Shutterstock

Some neighbors can be completely unreasonable even when you try your hardest to reason with them.

In this story, one homeowner just wants a fence around his yard so his dogs can safely play outside. That shouldn’t be too much to ask, right?

First, he tried working with the neighbor to go in together on a shared fence between their houses, but the neighbor seems to be in no rush to help pay for a fence.

Then, the homeowner decided to install a fence himself but did the smart thing by hiring a surveyor first.

Yet, the neighbor is still upset!

Let’s read all about it.

He’s a Professional Engineer

I have one neighbor who refuse to share the cost of the fence because he’s not ready yet.

I even offered to pay for all the costs, and he can pay me whenever he has the money.

But he refuses and told me I can build a fence but within my property. He said we both need to find a contractor and compromise on which is an acceptable quote.

But when I ask him “let’s do it”, he refuses as he is not ready yet.

He’s not waiting around for the neighbor.

I need the fence done because I have dogs and I want them to be able to play in the backyard.

I decided to build the fence within my property and I hired a surveyor to do a fenceline survey who was licensed with the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association.

They marked out the fencline based on the existing marker for the property line and left the hole open so I can show it to the neighbor if he has some questions.

We put a stringline on the pins the surveyor placed to mark out the property line.

The neighbor is really jumping to conclusions.

I went inside to have lunch and when I went out, the neighbor was back and he actually removed the wood marker the surveyor placed as it is in his property and got mad that his grass got dug.

I explained to him it was the surveyor who did that and it is to find the existing marker buried underneath.

He claimed we moved the peg/metal pin to “his” property.

In which I replied, “We did not move anything. That was a new marker placed by the surveyor”.

The neighbor insists he’s right.

He keeps insisting there was already an existing marker there when he moved to his new house and we moved it ourselves.

I think what he was referring to was actually the wood marker that was placed there by the contractor who did my landscaping.

He was questioning the qualification of the surveyor and he said he knows how it works as he is a “Professional Engineer”.

He had another complaint.

He was questioning why I hired a surveyor when I can look at the plot plan, measure from the exposed concrete on the side of my house and that will be the property line. He even showed me the plot plan for my property from his phone, which I have a digital copy as well.

I don’t even know how he got a copy of my plot plan.

We go back and fort and he keeps insisting I use the plot plan as reference.

He’s saying I keep on disrespecting him when he’s just trying to be friendly with everyone in the neighborhood.

OP does not understand the neighbor’s thought process.

I don’t understand why he thinks I’m disrespecting him when all I’m trying to do is for him to get my point and why he is asking me why I had to get a surveyor.

The reason I hired one is to make sure I’m gonna build my fence within my property.

I stopped talking to him as he’s not listening and left to buy some stuff I need for my deck.

This would be so annoying.

When I got back and start clearing up the area for my deck, I noticed he moved the metal pin the surveyor placed to where the wood marker from my landscaping was.

I looked at the exposed existing pin from the other side of the fence and where he moved the surveyor’s pin and it doesn’t line up. I took a picture as evidence.

Can anyone give me an advise on what I could do? Should I build my fence based on the property line marked by the surveyor?

The neighbor is wrong, but should OP still go ahead with the fence?

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

A land surveyor weighs in.

This person suggests calling the surveyor.

Another person says to build the fence.

Here’s another vote for building the fence.

Checking the local laws would be a good idea to see whether or not he can build the fence on the property line or how far inside the property line he would need to build it. Once he gets that squared away, he shouldn’t need to worry about anything the neighbor says or does because the neighbor is clearly wrong.

He has proof, so his neighbor’s argument is pointless.