Washington.
This is not a very serious situation (mostly just something I'm curious about.)
I live in a duplex in a neighborhood where there are no sidewalks and people set their rubbish bins on the side of the road on trash collection day. The neighbors with whom we share the duplex often leave their rubbish bins out for a few days after trash collection day, and I have often seen the man who lives in the house next door tip-toe out and kick them over.
One trash day I wasn't home to take my bin back in because my wife was in the hospital. When I got home the next day, my bin had been knocked over. A few weeks later my recycling wasn't picked up when it was supposed to be on trash morning, so my wife left it out for the afternoon and evening thinking that it might be collected later that day, and the recycling bin was found knocked over with its contents spilled on the ground. After this, I knocked on the neighbor's door and asked him if it had been him. He basically admitted it readily, although he did say, "I don't kick people's trash cans over. I used to do that, but it was too much work. Now I drive into them with my truck."
He argued that the property lines were drawn in such a way that he actually owns the little strip of land next to the part of the road where the rubbish bins are set. He also claimed that the trash cans are "impeding [his] access to [his] mailbox," which is maybe twenty feet away from where the bins are placed. I told him that he doesn't own the road and that if he wants to own the road in front of his house, it's easy: all he has to do is buy a big property and build a road across it.
I'm not asking if he has a right to be irritated with the other neighbors who leave their bins out all week. I think he does. I'm curious if anybody finds any merit in his argument that he (ostensibly) owns the land next to the bit of road where the bins are placed and therefore has the right to drive into other people's trash cans with his truck.
This is not a very serious situation (mostly just something I'm curious about.)
I live in a duplex in a neighborhood where there are no sidewalks and people set their rubbish bins on the side of the road on trash collection day. The neighbors with whom we share the duplex often leave their rubbish bins out for a few days after trash collection day, and I have often seen the man who lives in the house next door tip-toe out and kick them over.
One trash day I wasn't home to take my bin back in because my wife was in the hospital. When I got home the next day, my bin had been knocked over. A few weeks later my recycling wasn't picked up when it was supposed to be on trash morning, so my wife left it out for the afternoon and evening thinking that it might be collected later that day, and the recycling bin was found knocked over with its contents spilled on the ground. After this, I knocked on the neighbor's door and asked him if it had been him. He basically admitted it readily, although he did say, "I don't kick people's trash cans over. I used to do that, but it was too much work. Now I drive into them with my truck."
He argued that the property lines were drawn in such a way that he actually owns the little strip of land next to the part of the road where the rubbish bins are set. He also claimed that the trash cans are "impeding [his] access to [his] mailbox," which is maybe twenty feet away from where the bins are placed. I told him that he doesn't own the road and that if he wants to own the road in front of his house, it's easy: all he has to do is buy a big property and build a road across it.
I'm not asking if he has a right to be irritated with the other neighbors who leave their bins out all week. I think he does. I'm curious if anybody finds any merit in his argument that he (ostensibly) owns the land next to the bit of road where the bins are placed and therefore has the right to drive into other people's trash cans with his truck.
