• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Neighbor is suing me in small claims court

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

3CatMama

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California (San Diego County)

I'll try to keep this long story as short as possible.

My husband and I bought our house in 2012. It was built in 1960, as were most of the other homes in our neighborhood. Even before we moved in one of our neighbors, Ms. A, would come over early on Saturday mornings to complain about the people who owned our house before. They were a couple who divorced and rented out the house; Ms. A said the former tenants threw trash and dog poop in her yard, had loud parties, etc. She seemed happy with us since we're middle-aged and childless.

We were warned the day we moved in by 3 different sets of neighbors that Ms. A was the scourge of the street. We haven't had any problems with any other neighbors, including the ones who live behind us; we can practically look straight down on top of their house because they're below us on an incline. They've never complained about water issues, even when one of the former tenants accidentally let the pool overflow (which we've never had happen).

Ms. A flat out told me she had her contractor get up on his ladder and look over the fence into our yard, where he saw our drainpipe was pointing at her yard and that it was was "illegal." She said that water from our yard was coming into hers and it could potentially crack the foundation of her house and do all sorts of other damage. Our house sits slightly above hers because our street is on an incline. We re-angled the drainpipe but we can't control the flow of water when it rains!

We heard from Ms. A a number of times that dirt from our yard washed down onto her driveway, that she didn't like it and the watershed could cause her driveway to crack and buckle. In 2013 Ms. A took it upon herself to have her contractor put a bunch of rocks and sandbags in our yard. We were not happy about this. We moved all the rocks and sandbags onto her driveway and were about to walk back into the house when she came out of her garage and started screaming at us. The event escalated and we had to call the police. They told her to stay away from our yard and not have any contact with us.

In March we had a landscaper doing some work in our yard. Ms. A and her boyfriend both came tearing out of her garage and started screaming at the landscape crew. We were at work so we didn't see or hear it, another neighbor told us. Our landscaper was as nice as he could be and just kept doing his work.

After this incident with Ms. A, we sent her a cease and desist letter. We told her she needed to stop harassing us, people who come to do work on our house or visit us, that she needs to stop putting stuff in our yard because it's trespassing and having her contractor look over the fence, etc. We asked her to sign a document saying she'd leave us alone. The response we got from her was that our request wasn't a legal document (which it wasn't; we were hoping to avoid having to involve the law again) and that it was only in our favor.

The very next day a process server knocked on our door and handed us a summons to appear in court. She's suing us in small claims court for money she spent on a contractor and materials to stop water from our yard flowing onto hers plus punitive damages. She never tried to talk to us about our letter or to try and resolve things without going to court. These two houses have stood next to each other for over 50 years and she never seemed to have a problem with drainage before. We feel like she's taken advantage of us being new to the neighborhood to force us to do things she couldn't get done by previous owners.

Another issue we have is that we have a wooden fence around our yard. The wooden planks are on the 'inside' of our yard and the metal poles that support them are on the 'outside' (in our neighbors' yards). We have no idea who owns the fence. We think it might be us because of the way it's built but we can't find any documentation on it. Two of our adjoining neighbors and we agreed that if there were any problems with the fence we'd work it out together. One side is on Ms. A's property and she's had it painted and such. We feel as if it is ours and we wanted to replace it we'd have to get a court order to do it.

We feel really bad about the whole thing. We try to be good neighbors and again, no complaints from other neighbors, but we are really stressed about this situation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 


latigo

Senior Member
Advice? Yes.

No. 1: Leave boundary fence where at. (You'll have no need for fence after next advice.)

No. 2: Sell house then move to avoid further irritating well meaning, nice neighbor lady.

Now if you should have legal question, ask. This is not Dr. Phil's domain.
 

quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California (San Diego County)

... She's suing us in small claims court for money she spent on a contractor and materials to stop water from our yard flowing onto hers plus punitive damages. She never tried to talk to us about our letter or to try and resolve things without going to court. ...

... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. ...
Although I like latigo's advice, if you do not want to move then I suggest you consult with an attorney in your area and have the attorney help you prepare for court.

Good luck.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
just double check your city county ords to see if they had written ordinances about drainage issues especially when one property is higher than a immediate neighbors. If there is a ord it might only apply to when one property owner makes changes to her /his property that encourages run off to go to a neighbors. I had a neighbor when I lived in Minneapolis who blamed me for run off , her lot was lower than mine, and the alley behind us was low too ( city would have had to fix it and the city was aware of the drainage issue) so when snow melted fast the run off was from multiple lots that pooled in the alley and then eventually was deep enough to run onto my lot and then to hers anyway & she had a huge fit about it blaming me. That's when I learned the city had a ordinance that said when you made changes to your landscaping / lot that you could not force run off onto a adjacent lot ( you could send run off toward the street in the front or the alley or even to another part of your own lot but not to a neighbors and if you made no changes to the lot as in your lot being higher than another you were not required to do anything.
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
just double check your city county ords to see if they had written ordinances about drainage issues especially when one property is higher than a immediate neighbors. If there is a ord it might only apply to when one property owner makes changes to her /his property that encourages run off to go to a neighbors. I had a neighbor when I lived in Minneapolis who blamed me for run off , her lot was lower than mine, and the alley behind us was low too ( city would have had to fix it and the city was aware of the drainage issue) so when snow melted fast the run off was from multiple lots that pooled in the alley and then eventually was deep enough to run onto my lot and then to hers anyway & she had a huge fit about it blaming me. That's when I learned the city had a ordinance that said when you made changes to your landscaping / lot that you could not force run off onto a adjacent lot ( you could send run off toward the street in the front or the alley or even to another part of your own lot but not to a neighbors and if you made no changes to the lot as in your lot being higher than another you were not required to do anything.
Exactly. I rather think that OP could have forestalled some of this is local municipality/code enforcement had been contacted - not to file a complaint, but just to verify local rules.

The letter was, at best, poorly worded.
 

3CatMama

Junior Member
Well, that escalated quickly.

FarmerJ, thank you for your response. I appreciate hearing from someone who's had a similar situation.

For the rest of you, thanks for nothing. I hoped posting here would be different than using Craigslist's legal forums. Just as many trolls here as on there. I'm closing my account and not using this website anymore.
 

quincy

Senior Member
FarmerJ, thank you for your response. I appreciate hearing from someone who's had a similar situation.

For the rest of you, thanks for nothing. I hoped posting here would be different than using Craigslist's legal forums. Just as many trolls here as on there. I'm closing my account and not using this website anymore.
FarmerJ's advice will help you prepare for court, as would have an attorney's consultation - although, admittedly, doing the research yourself will save you some money.

I agree with not2CleverRed that you should have checked on ordinances first, to see where you stood legally against your neighbor, before sending the cease and desist letter. That seems to have escalated matters. Now you have to appear in court to defend against the neighbor's claim - and hope that the neighbor did not find something favorable in the city/county code to support her case.

If you find that FarmerJ's experience in Minneapolis is the same experience you have in San Diego County, you will be lucky and you should come out of court feeling pretty good.

Enjoy Craigslist. We will miss you.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top