Or am I just mad? Any suggestions appreciated. In addition to my neighbor, the school and the people doing the work, I'm sending it to our attorney and the police department.
To all of you,
The Smiths and Franks School use the Joness to hay their properties on Main Street in Parks. Our property is in between these properties.
The Johnsons have owned this property at Main St in Parks since 1966. When the house of one of the Joness' burned down 50 years ago or so, William remembers his mother, Mary Johnson, assisting the family by looking after their children.
We moved here to take care of Mary and the property at her request. Shortly afterward she received a terminal diagnosis. She has since passed.
The Smiths moved here less than a year before we arrived.
Early on, Jane saw someone haying our property. She called the police and was told that we had to find out who it was and send him a letter stating that he was trespassing before the police could do anything. She thought that it was Franks School and called the barn. The woman there said that he was Bill Jones who worked for them and gave her Joe Jones's phone number. Joe Jones seemed confused that Jane was saying that it was our property and said that it was the Smiths' property. She called the Smiths. Paul was unhappy that she had called Joe and said that we needed to talk to him in the future. Paul then stated that he had authorized the planting of hay and harvesting of it by the Joness on our property. Mary Johnson stated that she knew nothing of this arrangement.
It then became clear that the Joness were crossing from Franks School to the Smiths' using our property even though there is absolutely no reason to do so. The Smiths have plenty of room next to their house for a tractor and associated equipment to go by.
We authorized the haying to continue for the next two years because we were busy taking care of Mary. When we were ready to begin our own projects on our property, we told the Smiths to stop. The work continued in spite of this. Jane put a chicken coop in the field and Bill Jones ran into it with a tractor, causing damage.
We thought that if we hired the Joness to do what we wanted on the property, it would keep the peace. Bill Jones refused to speak to us so we asked someone to speak to him. Bill hayed our field once and charged an outrageous amount of money so we asked to plow the field under. We were told that he refused and he continued to hay our property without our permission. At this point, we informed the Smiths that the Joness were not welcome on our property in any way shape or form.
The Joness continued to use our property to cross between Franks School and the Smiths. They consistently trespassed to mow. Franks School took no responsibility for this nor did the Smiths. Efforts to block access to our property resulted in vandalism and theft. We retained Bob King in 2015 to send two cease and desist letters, of which one (to the Smiths) was completed. The Joness stopped haying our property after that.
On Saturday, September 1, 2018, the Joness mowed down an entire pollinator garden on our property while haying the Smiths' field. The Smiths were not home and the phone numbers we had were not connecting so Jane went to the Franks School barn to find out who had hayed that day. She was given Joe Jones's number. Joe claimed that he was sure it was a mistake and agreed to reimburse the $40 of seed Jane had put down earlier in the season.
Here's the thing though. These are not mistakes. This is 14 years of egregious behavior on the part of all of the parties involved.
To date, in addition to the chicken coop damage and the seeds and plants they just mowed down, the Joness, Franks School and / or Smiths have damaged, destroyed or taken the following:
Stakes from two surveys bordering both sides of our property with Franks School and Smiths (approximately $2100)
An apple tree sapling planted on the boundary with Franks School ($90)
Two No Trespassing signs ($4)
Trees removed.
Hay taken without compensation 2-3 times a year for approximately five years.
The retainer for Mr King was $2000.
Attempts to work with Franks School have failed completely. In fact, we have called out Steve, the grounds person, twice just to deal with huge trees that have fallen onto our backyard from the Franks School property only to be told that 1.) he didn't know if that was actually Franks School property and 2.) he didn't have any money anyway. It cost us $1200 to remove both of those trees.
This is what we're working with:
Joe Jones says it's all a big mistake.
Smiths say they didn't do it so it's not their fault.
Franks School doesn't even know where their property is.
Meanwhile, Bill Jones mowed down the stakes on our property line while Jane was standing there taking pictures then he turned around and drove his tractor back to Franks School using our property to do so when Jane tried to confront him.
You are all contending that none of this is your fault or responsibility. That it's all just a big "whatever" while we have insurance liability for the Joness using our property between Franks School and Smiths. That it's fine to sabotage our efforts to use our land to our advantage while we pay taxes on it. That it's just hunky dory to sit back and relax while you take no responsibility whatsoever for your actions.
We're done.
Joe Jones and Bill Jones and the employees of Jones Corporation - you are hereby officially notified that if either of us catches you trespassing on our property again, we will call the authorities and prosecute. Why? Because you never asked. Because you took instruction from the Smiths who don't own the property. You're welcome for Mary's help by the way. Nice payback. Good luck finding the cameras.
Paul and Susan Smith - over the years Susan (White) Smith has demanded on three separate occasions that we pay her $10,000 to do work on our property. Jane has been clear verbally but it's best to put it in writing and now seems like a good opportunity. We have no intention of hiring you for anything. Ever. Under any name. Paul, we know that you don't like how our immediate backyard looks. Get used to it. We blew our landscaping budget on getting you guys and the Joness off of our property (mostly) and clearing the fallen Franks School trees. $5500 or so would have gone a really long way toward making it all look absolutely gorgeous. Now Jane has to do it herself and she runs our company which takes time so too bad. She'll get to it when she gets to it.
Franks School - Seriously. Figure out what's yours and what isn't. How completely irresponsible are you? Did I mention that years ago your horseback riding instructor asked if she could ride her class down our driveway to get to the Smiths' property? Because they were already using our property out back! Or that a bunch of your people descended on my backyard to get a "runner" and stood around talking like they owned the place? Get a survey done and pass out maps to your employees since they have no clue. Meanwhile, the Joness are using your property to gain access to ours. Have a chat with them. Like, right now would be good. Strongly consider putting up a gate on that road near the river. It's ours. So is the immediate property beyond it. That would go a long way toward goodwill. And the cigarette butts and packages. OMG. Put trash cans on your properties. That's not what the driveways and lawns on Main Street are for. Disgusting.
Bob - Please file this letter and note that homeadvisor.com lists Jones Corporation as having been in existence since 2010.
Parks Police Department - Please take notice. None of these people are welcome on our property. It extends behind our house back to the river. They have been duly notified. Thank you.
Here's what's going to happen next. If anything is done to the stakes in the field by anyone other than us, we will file police reports, then we will begin systematically installing tall metal poles set in concrete along the property line with barbed wire strung between them and the largest No Trespassing signs we can find. We will bill all of you accordingly.
This is our property. Not yours. As Jane once said to that woman at the Franks School barn: "How would you feel if I went to your house and started horseback riding lessons in your backyard?" We can't imagine what your logic is. Any of you.