The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[St. Clown]

Unfortunately, there's nothing I can find in the city ordinances, and I already know that the state and federal laws on video surveillance are pretty clear. He can record video as long as the camera is on his property and isn't focused on the house or pointed into our windows (which I highly doubt). He can't record audio in Michigan unless he's a participant in the conversation.

My fiance wants to get a giant Pride banner to at least partially obstruct this miserable old ****** field of view, which makes me LOL, but the guy clearly wants drama. Obviously talking to him right now is out of the question, so maybe the best way to go is to simply not play his game and ignore him. It's not like we do anything illegal back there. And like I said, he can enjoy the view of the weeds for the rest of the year, I'm not obligated to do anything about it unless I get a letter from code enforcement, and if/when I do, I will be working through official channels to document everything I do in that area.

Next year, most of that garden is coming out so we don't have to battle so many weeds. It's far too large for the level of gardening we would like to eventually do. We were thinking of putting a patio in that section, and I'm wondering if we could obstruct a lot of his view by installing a pergola or similar roofed & screened patio structure to cover most of the area. As long as it doesn't touch his privacy fence and conforms to code for height and such, he can't do anything about it.

While I’m not wild about them, columnar arborvitae might be well suited to your situation, planting them along the fence. They grow tall and fast, and they’re evergreens.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Unfortunately, there's nothing I can find in the city ordinances, and I already know that the state and federal laws on video surveillance are pretty clear. He can record video as long as the camera is on his property and isn't focused on the house or pointed into our windows (which I highly doubt). He can't record audio in Michigan unless he's a participant in the conversation.

My fiance wants to get a giant Pride banner to at least partially obstruct this miserable old ****** field of view, which makes me LOL, but the guy clearly wants drama. Obviously talking to him right now is out of the question, so maybe the best way to go is to simply not play his game and ignore him. It's not like we do anything illegal back there. And like I said, he can enjoy the view of the weeds for the rest of the year, I'm not obligated to do anything about it unless I get a letter from code enforcement, and if/when I do, I will be working through official channels to document everything I do in that area.

Next year, most of that garden is coming out so we don't have to battle so many weeds. It's far too large for the level of gardening we would like to eventually do. We were thinking of putting a patio in that section, and I'm wondering if we could obstruct a lot of his view by installing a pergola or similar roofed & screened patio structure to cover most of the area. As long as it doesn't touch his privacy fence and conforms to code for height and such, he can't do anything about it.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Yeah. I know I complained about mine last weeek, but I don’t think it’s this bad.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Jesus. I’m sorry you appear to live next to a complete psycho

Never would've guessed when we moved in that the next door neighbor with the Trump 2020 sign still in her window would turn out to be the least problematic one.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

There's now a sign "Smile You're On Camera". I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, but the intent is now clear and I think I'm going to file a complaint with the police. While he has a right to monitor his property, I don't think he can install a 24/7 camera intended solely to capture our activity in our yard.

Jesus. I’m sorry you appear to live next to a complete psycho

[dxmnkd316]

There's now a sign "Smile You're On Camera". I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, but the intent is now clear and I think I'm going to file a complaint with the police. While he has a right to monitor his property, I don't think he can install a 24/7 camera intended solely to capture our activity in our yard.

Does your city have their ordinances posted? Searchable? They might mention this.

At least gives you a starting point to talk it over with the cops and/or city.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

There's now a sign "Smile You're On Camera". I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, but the intent is now clear and I think I'm going to file a complaint with the police. While he has a right to monitor his property, I don't think he can install a 24/7 camera intended solely to capture our activity in our yard.

[dxmnkd316]

Follow-up: Tonight, we were in our backyard and noticed there's a new camera attached to the back of his garage, at precisely the height needed to see over the fence, so he can record what we're doing back there. What a dick.

