Can u put in a camera to catch the dog walkers?
After reading this thread, I’m actually glad we have an HOA. Less than 100 houses in my community, but any exterior changes have to go thru the Board. When I lived in LA, our house was on a hill. I can easily imagine how a new tall house could block the views and end privacy.
[quote]
From the neighbor in the famous poem by Robert Frost:
Good fences make good neighbors.[/quo;te]
Of course, Frost himself clearly feels differently. I’m not arguing against a fence for this poster, just the poem’s use here. (I knew this already, but just yesterday I was watching an old West Wing where Josh makes the same point.)
OP - That totally sucks! You have me worried about our next house. It’s in a historic district so supposedly it’s very, very hard to do anything to the exterior of the home (we know because we wanted to remove a window and our contractor told us to work around it otherwise we’d be waiting for a year for the preservation society to approve it), but now I wonder about tear downs. We have no view but we are very close to a university and wonder if we’ll run into a problem with homes being torn down to build dorms…
At our current home, we used to back into acres of a beautiful forest. Now we have a home directly behind us and a big development on the other. The crews violate the noise ordinance daily despite tons of neighbors calling in complaints and the tranquil view and privacy have evaporated. Thankfully we didn’t have trouble selling the house but we did take a loss.
Leland Cyprus grow fast, at least on the east coast.
I feel for you. A new home is going up next door that is humongous. But, don’t wish for an HOA, I’m in a legal battle with mine right now, they can become very intrusive and require you to spend money on things you don’t want or need.
Ugh is right. I am so sorry this happened to you. I hope you are able to get to a point of acceptance, but uh, it may not happen. And if it’s bothering you, you need to try and fight things or you may always live with the regret of not doing so. (I agree that the new neighbors are selfish. And if they really cared about the environment, they wouldn’t have torn down a perfectly good home and sent it to the landfill and then used heavy equipment that burned a lot of fuel to build a new one!)
I fought against teardowns years ago when they started to become a big thing in my area. Apparently those of us who were trying to protect our beautiful neighborhood with mature trees and large-ish lots were preventing progress. The nice ranch behind me was replaced by a looming two story where the builder significantly raised the foundation. (I called and complained and no one seemed to give a you-know-what.) The ranch had had a deck off of it, but these guys didn’t want a deck; they wanted a patio. So after the final inspection, they trucked in a ton of dirt and built the yard up so they could have a patio. I called the city inspector about what is now a ski ramp into my yard and was told it really didn’t matter; the run off from their house was going in to my yard regardless. This spring we had more water in our yard than ever before and parts of our backyard were swamp like. I’m not sure I will ever be friendly with the neighbors, or ever not hold it against the city/inspector. We did do some extra waterproofing and fortunately it held, but if I thought there was even a chance of winning, I would have taken the neighbors to small claims court to recoop the costs.
Similar situation across the street. House diagonal to ours was torn down and they changed the slope of the yard drastically. Neighbors are apparently going after them and I just heard yesterday that the tear down house is now required to add French drains to the edge of the property. (Of course this came after they’d had the professional landscapers come in and finish the yard. Ha!) I’m going to try to talk to the neighbors and see if the information is correct and if I can use this precedent against the folks behind me. (Unlikely since the tear down is a couple years old now.)
Green giants are what people use around here.They grow fast and tall and wide.
I don’t understand how they are getting away with a fourth floor. Read your zoning code carefully. Ours is quite clear that the height of a house is to the cornice of the top level if you have a flat roof, or if you have a gabled roof it’s half way between the eaves and the top of the roof. We also have FAR (Floor Area Ratio) limitations so that the houses can’t be too bulky along with the usual setback requirements.
So sorry. It is happening in my neighborhood too. The poor people with a lovely 1920s home I have always admired have a huge modern going in pretty much on the lot lines. Totally out of character for the area.
One of my former neighbors put a large, nude statue prominently in his backyard.
Not suggesting you do this. 
Can’t do anything for you but sympathize. It’s going on in our area, but fortunately they seem to want to put the monstrosities on the more traveled roads, and our subdivision is pretty hard to find or get to. The castle going up about a mile from my house is now in it’s 4th year of construction. The neighboring house will be in permanent shade, and I expect there are drainage issues as well.
I so value all the natural light we have in our house - it would be devastating to me to loose that.
