Good fences make good neighbors, or so the saying goes.

Neighborly boundaries are easy to cross when property lines get fuzzy.

But for one renter, a neighbor’s boundary-blurring behavior went from annoying to downright invasive.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for telling my neighbor to stay off of my property?

Neighbor clears forest (on his property) up to my back door and installs one of those wire fences, supported with those green metal fence posts.

In the process of his land clearing, he comes onto our property and pushes trees over a trail that I had cut out to transport my kayak to the river (our property).

He also digs out a large hole in the beginning of the trail, in my opinion, to clearly show that he doesn’t want me using it.

The renter feels like the neighbor is overstepping, and tries to prove their point.

I show the man fire insurance (GIS) maps of the surrounding land plots, which clearly show that he has messed up something on our property.

He argues that “the maps are outdated, I own that land.”

When I pointed out to him that the map was updated at the beginning of the year, the only reply I receive is crickets.

I believe he filled in the massive hole he created with stones—fair… so thank you for trying to fix it.)

Regardless of what the map said, this didn’t deter the neighbor from his “projects”.

However, a year goes by, and I notice that he has begun cutting down bushes and small sapling trees on my side of the fence.

(where we can’t directly see anything from inside the house) and just leaving them there on our property.

I assume he did this because he has some planter boxes near there and was worried about these small bushes and saplings blocking sunlight .

(from planter boxes that didn’t have anything in them).

Again, the renter tried to appeal to his common sense, and he seems to get through to him.

I very politely explained to him through text that although I am a renter, I have been at that property for over 10 years.

I added that I, nor anyone else that lives in our home, would go onto his property and start cutting bushes and trees and just leaving them there in the yard.

He sends a very short “I understand” text back, no apology. Four more months go by.

But it doesn’t last long. Now the neighbor is the one sending the texts.

It is now spring. I’ve only had two opportunities to mow our massive lawn before the riding mower breaks.

So our grass is long at the moment, as I am trying to find a used ride-on for cheap.

The neighbor sends me a text along the lines of “Do you mind getting your grass off of my fence?”

The renter finds this rather rich, considering the neighbor’s checkered past.

Mind you, the other side of the fence (his property) is mostly dirt, with random piles of junk lying everywhere that we have had to look at for the last 7 or 8 years.

I never mentioned anything about this to him, as I try very hard to keep to myself and mind my business.

Now, after these things considered (and a couple of other incidents I didn’t list here), my text response back to him was not so polite.

The renter tells him to buzz off, but now they wonder if they should have handled things differently.

I explained to him that his fence is not my priority or responsibility, and I couldn’t care less what happens to his wire fence.

My thought is, because I have politely asked this guy to stay off of my property, that he’s just going to make things difficult for me.

AITA?

Courtesy just isn’t some people’s strong suit.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks the renter should invest in a surveyor.

If the renter’s dispute with their neighbor is to hold any weight, they first need to build a steady foundation for their argument.

According to this user, what the neighbor is doing isn’t just wrong, it’s illegal.

Unfortunately, renters don’t have much power when it comes to property disputes.

Some neighbors prefer to push boundaries rather than respect them.

But this renter knows that standing firm is the only way to handle the overstepping.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.