Back in October, new neighbors moved into the rental house next to ours. (We own and are friends with the landlord next door)
Immediately there seemed to be a major issue the neighbors had with us. He sent us a letter with this paraphrased:
“It's our understanding that [landlord] spoke to you about the new arrangement with our driveway & we want to thank you for agreeing not to use it any longer. Since moving in we've noticed a large presence of young children around our house. Living on this hill, getting in & out of our driveway can be hard to see & our concern is for everyone's safety. We would like to prevent anyone from getting injured, damage to our property and we do not want to be liable. We all appreciate your willingness to keep a closer eye on your kids, keep them & their toys out of our yard/driveway. We work remotely from home quite a bit and rely on peace & privacy.
We're very happy to live in this beautiful home and neighborhood. Our hope is to be neighborly & feel welcome in our new home. Thank you in advance for your attention & understanding.”
Neighborly my butt🙄
The neighbors driveway is a very steep hill to get out of. Short and steep. The kids play in front of our house. Not theirs. My parents are foster parents and we currently have three fosters in addition to my younger siblings (5 kids total). Them referencing the use of their driveway was cleared with the landlord prior to as my dad had a severe surgery and needed to be wheeled around the side of the house (barely on their driveway) to get to the lower floor of the house. The toys part of this letter refers to a skateboard being accidentally left between their house and ours.
My father sent a letter in response:
“Having owned our home living in harmony with our neighbours for the past 25 years, I had some thoughts I'd like to share.
First, there has never been any "arrangement" regarding the use of [landlord’s] driveway. I had ankle surgery on October 15 and planned on recuperating on the ground floor of our home. The safest way for me to gain access via wheelchair that day was to use [landlord’s] driveway. [landlord] and I have spoken about the situation.
Over the years, my wife and I have raised 11 children and have been foster parents to over 50 children. I understand you expressed concern to my wife over the fact two of our kids and three of our current foster kids were playing next to our van which was parked in front of our home.
I am sure that your concerns are well intended, however they are not welcomed.
Apologies for the inconvenience you had to endure when on two occasions scooters were left near or in your driveway. Rest assured that won't happen again.
There are other families with children in the cul de sac who, weather permitting, play in the street from time to time. I trust you will be as vigilant protecting your driveway and privacy with those families.”
There was no contact after that until last week. That sent us another letter:
“Last night, we saw your dog was in our front yard (Wednesday evening), while you & the young boy were out front (see enclosed snapshots from our security cameras). Your dog is not welcome on our property, and you need to keep it out of our yard.
Regarding your last letter of 11/06/26, we have also spoken with [landlord] regarding your disrespect for our boundaries. [landlord, neighbor wife] & I agree that this issue is between us (the [my family] & the [neighbors]), as we are leasing this property and it's our home.”
Their landlord is on our side in regards to these matters as, I’m sure you can tell, are very minor and petty grievances. The family dog got out of the house and we caught him quickly. But not quickly enough apparently. They sent photos from their cameras.
We were going to ignore the letter but then something else happened
My younger sister was on the side of our house (between the two houses but on our side) and the neighbor shouted at my sister through their cameras. She was terrified to say the least. My dad flipped the camera off and left. You don’t scare kids like that. That was the end of it until another letter came:
“Please see the attached "legal" document of the pot map of our home [address] from the [our county records department]. Clearly, the document shows the property lines. We have a large side yard and according to the county...you do not have much of a west side yard. Maybe you can frame this legal document for your reference, as you so sarcastically told Officer [name] today.
For the record, there have been several other trespassing occurrences since we received your November letter that promised "rest assured that won't happen again". At this point, your word means nothing.
You are a horrible example of a man acting the way you did today. Flipping off our security cameras and running away, saying you are "exercising your first amendment rights", taunting & laughing in front of your foster children. You should be ashamed of yourself for being so belligerent...no wonder there are so many disrespectful kids in this world. We have attempted to amicably work this out with you, by speaking to you in person and the last few letters that we've sent. You obviously have an issue with boundaries. Going forward, if you or anyone/anything affiliated with you enters our property, we will press criminal trespassing charges against you per the [city’s] police officer that spoke to you today.”
We’re not sure what to do at this point. Accident steps onto their property by kids doesn’t seem criminal. It’s hard and frankly scary living next to these people. We’re afraid they’ll lash out in worse ways than verbal slander and legal threats.
Their lease is up in October and we’re hoping they leave.
WWYD?