My response to that is going to be to let the whole garden go for the rest of the season. I won't even pull anything by hand. If he tries to file a complaint about the amount or height of the remaining weeds ruining his precious skyline (as he did last year, a month after we moved in), I will take it to city hall and ask for an arbitration hearing with a neutral party. I am not doing anything else back there without going through official channels and having everything planned, documented, and agreed upon first. Also, if he sends me a bill for his bushes, I am not paying sh*t. He can take me to small claims court and I will ask him to produce his water bills.

Fun fact. For $20 you can find out yourself if you have radio water meters. Let me know if want to know how

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Tell that to my neighbor who thinks I killed his bushes by overusing herbicide. Even made the cops follow up to see if I'd done it intentionally (I could tell they were annoyed he even called). Got a letter from code enforcement last week, citing some bylaw I can't even find in the online record book, indicating I'd have to pay for replacement. All I used was a little household vinegar, nowhere near our shared fenceline, and I can say with 100% certainty it had no impact on his burned up cedar bushes. He just didn't water them enough in this year's heat.

I sent an email a week ago telling them, politely, to get ****ed. Thus far no response, which has made my fiance suspicious that he had his friend in code enforcement do it as a favor to try and intimidate me into paying.

Follow-up: Tonight, we were in our backyard and noticed there's a new camera attached to the back of his garage, at precisely the height needed to see over the fence, so he can record what we're doing back there. What a dick.

My response to that is going to be to let the whole garden go for the rest of the season. I won't even pull anything by hand. If he tries to file a complaint about the amount or height of the remaining weeds ruining his precious skyline (as he did last year, a month after we moved in), I will take it to city hall and ask for an arbitration hearing with a neutral party. I am not doing anything else back there without going through official channels and having everything planned, documented, and agreed upon first. Also, if he sends me a bill for his bushes, I am not paying sh*t. He can take me to small claims court and I will ask him to produce his water bills.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

They claim that because of the grade there was no way to get it to discharge on their property and it would hit the curb if it went straight out to street

again, city says overall less water is hitting my property than before the house was built so they don’t care at all

[aparch]

Pretty sure that's the case in MN too. Or at least it's what my dad said when he and I last talked about this stuff last year.

On every highway project I've been on, water from our ROW cannot just be evacuated onto someone's property. We've had to go back and field correct drainage issues to contain water and have it discharge elsewhere onto the ROW.


As for DGF, the neighbor and city should have had that water discharge to a storm structure within that property (if there is one) or out to the street/gutter.

DGF may need to document, document, document, and lawyer up.

Alternate recourse, build a swale on your property to divert the water further...

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

City won't do sh-t, they don't want to get between every pair of citizens who are having ahem disagreements < Rand Paul has exited the chat >.

It's sue or charm your neighbor or eat it.

Tell that to my neighbor who thinks I killed his bushes by overusing herbicide. Even made the cops follow up to see if I'd done it intentionally (I could tell they were annoyed he even called). Got a letter from code enforcement last week, citing some bylaw I can't even find in the online record book, indicating I'd have to pay for replacement. All I used was a little household vinegar, nowhere near our shared fenceline, and I can say with 100% certainty it had no impact on his burned up cedar bushes. He just didn't water them enough in this year's heat.

I sent an email a week ago telling them, politely, to get ****ed. Thus far no response, which has made my fiance suspicious that he had his friend in code enforcement do it as a favor to try and intimidate me into paying.

[dxmnkd316]

You just can't change the flow of water or at least you can't in Maine

Pretty sure that's the case in MN too. Or at least it's what my dad said when he and I last talked about this stuff last year.

[walrus]

City won't do sh-t, they don't want to get between every pair of citizens who are having ahem disagreements < Rand Paul has exited the chat >.

It's sue or charm your neighbor or eat it.

You just can't change the flow of water or at least you can't in Maine

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I went to the city because they have to sign off on drainage plan for owners to get occupancy certificate. I thought perhaps it hadn’t been signed off yet

the fact the city of Edina is being sued right now by multiple people due to drainage issues on new build McMansions is just a fun side note