Neighbor problems.

C908

Active Member
Our nextdoor neighbor just put a big trampoline against our 6 ft privacy fence. The problem is when her kids bounce on it they go above the fence looking down on our dogs. I explained to her last night its a problem with our dogs could she move it. Answer was no because she has no wear else to put it. I told her I wasn't going to have our dogs tormented. Only thing I can think to do now is see if the City will issue me a permit for an 8ft tall fence. This really aggravates me, 20 years in our house and now this. We shouldn't have to spend thousands of dollars to put up a blocker fence but it may come to that. Anyone have any thoughts ? Thanks !
 

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I live in a small town in northwest NJ. It's always been a nice town with middle class attitudes. Over the past couple years, people from NY have been moving in. They don't have small town attitudes and couldn't care less about being nice neighbors. I lived in NYC for 20 years and know that attitude from when I lived there. They're self centered and do whatever they want without giving a thought to their neighbors.

The good thing about kids and trampolines is they get bored with them. Two of my neighbors bought them for their kids and they were in use for about a month and then forgotten. I hope it's the same in your case.
 
I live in a small town in northwest NJ. It's always been a nice town with middle class attitudes. Over the past couple years, people from NY have been moving in. They don't have small town attitudes and couldn't care less about being nice neighbors. I lived in NYC for 20 years and know that attitude from when I lived there. They're self centered and do whatever they want without giving a thought to their neighbors.

The good thing about kids and trampolines is they get bored with them. Two of my neighbors bought them for their kids and they were in use for about a month and then forgotten. I hope it's the same in your case.
These people moved in about 3 yrs ago, I've watched the property steadily decline. They are the type that belong in the Hills. Six kids and another due in 4 wks.Forgot to mention they recently took on 2 Foster children. I think they are working the system since they are not married. I can't imagine how much Gov assistance they are getting, neither work. I have cut their front yard many times because it looks so bad. When they do mow the grass is real tall and their mower is on a low setting. Clumps of grass everywhere with grass all over the sidewalk. They told me the last house they lived in was condemned after they moved out. They have a German Shepherd that constantly gets out. We live on a busy street, he was hit once but luckily survived. In case you can't tell I'm very aggravated. I work hard to keep our house looking nice on the outside and theirs us just trash. Some of their weeds are almost as tall as new trees I've planted. Rant over.
 
Only thing I can think to do now is see if the City will issue me a permit for an 8ft tall fence.
That sounds like a long term solution for a short term problem. I agree with @obbanner about kids getting bored with trampolines. Our neighborhood should have arranged to use the same trampoline because all the kids got their own (copy cats) and they all lost interest very quickly. That said, sometimes the dogs can also help solve the problem - as long as you are not worried about the dogs trying to 'catch' the kids - I would let them do their job of scaring the kids away :D We had very young kids move in next door over the pandemic and when they would play (and squeal and whine and cry!) along the fence line, Kaiser would charge the fence and bark at them, they'd scream and run away. It turned into a game for about a week where the kids even seemed to seek a reaction and would then try to tell him to be quiet, lol, and just when I thought I'd have to teach him to leave it, they started playing away from the fence :thumbsup2:
 
Anything I've learned over the years is it's always best to ignore as much as you can when it comes to neighbors. Especially when you have Dobermans. City always seems to side with non dog owners over property issues. I suspect those kids will lose interest very quickly in that trampoline. Most of the ones I seen slowly decay until they are thrown away.
 
We had exactly the same situation earlier this summer! We were actually approached by our neighbor (before we had the chance to talk to him) once he realized that the kids "appearing" in the air above our fence upset our dogs (our dogs really like the kids next door). He told us he would be moving it to the opposite side of his yard that coming weekend. He did move it, we thanked him for his consideration and we all get along great! Sorry this hasn't been the case for you. It is difficult when a neighbor refuses to try to compromise and discuss a possible solution in a situation that causes issues for another neighbor. Hope you find a way to deal with it.
 
That's annoying, yeah. Sheesh.

