Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Hi

I have a crazy neighbor.

I rent an apartment (duplex) and have been here for close to 10 years. I am one of the only people (both renters and owners) who takes pride in my yard. I have flowers, rose bushes, an herb garden and a few container veggies. I do what I can to keep the place looking nice, which is more than most people who live here. It's a nice neighborhood, but there are a lot of rentals, and renters don't *do* things to their place except live. So I'm already going over and above, which is why this situation is annoying.

However since I rent, obviously there are things I don't care to get involved in, like climbing the tree in the backyard and trimming it, etc. This is because it's dangerous and a hassle. The landlord does very, very little and that's how it's always been with this property. We have a gardener who is paid by the (offsite) landlord to take care of the lawn. He and I kind of work together.

The duplex next door has an onsite landlord. She lives in the back unit. She's nosy and I feel she invades our privacy continually. Besides spying on us through her windows (I know this because I feel I'm being watched and have actually caught her a few times), she has actually come into our yard to trim our bushes 1.5 years ago. The old gardener wasn't doing a very good job, so I let that situation slide off my back, although I was quite annoyed.

However, I know she instructs the new gardener on what to do in our yard. I should mention that she insists upon hiring the same gardener as us. When the old one was fired, she fired him too and hired our new gardener. So it's like the poor guy is caught in the middle and she's very convincing at getting people to do what she wants them to do. (A Svengali-type.) While she gives him orders for her yard, she throws in things like "tear out that Juniper in front of their house." (Not exact words). And he did.

This sounds weird, I know. That's because it is and probably why I feel so annoyed. Part of it comes from our landlord who takes no responsibility for the property.

I've had conversations with the gardener instructing him to take our instructions - period. He's to do what we want, etc., not what the neighbors want. He's a nice guy, but meek and probably doesn't want to make waves, etc. - or lose any accounts.

Anyway, last week we were gone for a few days, returning on Wednesday. We were not home when the gardener was here.

Saturday, I was in the back yard, looked up the hill and noticed that six feet of landscaping was missing, leaving a gaping hole in the hedge in back of our house, creating a spot that is not only unsightly, but completely removes the privacy barrier from the house in back. We live in an area where the houses are close together, so this is a real issue.

I will speak to the gardener tomorrow to see if he did it. If he didn't, she was over here in our yard while we were gone.

Either way - whether she told him to do it or whether she did it herself, I feel violated.

This has got to be illegal in some way. However, since we are renters, I have no idea what rights we have. I know I can't prove anything, either.

What she does is very covert, cunning and shrewd. In the past, she has made it known that we are "less important" because we don't pay property taxes. This lady is infuriating.

Also, instead of going through our landlord and having the landlord authorize/orchestrate any projects that need done, she bypasses everyone. This occurs because in the past, our landlord has blown her off. Mainly because they take no responsibility, but also because she is obviously neurotic.

Examples of other things she's done: Last fall, she kept bringing our garbage cans in before we got home from work. This means she had to go into our backyard to put them away. Of course it's done as a "friendly" gesture, but it's creepy. She's also used a ladder to climb the fence in back and look in our backyard. I caught her doing that one day. She made a big stink over our bird feeders as a result and we had to take them down. In the past I've told her to stop these things because it made me feel uncomfortable. Between you and me, when she's on her rampages and doing her thing, her actions make me feel "stalked."

She is quite arrogant and thinks she owns everyone, if you've ever heard of a neighbor like that. Again, I'm the one person on the street who takes care of things, and while they may not be absolutely perfect, her actions are insulting.

I would love to get a restraining order on her or something, although I probably won't do anything - I'll just end up moving.

However, I would like to know what my rights are and what I can do to stop her from invading our privacy like she does. This thing she did while we were gone has me pretty upset right now.

Thank you.

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