this is really annoying

Every few days there are people coming onto our property as a "shortcut". We ask them to leave they get smartmouthed about how it is not our property how it is county property. We explain no it is not county "property" it is an easement for the county to USE!! It is still our property though. I am just sick and tired of explaining this over and over and even when we ask them to leave they just walk around us and keep on going on their merry way. Fricking morons.

The bad thing is it is not just walking through. They ride go-karts/motorcycles/three-wheelers/four-wheelers/golf-karts and even occasionally some idiot will come through with a pick-up truck. We had someone dump a load of concrete in the backyard which we just finally got all out because it had been buried when we had the land cleared all the way (it was partially wooded when we moved here) We have fenced up to the ditch in the rear and front but they still come on the property by just walking around the fence and go through the main driveway with the motorized vehicles.

Call the police and they do nothing. BUT if any of these idiots get hurt on our property which they are trespassing on we are legally responsible. How is that fair? We put up no trespassing signs and they tear them down. We cannot fence the side off where they walk around the fence because the county wont allow it. They say they may someday need to clean the ditch or some other maintenance. It is just really frustrating and just as we get one person to stop doing it we have someone else coming on with the same entitled attitude that they should be able to go whereever/whenever. And the thing is if when we told them look dont come through here it is private property and we dont want you on our property if they said ok and turned around like a normal sensible person would I and my husband would be ok with it but they NEVER DO!!!

Oh that is so annoying!!!!! People are idiots!!!!

We live on a corner of 2 streets, and kids were always cutting thru our yard- even going around our house for the first couple of months after we moved in (the house had been empty for a year before we bought it so they were walking thru since then), but since we got our dog (who barks and jumps on people) they stopped!!!! Ha!!!

You should get a mean dog and put up a shock-fence thingy so it can't run away, but let it run after the morons! lol!

I honestly have thought about that but then Id be worried about the liability if the people got hurt running from the dog or worse the dog bit them. I just dont understand how a person can think ok I have to go around not one but two fences but I still have the right to do whatever on this property. We have also had stuff turn up missing outside which is most likely because of people cutting through our property

rachaelsscraps said:

Oh that is so annoying!!!!! People are idiots!!!!

We live on a corner of 2 streets, and kids were always cutting thru our yard- even going around our house for the first couple of months after we moved in (the house had been empty for a year before we bought it so they were walking thru since then), but since we got our dog (who barks and jumps on people) they stopped!!!! Ha!!!

You should get a mean dog and put up a shock-fence thingy so it can't run away, but let it run after the morons! lol!

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I'm no expert and you can look up your laws but if I were you I would get some metal poles and metal signs for no trespassing and beware of dogs and "sink" them along your property. Get the dog with the invia-line fence and I'm pretty sure that if they do come on and get hurt or bite you are not liable. Again I'm no expert but look into it. Also with the signs like that someone would have to work pretty hard to tear them up!

You CAN build a fence...just know that the city has the right to remove it to get to where they need to clean the ditch. Is there a chance you could put chain link fencing in that can be picked up and moved easily by county workers, but leave in tact for other times?

My husband did talk to an attorney when we were trying to vacate the easement from the county since they dont ever come on the property but are not willing to give it up so he called a friend of his who is an attorney and the attorney gave him alot of advice. One of the things the lawyer told him though is that we could be held liable for them being injured on our property.

we cant put the fence up though because we have to pull a permit (approved by the county) and we cant get a permit approved for where we want to put the fence.

Darcy Baldwin said:

You CAN build a fence...just know that the city has the right to remove it to get to where they need to clean the ditch. Is there a chance you could put chain link fencing in that can be picked up and moved easily by county workers, but leave in tact for other times?

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Oh also the kicker is the county has a machine that straddles the ditch so they do not even need to come on our property. The new supervisor though is a jerk and when he and my husband met they kinda butted heads. We contacted a lawyer to see about having the easment vacated which can be done but it is supposed to be difficult and if you do it he said the county will be pricks towards you for a long time afterwards.

If you have "NO TRESSPASSING" signs on your property and someone tresspasses and gets injured, you are not liable. Thats like someone breaking into your home and getting injured by broken glass. You're not liable for their choice to break the law.

take photos of people using the property and email them to the county.
every. single. time.
they'll get SO SICK of your emails and snail mail, that they'll cave in 6 months or so.

Do a google search and you will see many instances where that very thing has happened. We have done extensive research on this subject including talking to an attorney and had to call the police numerous times over some really rude people. One guy rode his bike back and forth on the side where the ditch is for over 15 minutes just trying to taunt us with his presence I guess. The police tell us they can do nothing unless they catch them on the property. I cant do anything to them becvause then Id be arrested although in alot of instances I would have liked to. My husband has owned this place since 1989 so this has been a problem for 20 years now. Besides the fact that two fences in a yard should be enough to tell a person it is private property.

Voodoo_Bryn said:

take photos of people using the property and email them to the county.
every. single. time.
they'll get SO SICK of your emails and snail mail, that they'll cave in 6 months or so.