I can commiserate a little with you. We have a VERY modest cottage on the beach on Lake Huron in Canada. There are only a few properties like ours, beach side. In the last few years a guy (and his family) with LOTS of cash has bought the two properties on either side of us and put up new or deeply renovated modern homes. With those modern homes he has taken away the natural vegetation, trees and build sea walls that literally make it very difficult to walk the beach without having to wade in the water - no idea how he got permission to do this except for $$ talks. We are now awaiting him to build a fence on the one side of us - and we are fearful he will block some of our natural waterfront view. It’s awkward. He sees how we use our property - but pleasing others never seems to be his goal. Short sighted.
We appreciate home SOO much. It can truly be devastating to have your favorite home features disturbed.
I am sorry this is happening to you, but it seems to be the thing these days. I don’t get it. Our cottage is across a dirt road from the lake, and we have an access/stairway to the water at the edge of the double lot of our across-the-street neighbor. That home was always owned by members of my FIL’s family, but they sold it 2 years ago. So far, the new owners have been rehabbing the current cottage … but they have discussed building a new cottage. They think the current cottage is “too small” … apparently, people need cottages that are bigger & fancier than my primary home will ever be. They plan to use the whole lot (they have even stated that they wish our access was on the other side of the property - which is the side that is not directly across from our lot). When that new cottage is built, we will no longer be able to enjoy the beautiful view from our front yard. Unfortunately, we don’t have any say in it. It makes me sad.
I was terrified when my neighbors started building what appeared like a huge foundation on our lot line. “Luckily”, they ended up building a huge resort-style pool complete with a pool house and all, rather than an actual house. The did plant large trees, and I have cypress fence on my side, so I still have privacy. They host huge pool parties several times a year, but otherwise it’s not too bad.
All other residencies I own or used to own face public land (a park, an open space with a stream etc). This is the best case scenario since this land will never be developed. Do you homework, and try to find similar properties if you can - I know it’s difficult, but they do exist, even in large cities. Of course, it’s not a solution for OP…
The nude statue brings fond memories of one of our old family friends who *would * do that. Or hold brazen parties with guests in grass skirts, to annoy prissy neighbors. Alas, that won’t shorten your neighbor’s house.
We fought every change in our neighborhood, led by a fierce old lady neighbor who had the money to long-time retain a lawyer. She’s since passed. The issue here is cronyism that gets variances passed. We’re in a cute section of town with restaurants, cafes, and shops. Our particular block includes some of those (furthest end from our street,) so technically, we’re not R1. We live in fear someone will buy an old home and turn it into law or medical offices.
OP, I’m sorry.
I know HOAs can be awful, but we have lived in our neighborhood for 5 years, and it’s been nothing but wonderful. Any new homes have to go through architectural review, so nothing that completely takes away from the character of the neighborhood is allowed. Certainly a height restriction and anything which would adversely affect neighbors would be enforced. There are deed restrictions in place about windows that would look into the windows of adjacent homes, and I appreciate that.
Just proves the old adage that money doesn’t buy taste.
Why do people feel they need so much square footage? Is it just for show?
My thought of buying acres and acres of farmland with no neighbors is sounding better with each of these stories I read. Sorry so many of you are dealing with this.
Dischicos, as my bff says, buy the farmland and you just
might get a new highway crossing your property…or a nuclear plant nearby.
Speaking of living next to public lands in large cities, be careful. There is a what looks like a semi-permanent homeless encampment that allows drugs and booze that got blessings from the city of Seattle to occupy a chunk of city land…
Unfortunately, unless you live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by acres that you own, there is always the possibility that something you don’t like will be built next door. It does somewhat surprise me that so many of you live in cities/towns that don’t enforce or take seriously the building restrictions and zoning requirements. I do know of one build on a nearby street where the owner/builder received a height variance. The neighbors were all notified of the when the hearing was and were invited to attend and/or give input via email. Not one of them bothered to do so and it was granted. And of course, now that it’s built, they are all complaining like crazy.
OP - it’s a bit late now since the house is up but most states recognize a legal concept called ‘the right to light and air’. In other words, you have an ‘easement’ to the access to sunlight to your property, if in fact the new house puts you in the shade all the time. But it may be too late now. You should have asked to see the building plans as soon as construction started and then contacted a lawyer.
I live in an HOA which can be a pain, but our neighbors must bring signed forms to the HOA board showing that the neighbors have agreed to any significant changes to an adjacent home.