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When you have a dispute with a neighbor, it is best to work it out civilly, but when things escalate out of control, it can sometimes be necessary to get a lawyer involved.

That was the case for the neighbors in this story who had been feuding with the people next door ever since they made a change to their property that caused stormwater drainage to come onto their property.

They decided to publish the letter that they sent to their neighbors to get input from other people and find out if it was handled properly.

I think the letter is very clear, and as long as the neighbors are reasonable, it could help to end the feud. Read through the whole letter below and see if you agree.

Neighbor drainage dispute that grew into a mess.

Here’s our personal cease and desist letter that we’re about to send our entitled and not very smart neighbor.

Let’s see what it says.

Posting it here because I’m hoping that it covers the situation clear cut and to the point. Thought I’d get some public opinions since he’s dug a hole so deep it’s kind of sad.

Dear M and S,

We are writing in the hope that we can put the events of the past several months behind us and avoid any further conflict between our families.

Ok, this seems reasonable so far.

When the drainage issue first arose, D tried to address it directly with M on multiple occasions before contacting the appropriate governmental authorities regarding what we believed to be clear violations of Chapter 11 of the Texas Water Code.

After the county became involved, a drainage ditch was ultimately installed on your property, which addressed the concern we had originally raised.

What else have they done?

We hoped that would be the end of the matter, as that was all we had been requesting since the beginning of your unpermitted cut, fill, and grading project.

(See Exhibit A: Legal correspondence between____ County and your household)

Unfortunately, since that time, several additional events have caused us significant concern and hardship.

This is downright dangerous.

These include what we perceived as intimidating conduct by members of your household after the county became involved: communications to members of our family regarding the county complaint, the complaint and subsequent follow-up emails submitted to D’s employer, and the multiple, potentially reckless, firearm discharges that occurred while D was sitting on our back patio listening to non “southern music” during daylight hours.

(See Exhibit B: video screen shot showing an apparent projectile impact on June 5, 2026. With accompanying aerial screenshot showing that target to be in close proximity of three adjacent properties, and multiple residential dwellings 900 to 1300 feet behind the target; with no safety backdrop installed between them and the target)

A fence was definitely a good idea.

Individually and collectively, these events have left us feeling uncomfortable in our own home and on our property.

As a direct result of that discomfort and the accompanying anxiety, we recently incurred the significant expense of constructing an eight-and-a-half-foot privacy fence between our properties so we may have some peace of mind in our own backyard.

(See Exhibit C: Receipt for privacy fence installation.)

What kind of person reports someone to their job?

The complaint made to D’s employer was particularly disturbing because it effectively threatened our household’s financial security during an economic downturn.

After conducting its own investigation, The City of ______ determined that the allegations were unsubstantiated and closed the matter. We are grateful that they carefully reviewed all facts before reaching that conclusion.

(See Exhibit D: Documentation obtained from D’s employer through a lawful public information request.)

They really are horrible neighbors.

Nevertheless, the experience caused significant stress to our family because our livelihood was placed at risk by what proved to be false, irrational, and potentially malicious allegations.

Allegedly all because we did not want your storm water coming on to our property; and wanted you to take responsibility for altering the grade of your property that made it our problem.

Who can blame them for wanting this to end?

We are not writing this letter to argue about every past event or to ask you to agree with our perspective. We simply want the conflict and what we perceive to be harassing behavior to stop.

We would also like to acknowledge that, during our own research, we became aware that (S’s employer) maintains an extensive zero-tolerance policy regarding workplace harassment (including work from home employees).

I see what they are doing here.

Coincidentally we recognized that some of the surveillance photos and potentially libelous communications originating from your household; and sent to D’s employer, may have occurred during what appear to be “normal” work-from-home hours.

Let it be known that we mention this only to acknowledge that employment, family health insurance, and household financial stability should not be jeopardized by simple drainage disputes.

This is all very reasonable.

For that reason, we are stating here that we currently have no intention of involving employers like yourselves; and hope that you will extend us the same consideration moving forward.

Accordingly, we respectfully ask that:

• Any conduct that could reasonably be perceived as harassment, intimidation, retaliation, or surveillance directed toward our family cease.
• No further false or misleading statements be made about either of us or our son to employers, government agencies, schools, neighbors, family members, on social media, or to any other third party.
• Any future communication regarding property or neighbor matters be made only in writing by text message, email, or letter so there is no misunderstanding.
• Both families respect each other’s privacy and peaceful enjoyment of their respective properties moving forward.

Keeping everything documented is a good idea.

We also ask that you preserve any documents, emails, text messages, photographs, videos, social media communications, or other information relating to the matters described above in the event they become legally relevant in the future.

We do request you acknowledge receipt of this letter and provide a written response, postmarked within fourteen (14) calendar days, advising whether you intend to honor these requests.

Hopefully, the neighbor will accept this.

We are not asking you to admit wrongdoing or agree with our version of events. We are simply asking for your commitment that this conflict and any subsequent adverse conduct or behavior will not continue.

Our sincere hope is that this letter marks the end of these issues. We have no desire to continue living in conflict with our neighbors.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be left alone.

We simply want to enjoy our home, raise our family, and move forward in peace; without your storm water encroaching our property

Nothing in this letter should be interpreted as a complete statement of the facts or of our legal rights.

I wonder how the neighbors will take it.

We are officially stating that shall the conduct described above resume or intensify, we will have no alternative other than to advise our attorney that they are to proceed with what legal recourse they have deemed appropriate.

We expressly reserve all legal rights and remedies available to us. We sincerely hope that will not be necessary,

Sometimes you just need to have a strongly worded letter to get people to see your side of things.

Read on to see what the people in the comments thought of this situation.

I 100% agree with this first commenter.

Here is someone who thinks they are going to escalate because of this.

This commenter has some good advice.

Getting proof of delivery is important.

The neighbors aren’t acting reasonably.

It might feel satisfying to send a letter like this, but it isn’t likely to fix any problems. As one of the commenters said, the best thing they can do is hire an attorney and follow their legal advice.

People often think they know the law and what they can do, but more often than not, that is not the case. Sending this letter could cause more harm than good.