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Communication can be so important and can eliminate so much drama.

But then there’s also the school of thought that it’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. That seems to be the mindset of the neighbors in this story.

What would you do if you neighbor drilled a hole in your fence?

Yeah! That really happened. And you’re about to read all about it.

Brand new fence drama!

I moved into a single family home neighborhood last year.

We spent the year getting settled and have enjoyed it here.

Our yard is one of the largest in the neighborhood, and we wanted to fence it in to have a safe play spot for our children and dog (now dogs), but due to the length of fencing required we put it off.

But the neighbors put up a fence.

Neighbors behind us moved in (new construction neighborhood) earlier this year and put up a fence rather quickly.

Because of the way the hill slopes between us they put their fence at the top of the hill, not on the property line by 3’ at the narrowest point, expanding to 15’ ft by the time it no longer is across from our shared property line.

I caught them moving property markers once and asked them if there was an issue, and it turns out the sod company had moved them incorrectly and they were putting them back.

They are now finally ready to add a fence of their own.

I was friendly and made introductions for the 2nd time.

The first time was when their dog had wandered into my yard and due to the hill couldn’t get back up into their yard a few weeks before they put up a fence.

After looking at their fence for a few weeks we decided to go ahead and fence in our backyard.

Our existing/different neighbor beside us had talked about a fence as well so we got a quote from a single company that split the cost on the shared section.

The neighbor has some nerve!

The install went great, but my wife heard hammering the next day and we walked around the streets to the hell-neighbor behind us, and caught him drilling a hole in our brand new fence to install a latch for a gate they latched into to our fence at the 3’ wide gap between our fences.

My wife diffused the situation and we haven’t talked since.

But I’m still ticked off that they would drill a hole in our brand new fence (and into the 2×4 not just the fence slat) without even asking us beforehand. Let alone attaching their gate to our fence without asking! And then locked the gate shut.

OP isn’t sure what to do.

What would you do?

I’ve thought about just glueing the hole closed with the latch in it so they can never unlatch and use it, but they have never opened it to my knowledge so the payoff isn’t exciting.

The neighbor really should’ve talked to OP before drilling into his fence. That’s a pretty bold thing to do to someone else’s property.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

I completely agree. I don’t trust them either.

Here’s a vote for getting out the glue.

One person points out the real problem.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who refused to let her neighbor have access to his spot, telling him to drive over the curb instead.

But this person thinks it’s not worth stressing about.

I honestly thought the story was going to be about the fence being installed on OP’s property. I don’t trust the neighbors.

That said, unless they want to get a survey done, it’s probably not worth it to stress about it. The last comment is probably the most reasonable approach. Talk to the neighbors. Set boundaries. And move on.

Resenting your neighbors won’t solve anything.