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Open backyards depend heavily on neighbors respecting invisible boundaries, especially before excavators and construction materials enter the picture.

One new family trusted a stick instead of a survey, then began digging while repeatedly avoiding the homeowner’s questions.

What started as careless landscaping expanded into damaged ground, driveway shortcuts, roaming children, and constant activity across private property.

Would a fence finally clarify things?

AITAH for putting up a fence after my new neighbors dug up part of my yard?

Got new neighbors. Our backyards were totally open with no fences, no clear boundary, except my driveway.

Their 700 sq ft house is crammed with family like parents, grandparents, uncles, etc.

Whatever, not my business.

He noticed the neighbors building something in their yard.

One day some uncles were unloading wood and I asked if they were building a deck.

They said, “No, a garden!”

Cool. But a few weeks later, they bring in a mini excavator and start digging.

Their “property line marker” was literally a stick in the ground. No survey, no clue where the real line was.

OP got a survey.

I didn’t know either, so I ordered a plot survey while they were still working.

Tried talking to the foreman uncle he’d straight-up walk away whenever I approached.

Survey came back after their project was done.

Surprise: they’d dug into my yard.

They finished their deck and garden.

They ended up with a ground-level deck and garden beds. Not on my property, but they didn’t bother leveling the ground they tore up while the machine was there.

Now they’re outside all the time.

Not a problem on its own, but I hate feeling like I have to wave or chat every time I’m out there.

It gets worse.

Then they started having big family gatherings.

People park all over the front lawn and use my driveway/yard as a cut-through.

Their kids (5–16) play in my driveway, run on my rock wall, and generally treat my property like it’s theirs.

No one has told them not to.

He finally decided to make a big change to his own yard.

So… I put up a privacy fence. It’s about 7–8 inches inside my property line so I can still mow/maintain outside it and keep them from putting stuff against it.

I didn’t tell them ahead of time sort of like they didn’t tell me they were landscaping half my yard, so I figured we were even.

But next I’m also going to put up a stone wall in the front part of the yard to make it a little harder for them to drive in and park using my land as a cut-through…

AITAH?

The neighbors are really inconsiderate. As the saying goes, good fences make good neighbors.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Putting up a fence was a good idea.

It’s his yard. He can do whatever he wants.

I agree that the neighbors will probably claim the extra 7 to 8 inches as their own.

This person thinks OP is “too nice.”

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a landlord who took action after a resident refused to respect an assigned parking spot.

He needs to talk to the neighbors and set some boundaries.

A professional survey confirmed the neighbors had excavated part of OP’s yard before their gatherings and guests began treating more property as communal space.

OP installed a privacy fence safely inside the legal boundary and planned a stone barrier to stop vehicles from cutting across the front.

The neighbors marked their property line with one random stick, so OP answered with several hundred feet of significantly clearer instructions.