Imagine buying a new house and deciding to make some changes to the backyard. Would you talk to the neighbors first if any of these changes would be noticeable to them, or would you simply go about your business?

In this story, a couple is in this situation, and they decide to talk to their neighbors about what they’re going to do just to be nice. But the neighbors didn’t respond nicely.

That really backfired later when the neighbors asked for a huge favor.

Keep reading for all the details.

You say no to our fence, we say no to your project.

Two years ago my husband and I bought our first house.

First on our list was the backyard and removing a laurel bush on the back property line that went 7 feet deep and had a chicken wire fence in the back (99%of the roots were on our property).

Our yard wasn’t big to begin with so we wanted that extra space and so our plan was to remove it and put up a fence that matched the other parts of our property.

When I went to notify our neighbors just to be nice (also we weren’t asking them to contribute) they were super nice about it and welcomed us into the neighborhood.

The neighbors don’t really get to dictate what these homeowners do to their backyard.

Two days later we were startled to see the husband neighbor knocking on our back door (trespassing) because he said we didn’t answer the front door.

He said they didn’t agree with the fence after all and that we couldn’t cut down the laurels.

One of their arguments was that the previous owners didn’t mind the laurels (so?).

They made sure there was no confusion about where the property line is.

Well my husband and I are both attorneys and decided we weren’t going to do the back and forth, we were going to hire a surveyor to come and confirm the property line.

Turns out almost all the laurel roots were in fact on our property.

So again, we told neighbors we were moving forward with the fence.

After seeing the markers they were mad.

But the fence went up anyway.

My cousin and uncle helped us putting up the fence and and husband neighbor could not have been more rude, standing a foot away from them (on his property) breathing down their necks while they put up the fence.

Fast forward a year and husband neighbor texts my husband asking to talk.

So they meet at the fence.

The neighbor wants a huge favor.

Turns out they have a cedar tree about 7ft in diameter on their property close to the fence that they want to remove but are asking us for the removal to be done from OUR PROPERTY – they need to remove a portion of our FENCE, bring the cherry picker and wood chipper down our driveway to our backyard, and do the entire project on our property because they don’t have access to their backyard from the street.

Obviously my husband is dumbfounded but still super nice considering the fence drama and says “that’s a really big ask”

And this neighbor says “why?” And then proceeds to says if we say no then they won’t be able to afford the project and then says he’s sorry about how the fence situation went and hope we can move forward. LOL.

She is not willing to help the neighbor out.

My husband comes and tells me and says he would be willing to say yes if they pay us and sign something saying they are liable for everything stemming from it but I can’t stop laughing.

Literally no amount of money they would pay would convince me to say yes.

So aside from liability factor felt great to say sorry not happening.

We received no response and needless to say we still don’t have a relationship with them.

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That neighbor really burned a bridge by complaining about the fence. You can’t expect someone to do a favor for you when you’re so awful to them.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

This person points out why it was a very good idea to say no.

This is true.

Exactly!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an artist who made sure to leave the walls of her home blank and boring before moving out, even though they were covered with gorgeous murals before then.

This person was in a similar situation.

That neighbor was asking for a really big favor. Even neighbors who got along really well might’ve said no to that favor. He’s going to have to find another way to deal with the tree.