Enyin2 said:i really hate neighbors like the OP....red for you!

in most towns, the business of issuing permits has gone to the point of being ridiculous, in a lot of towns around here you technically need a permit for basically any work that's not considered normal maintenance. I mean seriously, what does the town care if i install a new dishwasher? At least most towns don't get too crazy on the enforcement, unless of course you have neighbors like the OP...then you're screwed

You really hate neighbors that come over, say Hi, introduce themselves, and give you a friendly note to be careful as the township requires permits for what you've done, then give you the township phone number and says that he'll gladly sign any paperwork that is needed? You seem a little hard to please.

robstrash said:Enyin2 said:i really hate neighbors like the OP....red for you!

in most towns, the business of issuing permits has gone to the point of being ridiculous, in a lot of towns around here you technically need a permit for basically any work that's not considered normal maintenance. I mean seriously, what does the town care if i install a new dishwasher? At least most towns don't get too crazy on the enforcement, unless of course you have neighbors like the OP...then you're screwed

You really hate neighbors that come over, say Hi, introduce themselves, and give you a friendly note to be careful as the township requires permits for what you've done, then give you the township phone number and says that he'll gladly sign any paperwork that is needed? You seem a little hard to please.Yes I do hate "hey - here are the rules" type neighbors.

Like everyone else said, you will be known as the "Fence @sshole"

robstrash said:Enyin2 said:i really hate neighbors like the OP....red for you!

in most towns, the business of issuing permits has gone to the point of being ridiculous, in a lot of towns around here you technically need a permit for basically any work that's not considered normal maintenance. I mean seriously, what does the town care if i install a new dishwasher? At least most towns don't get too crazy on the enforcement, unless of course you have neighbors like the OP...then you're screwed

You really hate neighbors that come over, say Hi, introduce themselves, and give you a friendly note to be careful as the township requires permits for what you've done, then give you the township phone number and says that he'll gladly sign any paperwork that is needed? You seem a little hard to please.

AFTER you've called the township to "report" it, and more than likely, they showed you the door. What you did afterwards is called, remorse. Shame on you. I sure do not want you near my neighborhood. He/she (the neighbor) might've needed a permit, but I doubt that they would need your permission/signature to put up a fence that they are/were paying for, on their property.

SUCKISSTAPLES said:

This isnt Dear Abby

We seriously need a Dear Abby subforum.

One potential issue with giving a neighbor permission to attach to a fence is that if you or the person who eventually buys your house wants to replace the fence with another style or to just remove it altogether, you may then create conflict with the neighbors who depend on your vinyl fence being there to hold up part of their fence.

Kingofthenet said:I agree with suckis, the whole 'this is what the town requires', is basically passive/aggressive BS. we see a lot of this on the internet... people who have difficulty dealing with people in real life come here to express their true feelings.

And most of the time, we can "figure them out"

Absolut9 said:SUCKISSTAPLES said:BTW since we are talking about neighbor disputes and this is now Dear Abby, check out my new fw neighbor/ stalker "hatescops" going around and redding all my posts...I think this is the alt ID of tempname09

I would think his alt ID would be hateslawyers... but maybe he hates cops too.

I think hatestomowhislawn might be a little more appropriate imo.

Enyin2 said:i really hate neighbors like the OP....red for you!

in most towns, the business of issuing permits has gone to the point of being ridiculous, in a lot of towns around here you technically need a permit for basically any work that's not considered normal maintenance. I mean seriously, what does the town care if i install a new dishwasher? At least most towns don't get too crazy on the enforcement, unless of course you have neighbors like the OP...then you're screwed

I'll tell you why the town wants to see a permit for that dishwasher. You decide to install it yourself and do a half @ss job,or your appliance company does a poor job. The next year you sell your house and the poorly installed dishwasher starts an electrical fire and burns the house down and kills the new owner and his family. Now, if you are lucky the fire marshal won't figure out that it was your poorly wired dishwasher that started the fire, the same dishwasher that was installed without a permit. Now let's say you did get a permit and the dishwasher was poorly installed. The building inspector should come out and tell you that you cannot use it until you get the installation up to code. So you fix it yourself and bring it up to code, or you call back the installer to make it right. Or you do nothing and the town fines you until you do.

Understand now?

SUCKISSTAPLES said:
You need to mind your own business.

You saw a fence going up and immediately called the township, BEFORE first speaking with the neighbor. Thats not neighborly at all.

BTW this isnt a finance question. Just bc it involves your RE does not make it finance. Seems with all the HOA threads we are now devolving into neighbor disputes?

This isnt Dear Abby

The OP never said he reported it. He said he called the town to ask about it. It very well could have been a general question of "Is a permit needed to do x?" It is entirely possible he gave no identifying information of his or his neighbor's.

Enyin2 said:Jstic said:
Understand now?

Oh I understand perfectly well what they're trying to do, but i guess you and I have differing opinions on the state's role in private affairs. You can make this arguement for everything....perhaps the town should make sure that every time you use the stove that you turn it off afterwards, or that if your girlfriend uses a curling iron that someone should visit the house during the usage to make sure that she doesn't start a fire? There's a line to be drawn here and only personal opinion / political views determine where that line should be. Normal usage of curling irons, space heaters, candles, hotplates, etc, are far more likely to be dangerous or start a fire than your scenario.

My problem with the OP's behavior is that he called the town and is bringing town permits into the situation, when he could have just talked to the neigbor and discussed like a normal pain in the ass neighbor...but he had to take it beyond that and become a nightmare neighbor instead.

My views on this are derived from 20 years experience as a contractor/builder/remodeler. If you could see some of the hack jobs I have seen that are done without proper permits, you would be singing a different tune. We seem to be talking about two different things here, I could care less how you use your hairdryer or curling iron and your town officials could care less than I do. What they do care about is making sure that the electrical system that is in your house, was installed/updated correctly and more importantly, safely. In your world the town would just mind their own business and people and contractors would basically do what they want, without any oversight or regulation. If that world comes to pass, I hope your town has a very good fire department, because they will be very busy. You would be very surprised at how many fires originate from poor, outdated or improperly installed electrical wiring or fixtures.

As far as the OP's situation goes, the purpose for the fence permit is to make sure it complies with the local ordinances in place. Otherwise you would have people building fences all over town that are 12 feet high, erected on other's property, and blow over the first time the wind kicks up. Don't think it doesn't happen because I have seen it. Finally, I don't see anywhere in the OP's posts where he said he reported anything to the town, it sounds more like he contacted the neighbor and helped him out by making him aware of the need for a permit, and may have saved him a fine.