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.
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.