It is very unfortunate that good people often end up living next door to the “neighbor from hell,†which I’ll abbreviate as NFH. This NFH fights wrongly over boundary lines, road easements, view easements, survey markers, tree branches overhanging the boundary line, set backs, and on and on. I use the word “wrongly” because the NFH is not dealing with the facts truthfully.What is really quite amazing is that the behavior of the NFH is incredibly predictable. You don’t have to be a psychologist to recognize an amazingly consistent pattern of behavior over 20 years of practicing law.
Here is the consistent Profile of the Neighbor From Hell:
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He is arrogant.
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He is aggressive.
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He is completely self-absorbed.
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He is an intimidator.
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He is obnoxious.
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He is totally unconcerned about any neighbor.
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The only thing that matters is that he can do what he wants.
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The rights of a neighbor are irrelevant to him.
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He will violate local zoning regulations and building codes without hesitation, but will report a neighbor immediately for any violation.
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He will lie and misrepresent facts to government officials or a judge.
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His wife is normally his doormat and has been for a long marriage.
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He will create nuisances for his neighbors and completely reject any polite requests to stop.
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He is a master manipulator.
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He has a PhD. in street smarts.
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He will always retain an attorney who is also obnoxious and will misrepresent the facts boldly in court.
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He is NOT reasonable or rational.
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He will NOT be reasoned with.
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He will often do things that good neighbors would never even think of doing, such as poisoning strawberry plants in the dark, removing survey markers when no one is around, shooting potted plants with a pellet gun, poisoning fruit trees with salt stakes, sending in pornographic magazine subscriptions for elderly female neighbors as though the subscriptions came from the ladies, stealing mail, putting large stones in one’s driveway, pouring paint in the driveway puddles, driving a vehicle over one’s new lawn and spinning out to leave damage, throwing beer bottles and other garbage over the fence, plugging up one’s irrigation line to cause flooding, tearing down one’s fence in the dark, letting the air out of a vehicle’s tires, and on and on and on. All of these scenarios come from actual cases I handled.
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He is a master at playing mind games, obviously.
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He thrives on ugly conflict, although he pretends not to.
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He is willing to spend thousands on attorney’s fees to satisfy his perverse whims in a fight with a good neighbor.
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He knows that judges do not understand that such dysfunctional behavior can be covered up with an honest and perfectly polite disposition in the court room. After all, he has been fooling people for his whole life, and it has been working the vast majority of the time. Judges are very easy to fool, although they pretend to be wise on such matters.
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His behavior is rewarded the majority of the time, and so he is boldly confident that he will once again win. And he often does.
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He knows good people often give up the fight early or before the end.
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He will trick his neighbor by saying or doing one thing and later completely denying that he ever said or did such a thing, and there are never any witnesses to support the good neighbor.
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His lies under oath are incredibly good, because they are lengthy, full of detail, supported by multiple consistent lies, and are stated with persuasive apparent honesty and openness. See Example.
Should you ever have to deal with a neighbor from hell, it is absolutely critical that your attorney understand human behavior and psychology enough to know how to deal with this kind of opponent. Simply dealing with a NFH from a purely factual and legal basis will cause you tremendous frustration, and a lot more legal fees than necessary.
The solution is not just legal. The solution is half psychology and have legal. It is unfortunate that there is no mention of human behavior or psychology in law school or in the continuing legal education courses required by State bar associations. Isn’t that interesting?
More Resources:
Neighbor Blocks Easement With Gate
Neighbor Installs Speed Bump on Shared Easement
Neighbor Drives Across Property Without Permission
How to Deal With the Neighbor
Last Updated on September 1, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
