Ah, the roulette of neighbors.

You can’t choose who they are, but you gotta work with them, right?

See what happens when one neighbor complains about a fence put on her property line — only to realize the fence was necessary for her unruly dog’s outside time. Let’s dive into this Reddit post below.

New neighbor didn’t like my old fence, so I took it down.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I built a fence in my backyard.

I talked to my neighbors, and we decided on a good place to build the fence. We knew an approximate property line, based on some survey pins, but were both too cheap to pay for a surveyor.

We shook hands, and I built the fence.

It was a great deal for my neighbors, I paid for everything, built the fence, and all they had to do was give me a thumbs up when it was done.

Then, a year later, they sold their house. That meant I got a new neighbor, more specifically, I got Anne!

I have this sneaking suspicion that Anne is not the chillest neighbor on the block.

Anne was from the big city.

Anne was a realtor; Anne had flipped 8 houses in 12 years.

Anne loved this new house and planned on staying for a long time, and Anne had a dog.

Okay, so Anne’s into real estate and dogs — what’s the harm in that?

Razzy was a German Shepherd mix that spent most of the day outside while Anne went to work. Razzy was aggressive towards children, animals, insects, and any plants that waved in the breeze.

Razzy also, as Anne once told me, LOVED to chew on furniture.

That’s why Razzy stayed outside so much.

About 6 months after Anne moved in, I saw a surveyor walking around in my neighborhood and he was paying special attention to my backyard. The next day, Anne showed up at my front door with a stack of papers and asked me if I was going to pay her for the 9 inches that my fence was encroaching onto her property.

Ah, here’s where that love of real estate comes in.

I explained the handshake deal with the last neighbors, but she was having no part of it! She wanted the fence moved or she wanted money, no discussions. She had spoken to her lawyer friend and was perfectly happy to take me to court over the fence. She told me “I don’t know how you guys do it out here in the sticks, but where I come from we follow the rules!”

So, I got rid of the fence. The next day, I unscrewed the horizontal rails from the brackets, stacked the fence panels up against my garage, and pulled up the fence posts with my work van.

Problem solved, right? Think again.

About a week later, Anne shows up at my front door again.

She wants to know when I’m going to be building a new fence. Turns out, without my portion of the fence, she has not been able to let Razzy out unattended for fear that he will run away, attack something, or get hit by a car.

She also told me she can’t keep him in the house all day while she’s at work anymore. Her furniture and carpet are all but ruined.

Ah, and this is where the dog comes in…

I told her “Well, Anne, I’m not going to be rebuilding the fence.

I don’t want any legal trouble and the best way to stay out of trouble is to not build near your property.”

Honestly? Fair. Anne’s intimidating!

The look on her face was priceless!!!

I thought she was going to cry! (She probably did when she got back home.)

She tried to protest, saying that she really needed the fence back, and she would even help pay for the new one. She told me how much she loved the style and aesthetic of the old one, it was just the location that she had a problem with.

I stood firm. There would be no new fence.

She never got a fence.

She made half-hearted attempts to put up some bamboo fencing, but Razzy tore through that stuff like wet newspaper.

Eventually, I sold my place and moved away. I took the old fence panels with me and I still look at them everyday when I let my dog out in the morning.

The neighbor didn’t add that they smile when they look at those old fence panels — but I can imagine such!

You have to pick your battles when you live in such close proximity to others — and Anne really…did that. Let’s see if the comments think Anne was in the right or if this fence-building neighbor was too stubborn in the end.

One Redditor called out the facts and the lack of a surveyor before Anne’s property purchase.

Another user commiserated with the neighbor’s fence replacement expectations.

Someone even applauded the neighbor’s malicious compliance throughout it all.

Finally, one Redditor was confused as to why she didn’t solve the fence issue for her dog by paying for it herself.

Ultimately, Anne missed the boat on this one.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.