There is no diplomatic out. But you and your lawyer already knew that, I assume.

If you are going to deal with this, it is better done sooner than later. Your neighbor will only get older, grumpier, and more dug in. Good luck.

Yeah you're way past diplomatic solutions. You might have problems with a legal case because of passage of time and preexisting issues, but that's something for your own lawyer to assess.

Seems like you might be out of luck wrt the moved road. You're the only that uses it, right?

Patrol your property with your shotgun and the dogs. Send a message.

Omg I can't believe it hasn't come to anyone what the perfect solution is.

No. It serves 3 of us including th offending neighbor. I have to go back for another meeting w/ the road and bridge department but it looks as if I can force the road to be moved back onto the easement, but who and how much of the cost is the part that's still being figured out.

Most likely he will be responsible for some of the cost of moving the road if I pursue fixing that problem. As it stands now he is unable to get to his property without driving across my property.

Well you have four issues. The first two are non negotiable. I would deal with those first and see how he responds before deciding what to do about the 4th one. If you can get him to address the parking and trailers in a timely fashion without fracturing the relationship then I might let the addition encroachment slide.

From his behaviour and responses so far it seems unlikely that will work but I'd try anyway because neighbour feuds are really unpleasant and worth genuine effort to avoid even if it seems like you are the one "giving in".

If he is recalcitrant about blocking the road, which he probably will be, then you'll have to give him both barrels with the zoning issue as well and resign yourself to bitchiness forever from him.

Fill your property with old boat trailers and see how he likes it

I don't see a diplomatic way out.

One option that I'll throw out there is the "blame someone else" approach. For example, you can say that your insurance company is making you deal with the road on your property or are going to jack your rates. Or whatever else might make sense.

Personally, I probably wouldn't go that route and would just write off the neighbour. Meaning I'd tell him that you're tired of asking him nicely and dealing with his **** and that you're going to start towing his **** + file the complaint about his addition unless he does something about the trailers and builds his own permanent parking.

I also wouldn't take on the role of road maintainer. That **** needs to be communal and everybody needs to know that they're responsible for their portion of the costs. My family has a sort of similar situation and money goes into a pot every year. There's always some deadbeats that don't pay, but its better to be explicit that they owe the money even if you never see it.

I just want some clarification.

Did he build his addition on the current road, or onto where the road should actually be?

He built it on the current road. The road in front of his home is in the correct place. The area where the road isn't in the right spot is 600' up the road from his house. Where the road is in the wrong spot only effects him insofar as it allows him to reach his house by driving over my property.

He knew full well what he was doing when he built the addition. The lot next to his had been recently surveyed so he knew exactly where the corner of his lot meets the road and built past the survey stake and into the road.


Drogo,
That's almost exactly my plan. Thx.


Ih,
That's an awesome idea. If there weren't so much at stake I would definitely try that just for lol's.


JJ,
I agree. I was just hopeful OOT would have some great diplomatic solution. I'm resigned to the fact he'll certainly stop speaking to me and that it will be awkward. I suspect it'll mean some level of ongoing conflict for awhile.

The road maintenance doesn't really cost me anything since I have the equipment and get the material for free from my land. Some neighbors have voluntarily contributed once I started improving the road. If everyone "owns" a percentage of the road based on how much frontage they have, then I own about 70% of the road and am responsible for the bulk of the maintenance anyway.

So the road has been moved onto your property. And he needs to use that portion of the road? Pretty obv the first thing is to park large vehicles on the road which is your property and block him from getting in.

Unfortunately my personal interests are not aligned w/ my interests as an OOT poster. I would very much like to do that for the lol's and OOT's entertainment but it seems like the least diplomatic way to solve the problems.

.

I don't have a lathe, what if I grow tomatoes there?

Your power ranking just went up. Thx. Correctly depicts the situation. The only difference being that where the road leaves the easement it does so considerably more so that the entire road is on my property. The 30' wide road takes up 100' width of my property at the peak of the curve.

Maybe it is time to construct a big fence on property line or as close to easement of road as possible.

The one problem with this is that you don't really get the credit you deserve which would be really useful in situations like this. But I know where you're coming from.

We also don't divide our road costs by frontage. Everyone pays an equal share since in our case the vast majority of the cost is getting the equipment/materials to the road and not actually related to the length of the road.

LOL, awesome.

Man, I was just about to post that de captain doesn't deserve one iota of OOT's help until he posts a proper MSPaint, and then chop steps up big time. Bravo.

Kill him and dump him in the lake.

Want to come golfing?

cap,

OK, sorry I wasn't around to address this for you earlier.

Option 1: Passive-aggressive. Can you file an anonymous zoning complaint? Would they do anything with that kind of report? Would it be 100% obvious if zoning inspector types came out that it was due to you regardless? Anyway, not the one I'd likely pursue, but just tossing out options.

Option 2: Build a fence/gate where the road enters your property. As you've already identified, that would be hilarious. Also in this vein, you could give your neighbors the option of either paying to move the road or paying a smaller amount for access to the road on your private property. I'd prob let this slide, though.

Option 3: Here's what I'd actually do. I'd have a conversation with the neighbor like this. Hey neighbor, here's the deal. It's a real pain in the ass getting to my property because of your trailers and your parking in the road, because of how far out your addition goes out to. As you know, your addition is not in code and needs to be moved x yards away from the roadway. Also, x yards of the road need to be built where it's currently on my property. I don't want to be a dick and report those and make you tear down your addition and pay for the road, so how about this compromise. You keep the road next to your addition clear, and I'll let those things slide.

Thx. Option 3 is my plan for later today. Your version is worded better than I had in my head so that helps. I've invited him over for a beer later and he knows we need to talk abut the road and stuff.

Option 1 is doable but I hate the idea. I can file a complaint but not anonymously, though I'm not sure they'd tell him it was me. It'd be fairly obvious it was me.

I have discussed this and many other issues w/ the planning and zoning department as part of developing the land. We had a conversation about this problem "hypothetically". Planning and zoning doesn't want involved unless they have to be. They have confirmed that if this situation came up in real life and someone filed a notarized complaint they would follow through and the only remedy is for the addition to be torn down or moved over 20'. They gave me a copy of the form that needs to be filled out.



In what I find to be a hilarious aside, the county commissions, or buys or however it works, new satellite images approximately every 5 years which it then overlays the plats, property information, and most relevant information. The latest satellite image update was in 2016. That was the year he built the addition. I know this because in the satellite images his work van is parked in the middle of the road and he's got the floor for the new addition down and he's outside building the walls.