You know, our ancestors weren't wrong when they said, "My home is my castle!" In fact, no matter how wonderful our relationships with our neighbors actually are, sooner or later, everything can change over the slightest thing. Or the neighbors themselves can change too...
This is exactly what happened once to the user u/yzforce, the narrator of the story we're about to tell you today. After ten years of comfortable living with polite and friendly neighbors, she had to endure a real ordeal with the folks who bought her neighbor's house. Anyway, let's just cut to the chase.
More info: Reddit
Everything good in this life can, alas, come to an inevitable end, and living with nice neighbors isn't permanent either
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of this story has been living in her house for over 15 years, and the first decade was simply nice and calm, with polite and friendly neighbors
Image credits: yzforce
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
But then the nice neighbors moved out, and another family came, who were very rude and entitled
Image credits: yzforce
Image credits: korrawinj / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The new neighbors started occupying part of the author's plot, storing some of their stuff there and even preparing for some construction work
Image credits: yzforce
So the lady just got her land survey and planned to build a high viewing tower, completely blocking the neighbors' water view
So, meet the Original Poster (OP), a single lady who has lived in her house on a nice marsh creek for over 15 years. The first decade was simply wonderful. The neighbors were very polite and nice people, so the author didn't even put up a fence so as not to spoil the water view from their windows. But all good things in this life, alas, come to an end...
The good neighbors left one day, and their place was taken by a family who, literally from the very first day, viewed our heroine's plot as a place to store all sorts of junk belonging to them. The author repeatedly stated that this was unacceptable, but it in fact produced no results.
Furthermore, it seemed the neighbors were seriously intent on stealing part of her plot and starting some construction there. Our heroine could no longer bear this, and she decided to resort to drastic measures. Fortunately, she had her land survey in hand and could no longer tolerate the insults and threats from this rude neighbor.
Many homeowners around had already installed tall viewing towers on their plots, and the OP is genuinely interested in doing the same. Yes, she understands perfectly well that doing so would likely completely ruin the neighbors' water view, but, ultimately, she wasn't the one who started this feud. So the lady decided to enlist the support of netizens - just in case.
Image credits: yzforce / Reddit
Well, in terms of the legality of installing any structures on the property, if the original poster receives permission from the municipality and presents a proper construction project, the neighbors will be left fuming in impotent anger, watching their water view gradually disappear…
This dedicated article at Find Law notes, for example, that neighbors in this situation actually have two options. If they are on good terms, they could try to resolve the matter amicably through negotiations. But that is clearly no longer an option in the situation described.
In other words, now the neighbors can either appeal to the City Planning Commission or, if there’s an HOA in the area, try to enlist their support. And, as a last resort, the neighbors have the option of taking legal action too. However, judging by the photos provided by the author here, the neighbors don't have much of a chance to prove anything...
People in the comments also noted that if the neighbors wanted to preserve the beautiful water view, they should’ve simply bought that part of the property from the author, rather than engaging in such an ugly confrontation. "This is a lesson to folks: you can't assume things will remain stagnant forever," someone wisely wrote. So what do you, our dear readers, think about this whole story?
Most commenters gave the author their fullest support, claiming that she's doing absolutely right here
