I rent. And I have the most remote cottage on the property. The neighbour to my north, has a 6 foot wall, with an electric fence on top of it. AND a fence next to the wall as well, that curves around the wall to his side.
He doesn’t maintain the thing. The weeds grow waist high inbetween the fence and the wall. So my landlord sprays it with weed killer, and they droop and die, and make the fence arc all over the show.
The wires he used to put up the isolater thingies, are rusting, and that causes the fence to arc too.
His cannas grow over the wall, dies, droops over the fence. Rinse and repeat.
I had my landlord phone him to make a plan.
I left him my businesscard, asking him to call me, which he did. I explained the problem. Nothing got done.
Now, I sleep with a pillow over my head, since the sound of electricity snapping all night long, is annoying. I only have free tv, and the electric discharge from all the different spots that arc, has made watching the tellie impossible. Havent even bothered to put it on for three months.
now, how do i approach this douche, and if he still does nothing, what are my rights as a neighbour.
and how have you dealt with an asshole neighbour, or his kids?
Eish, neighbours from hell… Aside from nagging the landlord to sort out the problems, I dont have advice for you. I think everybody has a horror story about neighbours, I’ve lived next to an alcoholic who took great pleasure in beating his wife and kid every weekend, that was probably the worst one. Aside from calling the cops and getting to be on first name basis with them, it didnt help, I eventually moved. I’ve had animal problems with neighbours too, and regularly took dogs to the SPCA, only to have them harassing the neighbourhood again a few days later.
Not the best idea, but this is the pissed off version of me. Get a insulated set of wire cutters and snip them. He probably won’t notice. To be even nastier, find out what would trip his breakers, probably just a piece of metal that is too heavy to be moved when it shorts.
I doubt you could get the fence to trip his power, an elec-fence auto-trips about once a second, hence the regular spark noise. It has built-in stuff to prevent shorts, etc. from causing problems. BUT if it gets upset enough it may sound an alarm and/or stop functioning (it’ll still try to energise the fence about once a sec and fail every time, some may start beeping loudly at this point).
Personally I’d have a go at grounding (to a steel pole or something) the noisy wire (at night you should easily be able to spot the spark), so the path of least resistance isn’t through the gap of air. This would require proper high-tension insulating rubber gloves, and something that conducts. But it wouldn’t look like an accident, so you may have to be inventive.
sorry okes, i’m dof with electricity.
what is the aim of what i’m trying to achieve?
there are several spots where it shorts. loudly.
it’s a mission to reach to fence, as my beloved landlord has a mangy fence about 30cms from the electric fence. i can juuust stick my hand through the welded fence. i doubt the fence is connected to any form of alarm. a tree branch has fallen on it, and has been sitting there for a few days allready, and the touching wires makes no difference to him.
would having two wires touch, either by pushing a pole over, or breaking an isolator, would that cause the fence to malfunction? and stop making an everloving noise?
Throw a length of wire that has been stripped of its insulation over the electric fence’s wires. You can weight each end of the stripped wire with a small rock. (Your wire doesn’t need to be thick or strong because while the voltage is very high, the current is negligible.) This works best if your wire is long enough to touch all of the electric fence’s wires and the ground as well. Be careful not to have your wire in your hand when it hits the fence, or to touch it once it’s in place. This action will short out the fence and an alarm may be triggered, so perhaps it’s best doing it when it’s dark.
Do it often enough and your neighbour should get the message and do something about the problem.
When I was a farmer (long time ago) I decided to install electric fencing to control the animals. Installed it on a rainy day so the soil and grass was wet. Testing it to see if it was working by touching it with the back of my hand - very fast. Nothing was happening for about 5 times so I took hold of the wire. 10,000 volts later I drove into town to buy myself a tester. DO NOT TOUCH IT!!!
i’ve gotten zapped a few times, trying to pull weeds and grass from underneath it. which would have been fine on it’s own. but my hand is stuck through another fence, so you involuntarily pull your hand back. and plenty of epidermis is left behind.
I have enjoyed all the “arms-escalation” suggestions but are they strategies with a likely positive outcome?
Is the boring re-attempting communications along these guidelines not likely to work? (Hint: requiring evidence like conflict resolution studies or some such)
I admit I would probably be too chicken-shit to sabotage my neighbours fence and if I somehow managed to do it, I would then feel guilty. Must be that early moral catholic nurturing that is inhibiting me 0:)
Have you tried catching the neighbour when they leave or arrive to/from work?
From that one site the suggestion is “If safety is not an issue, it is best to talk with your neighbour face-to-face”.
This way they don’t have the excuse of never having “seen” the letter. You know how often letters get blown away in the wind, stolen, eaten by the cat …
he works for himself, and in the two years i have lived there, i had seen him only once at his gate. i cant even remember what he looks like. the landlord doesnt have a good thing to say about him, and the landlord in general is quite useless.
If all attempts to contact him fail (no business phone number?) then:
“You can write a formal letter that details the problem and why it can’t be tolerated. If your neighbor is breaking any city law, tell him why this is not acceptable. Gather signatures from other neighbours, and landlord, if the issue is something that affects more than just you.”
Give deadline in the letter then follow up by calling the police.
I do not advise damaging his property as this will weaken your position.
i’ll see. dont know how much of a legal footing i have. if all else fails, i will give the local fire dept a call and hear what is the status on sparking fences and fire hazards.
my landlord is a spineless git, and that particular piece of fence is literally next to my cottage only. which is why landlord gives a crap. he is busier stealing my dogs away from me, which is a story for another day.
the neighbours behind me, their house is far away not to hear anything, and the guy who lives across from me, is a fat little greasy beta tester, and some people can sleep through a nuclear attack. everybody else is too far away to hear the constant snapping.
i have left my business card on the bloke’s fence, asking him to call me, which he did, and i explained the problem, and he said he will have it looked at, which hasnt happened in a week. in my mind, if someone tells you that your fence is keeping them from their sleep, you make a plan, and soon.