Privacy is a luxury many homeowners assume comes with a backyard.

So when a new resident fenced in her property to shield her family from a neighbor who could see straight into her yard, the neighbor publicly complained and wished for HOA enforcement.

The whole thing ended up way more dramatic than it needed to be.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for putting up 15+ foot trees to make my new backyard private?

I just purchased a corner house in a nice neighborhood. Most of these houses don’t have any kind of fencing, and it looks like one huge, park-like setting in the backyards.

The few houses that do have fences are on the far side away from me.

She describes the layout of the neighborhood.

My house backs up to the side of a neighbor’s house, and this house has a sunroom on their second floor which overlooks my backyard.

My “backyard” is tiny compared to the regular backyards because it is just a side piece of land between the two houses.

I have a square lot with my house in the center, versus the other houses with rectangular lots and their houses toward the front of their lot.

She knew upfront that privacy might be an issue.

When I saw the house and their sunroom while looking into purchasing, I knew I would need to put up trees or something to gain privacy, along with the 6-foot privacy fence I would get to contain my dogs and small child.

Fast forward to moving in, I had the fence installed the day after I moved in.

I had plans to get 15-foot arborvitae installed down the length of the privacy fence, but the weather changed quickly between the time I bid on the house and the time I actually closed on it, so I would have to wait until spring.

Her worst fears were soon confirmed.

The day after I had the fence put in, the sunroom neighbor yelled out saying “Hi,” welcoming me to the neighborhood, and also complimented me on the fence.

I was playing with my anxious dogs and didn’t want them barking and disturbing everyone if I stopped playing with them.

All sounds bounce off the houses since there isn’t much to stop the sound.

But now this neighbor was quite upset.

The very next day, the same neighbor posted pictures of my house, yard, and fence, complaining about the fence and saying they wished we had an HOA so people didn’t do stuff like this.

There are plenty of other fences just like mine in the neighborhood that can be seen from their sunroom.

The only difference is that they can see directly into my yard and not the others because they are so far away.

So she’s actively looking for even more privacy.

This spring, I will be getting the 15-foot arborvitae installed along the length of my fence that is directly against their house. This will most likely block a lot of the sun at their house.

However, it will also completely block their view of my yard, where they can see everything.

AITA for blocking their view and sunlight to avoid having nosy neighbors spying on me in my own yard?

If privacy costs a little sunlight, that’s a fair trade as far as this homeowner is concerned.

What did Reddit think?

This user agrees this homeowner is entitled to their privacy.

If the neighbors are going to be petty, why not be petty back?

This commenter doesn’t think the homeowner is being as civil as they should.

This kind of action may lead to even more trouble down the line.

In backyard politics, fences make good neighbors for a reason.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude cusfacetomer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.