literally watching me from his window whenever im doing yard work.

He doesn’t have a leg to stand on but I don’t think he cares much, the only solution he wants is for me to re-build the exact chain link fence on my side.

Won’t even have a discussion of a second gate or fence on his side; the fence was there when he moved in and he thinks it MUST remain there.

I do not plan to build a fence or to cave to his demands, makes no sense to me. AITA to think this?

The real question: is it unreasonable for the new homeowner to stand their ground and not rebuild the fence?

Reddit says no.

A very simple NTA:

Same idea here…

It’s just not his call.

When it comes to fences and gates, sometimes it’s best to just let them hang—literally!

Nothing good could come from trying to explain.

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.