Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Georgia

It looks like you don't want her policing the street, but you want to police her activities on the public street and over vehicles that are not your property either. She may or may not be a lunatic, but you have no more rights that she does with respect to the street. If the owners of the vehicles want to leave her post-it notes, so be it.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Ignore the neighbor and her notes and your blood pressure will go down and you will live longer. There is no need to call the police and you do not have a legal problem.

David,

They say good fences make good neighbors, but you seem to have a different issue. I have heard many variations of the "neighbor from hell" scenario. What you do will be to decide how much this is bothering you. You have to live next to this woman unless one of you want to move. If moving is not an option, you realistically have to find some way of living together peacefully or someone is going to end up dead or in jail and you do not want that to be you in either case.

You have no control over Gladys Kravitz and complaining about it does no good. In a perfect world, this would not happen, but we do not live in a utopia. The police are a waste of time unless an actual crime has been committed. Filing police charges is only going to escalate the situation. Remember, she can file charges against you as well. Do you want this to become a war of filing criminal charges against each other? Unless you are independently wealthy and can afford the legal fees, I would strongly urge you to think about this before going down this route. Some old but wise advice is that you don't want to get into a pissing contest with a skunk because you both come out smelling awful.

Now let us focus on what you can do. One simple solution is just to tell your guests what to expect and ignore her, her notes and her comments and go about your life with good cheer. The best revenge is in living well and not letting her know that she is annoying you. If she learns that things bother you, she will keep doing it as you have seen. Humor her - always smile and go out of your way to be pleasant. It can be pouring rain outside, but if you see her, say aloud what a nice day it is. You will make her battier than she already is. She will be perplexed as her mission is to make you miserable, not happy. It will be fun to play head games with her once you make this a game.

Another solution is to find creative ways to annoy her. Like videotape her whenever she goes outside, play annoying music that she hates (got to watch this - the noise levels cannot exceed that allowed by local ordinance if there is one - you do not want to be cited), plant trees/shrubs she does not like, paint your house Pepto Bismol pink or some other obnoxious color, or fly a flag with a message (the Gadsden Flag is a good choice - it has the snake design and says "don't tread on me" - let her contemplate the hidden message in that) (all of this is providing that you do not live in a community governed by a homeowner's association that prohibits this). Be creative, but make sure that whatever you do does not cause actual damage to her property or person or run afoul of some other law, ordinance or covenant. Other than the homeowner's association covenants or ordinances/laws, you can do what you want on your own property so exercise this option. It will be fun to drive her nuts and watch her slip into more wackiness. With any luck, maybe her kids will send her packing off to the nursing home. Or you can see if she has any children and see if they can reason with her.

There is a third option of trying to make a friend out of her. I am not sure what exactly the problem is but she does not like you. Is there anything at all you can do to overcome that? The granola did not work, but maybe she is just lonely and needs someone to talk to?

You mentioned that "she ruined a potential buyer." Are you sure that the note was what did it? She should be overjoyed that you are leaving so I am not sure why she would do that. I would not disclose this to buyers if this is the case unless you absolutely have to. Talk to your realtor about that to make sure that you will be in compliance with residential real property disclosure laws if you do not tell a prospective buyer about the neighbor. I checked the Georgia fomr and did not see a specific questiont thereon but there was a space of "added disclosures" so I would talk to your realtor. That is why you are paying him or her. Also, knowing the neighbor's proclivities, I would take extra precaution to remove those notes as soon as she plants them on the cars while the potential buyers are engaged in the walkthrough. Have a friend stroll by and remove them if you are showing the house. Or, park elsewhere and let the guests park in your drive.

You do have a legal issue if you can prove that she interfered with a business contract and that solely because of her you lost the sale. The elements of tortious interference with a contract consist of: (1) improper action or wrongful conduct by the defendant without privilege; (2) the defendant acted purposely and with malice with the intent to injure; (3) the defendant induced a breach of a contractual obligation or caused a party or third party to discontinue or fail to enter into an anticipated business relationship with the plaintiff; and (4) the defendant's tortious conduct proximately caused damage to the plaintiff. You may actually have to have an agreement. You can sue for tortious interference with prospective business relations. As recognized by the court, "a cause of action for tortious interference with business relations encompasses interference with a prospective business relationship as well as existing ones, and liability results not only from disruption of the relationship but also from elimination of the injured party's ability to perform. But to establish a cause of action for interference with prospective business relations, plaintiff must demonstrate that absent the interference, those relations were reasonably likely to develop in fact." RENDEN, INC. v. LIBERTY REAL ESTATE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 213 Ga. App. 333 (1994). I have not done exhaustive research on the law, but this should give you an idea.

Litigation is not going to be cheap and you generally have to pay your own legal fees unless another statute or rules will allow recovery. And even where it does, you first have to pay the lawyer and will only get legal fees if you win the case. And even that is uncertain as it may be hard to collect on any judgments. For these reasons, and for the reasons I talked about possibly making the situation worse, a civil suit is something to be used only as a last resort.

I hope this gives you some ideas.