Internet Applauds as Neighbor’s Attempt To Claim 9 Inches of Land Backfires

A Reddit post about a man’s dispute with his neighbor over land has racked up 58,000 upvotes in just three days.

The September 3 post titled, “You want to try to take 9″ of our property? We will take 20′ of yours,” has highlighted the lengths some people will go to prove a point.

“It’s a small, rural neighborhood in the mountains of Arizona. All of the houses are horse properties with 3 to 5 acres. The roads are all dirt and unmaintained,” the man, who uses the handle u/kingofzdom, told Newsweek in comments he later added to the post. He said: “It used to be a very understandable place to live.”

However, recently, a neighbor who hasn’t lived in the area for long was unsatisfied with cars from the man’s household touching his property line.

“He threatened to have our vehicle towed,” he wrote. “So we simply had an actual land survey done and it turned out the property line was a good 20 [inches] into his property.”

He told Newsweek: “We are currently building an ugly fence on the newly surveyed property line.”

“Sometimes, a dispute between neighbors is just the result of a misunderstanding,” states a blog post titled, ‘Top 10 Reasons to Have Your Property Surveyed’, on FindLaw, an online legal information provider. “Confusion over where one property ends and the other begins is why having your property surveyed is a good idea.”

The article says that a primary reason landowners often consult a licensed surveyor is to determine the location of property boundary lines and other relevant markers. These legal boundaries of ownership or occupancy are crucial to know before building a fence, adding a sunroom or paving a driveway.

Other reasons people have their property surveyed include:

• Recording Rights of way, Easements, and Abandoned Roads: Identifying legal access paths or restrictions on the property, such as shared driveways or old, unused roads.
• Discovering Unique Property Responsibilities: Determining any special obligations tied to the property, like maintaining a shared fence or drainage system.
• Assessing Existing Improvements: Verifying that current structures (e.g., buildings, fences) are within the correct boundaries and meet zoning requirements.
• Identifying Utility-Related Features: Locating important utility lines, such as water, gas, or electricity, that may affect future construction or maintenance work.

Reddit Reacts

So far, the popular post has more than 2,100 comments.

“This happens more than people think, especially with older properties,” posted one user, and another wrote: “Please tell me you had a fence put up exactly on that new property line. Like a 50 ft tall fence that blocked the morning sun from his home.”

“A 5 inch fence would be most petty,” added a third commenter.

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