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Property disputes get serious fast when a neighbor builds first and checks the boundary later.

One homeowner discovers a new fence sitting 40 inches inside his yard, despite repeatedly asking for the simplest fix.

The neighbor keeps proposing stranger solutions instead, from moving sprinklers to buying land and even replacing the homeowner’s shed.

See why one misplaced fence turned into a full-blown property-line standoff.

AITA for asking my neighbor to move the fence he built on my yard?

“I have lived at my house for 5 years with no problems with my next door neighbor until now.

He put in a fence along our side yard this winter with no survey and since there was snow on the ground, you could not see the sprinkler heads.

What the hell?!?!

A few weeks ago, I went to turn on my sprinklers and it turns out the new fence is on my property as my sprinklers heads are on the other side of the fence now.

I normally wouldn’t care about this part of my yard, but I plan on selling my house this year and in order to sell things have to be up to code.

I asked my neighbor if he could move the fence over (it’s a chain link which makes it easy to move), and I told him that I plan to sell. He stated it was all good because he already hired someone to come and move my sprinkler heads over so then it wouldn’t matter.

I told him no to moving the sprinkler heads as when a survey is done for the sale of the house, the fence is still on my property and will need to be moved, and then the sprinkler heads won’t be in the right spot and will need to be moved back.

He refused to cancel who he hired so I was able to reach the guy and cancel myself.

Nope!

So I asked my neighbor again to move the fence, to which he offered to buy my house for cash for what I owe on my mortgage, not for what the house is worth, which I would lose a ton of money on the deal so I told him no, and he would still need to move the fence for the sale of the house anyway.

So he said in that case he would pay to have a new survey done, and buy the property off me that his fence sits on. He also tried twice again to send the guy back to move my sprinkler heads, but I stopped it again both times.

Yesterday, the survey was done and it was determined that the fence is 40 inches on my property. The fence is touching the back of my shed. My neighbor again asked to buy my property and make the fence the new property line.

To which I again said no because the city zoning laws state my shed has to be at least 36 inches from the property line. So my shed is compliant with the current property line but would need to be moved if the fence became the new property line. (It also turns out his shed is on my property too).

This guy can’t take a hint…

His response was that he would pay to have my shed torn down and rebuilt with a smaller shed as mine is too big anyway.

I again said no as my shed not only needs to be that size to store my tractor in the winter, but it also houses my pool pump/filter, so moving the location of the shed would require redoing all the piping and electrical. This would cost thousands of dollars and it would be very complicated.

I again told my neighbor he just needs to move his fence as this is the simplest and cheapest option. He is willing to spend thousands of dollars on these other options instead which makes no sense.

His latest response is now that he has gifted me the fence and if I want to move it I can. He is refusing to do anything else now and that I am being unreasonable.

AITA if I just tear it down this weekend?”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person said he’s NTA.

Another individual agreed.

This Reddit user weighed in.

Another reader spoke up.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a condo owner who replaced a whole a/c unit just to stop the complaints.

And this individual shared their thoughts.

A survey confirmed the fence and even part of the neighbor’s shed were sitting on OP’s property.

Instead of moving the fence, the neighbor tried buying land, relocating sprinklers, and eventually “gifting” OP the fence to deal with himself.

Commenters overwhelmingly backed OP, though many urged him to involve a lawyer before tearing anything down.

The fence crossed the property line, and apparently the neighbor’s common sense went with it.