Originally Posted By extractr:
Everything is starting to make more sense now as to why he cut the fence. On my way to work this morning, I passed his house and noticed a newly put up Obama 2012 yard sign.


That explains every douchebaggery thing he has done. I'll have to tell my parents never to speak to them again.

Originally Posted By CCW:
Plant Kudzu in retaliation. In a few months of hot wet weather, you will see no neighber, no fence, nothing but a green wall.

Originally Posted By extractr:
A few years ago, I purchased a small farm(45 acres), with an older house on it. I fixed the house up for my parents, and they live there now. Lately, I decided I wanted to get a few cows to put on the 5 acres of pasture I have near the house. The previous owner of my place had horses and had the entire pasture fenced with barbed wire. There were a few areas I had to splice the wire, but overall the fence was still in great shape.

The other day, I went out to walk the entire fence line to see all I needed to fix on it, and came to a 50 yard section that bordered the neighbors yard. I noticed there was no fence there. I looked and could see where the wire was still attached to a tree near the end of his yard, but all 4 strands of wire had been cut cleanly just after the tree. I looked at the other end of his yard and all the wires were coiled up and placed over a fence post. There were 4 or 5 posts missing. I think the reason he did it is that the fence is only about 20 yards from his front door and it "looked" better without it. He actually had mowed about 15 yards of my pasture to enlarge his front yard. I was rather pissed to say the least. I talked to my parents about it, and they are actually really good friends with those neighbors(although they never gave them permission to remove the fence.) My parents told me not to make a big deal out of it and cause strife between them. So instead of causing trouble, I just took my boy over and uncoiled the wires and started putting the fence back up. The neighbor came out and asked what I was doing. I simply said, I was getting some cows and was fixing fence. He looked a little ticked and didn't say much else and turned and went back in the house.

I ended up having to put in 4 new posts and used about 50 feet of new barbed wire so it only ended up costing about $15 of material and about 1 hour of time, so I wasn't out much. I guess the "revenge" I did get, was instead of splicing into where he cut the wire and making it look nice, it was much faster to wrap the wire around the tree and tie it off. It is only about 20 yards from his front porch, and looks rather ugly, but only he has to see it every day. It would have looked fine if he had left it as it was. The other thing I did was not rebuild a gate that was there previously. He has about 5 acres that he is only able to access over a small wooden bridge crossing a creek. Previously he had used my pasture several times to get cement trucks and other machinery into his place for projects he was doing. He would bring them through the gate. Instead of building back the fence with a gate in it, I just ran the wires straight through to the last post. So now he essentially landlocked himself. I know he is planning on building a concrete patio and a garage in the future, but I guess he can figure out how he is going to get the trucks in there now. His bridge won't support them, and there is no gate now on my pasture.

Part of me wanted to make a big deal out of it with him, but It's probably better off the way I did it.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll109/osudds53/d895fccf.jpg

Originally Posted By callgood:
I believe you will have to give him access to his other property.

Consult a lawyer before doing anything drastic.

Originally Posted By Assaulter:
You said your parents are very good friends with them, why would you put a potential strain on that? If you had talked to him first, maybe he would have paid for the fence or put in gates.

Originally Posted By bytor94:


With eels by chance?

Originally Posted By Tannim:


Not unless he has an easement.

Originally Posted By Assaulter:
You said your parents are very good friends with them, why would you put a potential strain on that? If you had talked to him first, maybe he would have paid for the fence or put in gates.

Originally Posted By Mattl:
How fucked up is this countries property laws when a neighbor can take you to court and gain use of your property without your consent or without having to pay you for it.

An "easement" should not exist. You buy into and share the cost of a mutual road or you buy the use of said property via a mutual agreement.

Originally Posted By lowcountry:
I suggest you put it back to the way it was before and replace the gate and remove all locks. You don't want the fire department showing up and making threats of how they will deface your property. You still have the upper hand in this case and may be able to get through this situation without legal fees. At this time this is color of their title and therefore their responsibility to fix it. If you get the fire department on their side and testifying against you in court you will not win.

Originally Posted By extractr:

I guess the "revenge" I did get, was instead of splicing into where he cut the wire and making it look nice, it was much faster to wrap the wire around the tree and tie it off.