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Dude. Totally!

And if it were me I would say eff it and put a fence up anyway. They're never out there, so who's gonna know the difference?

I actually say that Im going to do that and then when we see them I totally forget to get my camera because the people are jsut so unbelieveably rude!!

Voodoo_Bryn said:

take photos of people using the property and email them to the county.
every. single. time.
they'll get SO SICK of your emails and snail mail, that they'll cave in 6 months or so.

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we have been talking about doing this....I honestly dont think it would stop these people from going through though. Really I think they are so stupid/inconsiderate they would jump the fence!! Ohhh and we had our fence torn down in the front yard overnight once too. We think they attached a rope to a truck or something and tied it to the fence. After that we set a surveilance camera up.

BrodoNY0123 said:

Dude. Totally!

And if it were me I would say eff it and put a fence up anyway. They're never out there, so who's gonna know the difference?

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I would definitely go out there and take pictures and let them know you are taking their picture. If they ask tell them you are building a case against all trespassers and that that is what the police told you to do. Maybe you could also put a bunch of broken glass down, nails etc. If they were trespassing I don't think thye'd have a chance in a case against you. Not ot mention how would they prove that you are the ones who put it there.

Did you post something similar to this on two peas NSBR awhile back? I seem to remember something like this there...

Sorry that you are going through this - it sounds like it would be a total PITA...

not on two peas on DST about maybe a year ago though. It actually started slowing down alot where we might see only one or two a month but this month there has been several. Its not just kids either. We had one guy who repeatedly brought his grandaughters to walk through and let them climb/play on our gate. Which is kinda stupid because it is chainlink and those little metal things at the top of the gate are extremely sharp!! Anyhow it slows down for a few weeks then they start doing it again like every few days then itll slow down again over and over.

Just curious - how do the other people know that it is a county easement? Is there a sign or something? Could you maybe get the county to take down their sign?

There is a sign on the next road down. The property here is divided kinda odd. Ill post a pic to show you what I mean cause it is kinda hard to explain.

beaucat said:

Just curious - how do the other people know that it is a county easement? Is there a sign or something? Could you maybe get the county to take down their sign?

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here is the part of my yard I am talking about. The ditch is the dark line next to the long open grassy area. It is still kinda hard to see in this picture though. So it is fenced at the road on the top of the picture and then towards the bottom of the picture also fenced there. The properties bordering the road I live on are square. The road that runs north south a few houses down from me have properties that run east west and are rectangular. Very long (they run all the way to the rear of my property) and kinda narrow. So as you might be able to see alot of them are wooded properties in the rear and so the people who own it do not see these people cutting through. We have had our property surveyed several times and the ditch that borders our property is between 6 inches and 3 foot from the edge of our property line. It is very close to coming onto our property. So in some areas it is county property KWIM? The ditch is about 8 feet deep and probably just as wide. People were dumping in the ditch and on the easement and that is the reason why the county put the gates up is to try to stop that because it makes more work for them to do I guess. So really the county was trying to stop people vfrom coming on the property that this easement is on but kinda only made it worse.

Maybe you could also put a bunch of broken glass down, nails etc. If they were trespassing I don't think thye'd have a chance in a case against you.

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I definitely don't agree with this. As you mentioned, you don't want people hurting themselves on your property and you definitely don't want to set up something that could purposely injure someone. That is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I'd probably fence it to and see what the county does about it. It totally stinks though that someone would pull down your fence! That's just crazy!

yea I defenitely agree!! I think it was someone who was ticked because we told them to leave and told them not to come back and explained to them there are fences there because we want people to stay off. Guess they figured f they pull the fence down then we would not put it back up and would not care if people came back on our property. The worst one Id say was when we came home from a store on christmas day and there was a girl riding her go-kart through our yard. She went through our main driveway which doesnt have a gate and we have a circular driveway and she was just riding around the driveway. Soon as we pulled up she took off. I told my husband if we could ever figure out where some of these people live I would like to take our car and go to their yard and just do a few donuts in their yard see if they like it LOL

DawnMarch said:

I'd probably fence it to and see what the county does about it. It totally stinks though that someone would pull down your fence! That's just crazy!

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I was thinking that most of the people coming through your property were driving vehicles, which is why I mentioned the broken glass so it'd pop thier tires. Didn't think beyond that fact and the possibility that people walked on it too. Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. I'm so ticked for you! I cannot believe that the county won't do anything. Just sucks.

Id say it is about half and half since we fenced off the front. It used to be mostly dirtbikes/3&4 wheelers and the occasional golfcart or go-kart. Mostly because parents would buy their kids these for christmas and think they could just send them out in the neighborhood to ride them and the kids would see that long stretch that runs by our house that is all open and it looks so inviting and teenagers these days just do not have very much respect for their elders at least not around here. I kinda always dread christmas morning for this reason because there are usually at least half a dozen new dirtbikes/4 wheelers out theree riding around. And to make it worse it is actually illegal to be riding them on the roadways but the police do nothing about that either even if they see it.