Apartment property damage from EW neighbor

PepperElf · #1 12-27-2012, 10:46 PM

Background - skip to next bold marks if you don't want backgrounds or don't care

My apartment complex is on "Firefly Drive". Well not really but it's a good enough for this.

To the left (or rather "up" on my drawing) there are 3 houses with yards. One house has an extra bit of land fenced off and some giant shed thing. Sorry my drawing is sucky when it comes to scale.

Intersecting Firefly drive is "Serenity Street" which almost borders my apartment complex... save that there's a giant field between the street and the apartment.

The field is marked "for sale" at the "opening" (a small section that has been used for mowers to access the land) but that sign is out of date. The man who owns my apartment complex has already purchased the land. Eventually he (and the other owner) plan to expand the apartment complex to the field, but not yet - it still needs to be developed etc.

My boyfriend and I sometimes walk the dog in that field. There's a "no trespassing" sign on our side but we've already been told by the apartment manager it's OK - especially since we pick up our dog's poop. And quite frankly it's a nice field.

There's been recent tire tracks on the field. I assumed the owner had hired new people to fix it up but... apparently not.

A man recently moved into one of the homes next to our complex. And apparently he decided the field provided him a great shortcut to his driveway. He was also witnessed by one of the maintenance men joyriding around the field doing donuts in his vehicle. The home-renter has access to his property already too - so there's no real reason for him to use the field... other than wanting to circumvent the intersection and pure laziness (as well as entitlement whoreishness too).

End background.

Recap: neighbor is cutting across owner's field for access to his property - despite already having access via another road. The owner was pretty mad. The damage isn't permanent - just a couple of sets of tire tracks - but it's HIS LAND.

Home-Renter's (HR's) response when told to stop?
"You didn't see me do it!" Yeah, HR tried to play the "it wasn't me!" game... despite an eye witness, AND fresh tire tracks leading to the ass-end of his driveway?

"Get your fat ass off of my property!" This pretty much pissed the apartment owner off. HR *knew* it wasn't his land to drive on and pretty much played the "STFU, don't talk to me" card when told to stop?

So Apartment owner called the cops. Not sure what the cops did but apparently they acted as mediator. Dunno if more is being done legally.

In the meantime however they're making it OBVIOUS that the land is NOT a freeway for traffic.
1) Chain across the "opening" - with a "no trespassing sign" hanging from it.
2) "No trespassing" sign where the field borders HR's property.

I agree with the apartment manager though - i think HR will just pull them down or ignore them.

TheSHAD0W · #2 12-27-2012, 11:33 PM

Quickest way to fix the problem would be to get some short T-posts - fenceposts for barbed wire - and put them into the ground every 4 feet along the road. They're annoying to pull out without equipment, and you don't want to drive over them. They're not very expensive either.

PepperElf · #3 12-27-2012, 11:40 PM

not sure if they want to go that route just yet.

although i did suggest to the apartment manager that a surveillance camera might work. actually they could set one up inside the office cos from the doorway you can clearly see the field & the entrance.

oh and i forgot here's the picture!

it's very NOT to scale.

not to mention the field really is a lot longer (and we have more apartments to the left etc)

PepperElf · #4 01-02-2013, 08:57 PM

update:

much to my surprise it looks like the neighbor isn't abusing the field anymore. i would have thought that he'd continue on driving etc, but the only people i've seen on the field are the maintenance men and other residents walking their dogs.

notably the "no trespassing" sign on our side is gone, but that doesn't matter much since we have already been given permission to use it.

The lower end is where some people walk their dogs (why the fuck can't any one else actually pick up their dog's shit?... the only thing worse is the actual marked pet-walk which is pretty much a poop-field some days) and the upper end, where the hill is at... one of the residents from the back works out up there (martial arts). (which is also why I don't allow my dog to poop on the hill - even if i pick it up).