This reminds me a lot of what happened at our last house. We put up that same kind of fence. A few years later, our neighbors put up, not a trampoline, but an addition the 2nd floor of which starts at about the level of our 6' fence and (because the house of course is level, and our fence follows the downhill contour of the ground) rises above our fence with each inch it extends outward. It was quite a thing when they put the floor on that addition and I first saw the workers standing on it – standing well above our 6' privacy fence. Oh, and this addition was also kicked over toward our fence by like 1 1/2 feet compared to the original house. It was utterly ridiculous, but totally legal. Our backyard was already, as I called it, a display case; but now it was to where I would feel 100% in display every time I stepped out there. It's most fortunate that my wife had already been clamoring for us to either add onto our house, or (as I'd prefer as an alternative) move. So we dodged a big bullet by moving.

So yeah. I can feel your pain there especially in how these kids will be bouncing up and down. This could be a big issue with your Dobes, who are probably excited by the movement, and the accompanying yipping and yapping by the kids. I'm sure they might even intentionally try to mess with your dogs. I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Honestly, I hate having neighbors within sight of me. They really are a big part of your life, like it or not – sort of roommates-light.

What would be the penalty if you put up a fence extension and were turned in and cited for it or whatever? Hopefully you'd just be told to take it down and not fined monetarily. I'd go as inexpensive as possible. This goes to the wayback machine, but I remember as a young kid in CA, our back fence had an extension on the top of it made of some rather unattractive green fiberglass or something.

You could explain as nicely as you can muster that you're putting up the extension because the dogs will be too excited/disturbed by the jumping. Hopefully the neighbors will not be spiteful enough to turn you in. Hopefully the kids will not be stupid enough to throw stuff over the fence or shoot water guns over or whatever.

I hate to say it, but I have seen a couple examples of kids' trampolines that receive pretty consistent use over the course of months and a few years. I wouldn't count on your neighbors' trampoline use fading, but I hope it does!
 
I'm sorry you're dealing with bad neighbors. We've had a couple incidents over the years with neighbor kids harassing our Dobermans. Usually a sudden yell from us to knock it off scares them into stopping. I think it was the sudden realization that they were caught by an adult they didn't know was around. If that doesn't work I'd usually suggest a calm, kind conversion with the parents but it sounds like you tried that and it didn't go well.

All of that said, I do have to ask for a little compassion for your neighbors. We've been the ones being judged for not keeping up our property to other's standards. They just gossiped and complained, never bothering to find out what was going on or seeing if we needed help. In our cases once was because my husband was deployed and our mower was broken, once my husband had just had back surgery and I was like 7 months pregnant, and others were that the kids took up what little extra time we had for a while and other things had to slide until we could get around to them. Kind offers of guidance go a lot farther than just complaining. There are some people that are just terrible neighbors but maybe they'd come around? Just a thought.
 
Good suggestions all around. My suggestion is one I haven't seen yet that will be a long-term solution but, do on leash obedience with your two while the kids are jumping. Desensitize them to the jumping and train them to ignore it and not care. Just a few sessions each time they will begin to not care. Avoid conflict and gain peace!
 
There is nothing more frustrating then trying to deal with neighbors. My husband doesn't tolerate much, but I want to "keep the peace' all the time. So sorry you are dealing with this. Especially because it has been your home for so many years. Great suggestions here though! My husband wanted to do the 'automatic paint gun' in our last house, for neighbors kids who continued to cut through our yard! :shock:. Of course, we never did it.....
 
1. hopefully the kids will get tired of it quickly and 2. maybe the parents will be annoyed by the dogs barking and tell the kids to just stop

I do agree to try and use it as a training opportunity if there is no chance of them moving it.

Neighbors.... even the neighbors we get along with great definitely get on our nerves and the ones we don't get along with, we just ignore. The neighbor we share the back of our fence line with does not weed whack the grass along his side of the fence. It's two feet tall. He said he can't handle a weed whacker. I see that idiot on his roof with a 20 foot long pole to trim his trees and pushing edgers. :facepalm:
 
I wonder if after a while the dogs would be used to it and just ignore them?
 

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