Easygoing Approach Helps With a Difficult Neighbor

For all its concern with matters like interest rates, marginal tax brackets and total return, the business of managing your money isn’t always just a numbers game.

Like many other types of endeavor, it frequently involves people problems. And the issues raised by these problems can dictate a far different approach from what might be suggested by any calculator computation.

Consider that frequent bane of real estate owners, the difficult neighbor--the one who holds wild parties late on Saturday night, or cranks up his chainsaw early Sunday morning; the one with the dead shrubs blocking your view of the sunset, or the one whose animal constantly menaces your pet.

“Bad neighbors can be vexatious at best, and can damage your property value at worst,” says John Reed, a Danville, Calif., adviser, in his newsletter Real Estate Investor’s Monthly.

In most other circumstances, Reed says he urges property owners “to fight fiercely when they are involved in litigation. But when it comes to neighbor disputes, that’s generally bad advice.

“Being a neighbor is a long-term relationship,” he adds. “You cannot govern long-term relationships with laws or contracts. Rather, the parties must simply try to get along.”

Reed suggests that the first approach to any neighbor problem be friendly and informal, a few spoken words delivered face-to-face rather than a document served by the sheriff.

If that doesn’t do the job, he suggests considering a follow-up letter to demonstrate that you are serious, while at the same time starting to research the situation.

You want to find out, among other things, if there is a specific rule or ordinance that covers the specific problem you have, and what authority has jurisdiction to enforce it.

“Bad neighbor relations is a well-trodden path in the law,” Reed observes. “There are amazingly detailed, sometimes surprising, laws related to fences and trees and noise and such.”

Before you retain a lawyer or call the police, Reed says, you might check into the availability of a local mediation service, which could save you a lot of stress and expense. Perhaps you can also enlist other nearby residents in your cause.

If the problem persists, you may reach the point of taking the offending party to legal action, whether in small claims court or through a full-scale lawsuit.

Even then, those may not be your only options. There is the possibility, for instance, of remedying the problem with your own hands--for instance, clearing out the unsightly shrubbery yourself.

But be very careful taking any course like this, Reed warns. You could get yourself into legal troubles of your own, or risk a punch in the mouth for your trouble.

If you are wealthy enough, perhaps you can buy the offending neighbors out. If you are mobile enough, perhaps you can relocate yourself. Or if you are patient enough, you can simply wait the situation through.

“Often,” says Reed, “the best thing to do is to grin and bear it if you can. The bad neighbor may move or quit the behavior.”