Originally Posted By lowcountry:


Yes I did read the whole thread. OP stated that the current "bridge" is insufficient for truck traffic ergo it is insufficient for fire truck traffic. All the neighbor has to do is present pictures of previous gate (and current lack of gate) and state that OP has denied him of emergency access. I've surveyed dozens of these type issues in the past and know that this type of thing happens. No matter how much OP complains about neighbor cutting down his fence in court, it will not beat an old woman crying about how her house is going to burn down. Then the judge may make the OP pay for all or half of the easement and surveying creation because he found him at fault. I'm just providing my professional opinion.

Originally Posted By lowcountry:


Yes I did read the whole thread. OP stated that the current "bridge" is insufficient for truck traffic ergo it is insufficient for fire truck traffic. All the neighbor has to do is present pictures of previous gate (and current lack of gate) and state that OP has denied him of emergency access. I've surveyed dozens of these type issues in the past and know that this type of thing happens. No matter how much OP complains about neighbor cutting down his fence in court, it will not beat an old woman crying about how her house is going to burn down. Then the judge may make the OP pay for all or half of the easement and surveying creation because he found him at fault. I'm just providing my professional opinion.

Originally Posted By lowcountry:


Yes I did read the whole thread. OP stated that the current "bridge" is insufficient for truck traffic ergo it is insufficient for fire truck traffic. All the neighbor has to do is present pictures of previous gate (and current lack of gate) and state that OP has denied him of emergency access. I've surveyed dozens of these type issues in the past and know that this type of thing happens. No matter how much OP complains about neighbor cutting down his fence in court, it will not beat an old woman crying about how her house is going to burn down. Then the judge may make the OP pay for all or half of the easement and surveying creation because he found him at fault. I'm just providing my professional opinion.

Originally Posted By callgood:
I believe you will have to give him access to his other property.

Consult a lawyer before doing anything drastic.

Originally Posted By triburst1:
Claymores. The correct answer to these situations is always Claymores.

Originally Posted By JPN:


About 20 years ago, a student pilot screwed up his approach in a Cessna 152, then screwed up his go-around by forcing a power on stall, cartwheeled the plane through some trees, and ended up in drainage ditch at the edge of a soccer field near the hangar I was working in. By the time we got to the plane, he had shut off the electrical power and fuel, climbed out of the plane, and gone looking for his instructor (who was heading out with another student in a different airplane, at the time).

The fire department showed up a short time later, and from what I later heard, the soccer club was royally pissed and wanting both blood and money over the damage the fire trucks did to their soccer field. If the ground had been wet, they would have gotten stuck, but they managed to get to the plane and back out to the road... and left very deep ruts in the field going both ways.


I've been involved in trying to get a fuel truck (and it wasn't that big a fuel truck) unstuck, after the lineman made the mistake of parking it on the grass (while it was full of fuel) on the day after a heavy rain. He said that by the time he got out of the truck, the back end was sunk to the axle. The truck didn't budge (even after the tires on my F-250 had left a fair amount of rubber on the pavement, and I broke a tow strap) until a farmer brought over a large tractor and a heavy chain.

Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:

Some guys will do that. Some depts will let it happen. We do our best to not destroy our very limited resources on mine. We're far too busy to tear up an engine or sink one in a field.

Originally Posted By JPN:
We kinda got the impression they were excited about finally getting to respond to a plane crash (small airport in a college town). They wanted to foam the plane, even though there was no fire, no smoke, the fuel was shut off, and the electrical system was cut off. My boss did his best to talk them out of it, pointing out that the feds were going to have to inspect the plane and foaming it would not make it any easier on the feds, but their final point that they refused to budge on was that fuel was dribbling out of a vent in one wing (the wingtip was in the bottom of the ditch, so gravity was pulling the fuel toward the vent) and they considered that a serious fire hazard. So me and another guy had to run back to the hangar and get our small defueling cart, haul it out to the plane, and handpump about 10 gallons of gas out of the plane (and save it for the feds, so they could confirm the fuel status of the plane). With no more fuel in the plane, the electrical power cut off, no smoke or flames, and no victim to extract from the plane, they finally came down from high alert, got back in their trucks, and left.

As I recall, it was a hot day with no wind and no clouds, and it hadn't rained in a week or so. The ground was completely dry, and they still left very deep ruts in that well maintained soccer field.