"James" wrote in
:

Yes. We agree on the neighbors but you talk as if this should maybe be
a legal case. Now I ask you, is a bloody vine worth the trouble of
time and money for the creeps that live next door. There are a number
of ways that the "problem could be handled". The simplest being to rip
the damn vine out in the first place and plant a bush when the canoe
comes back (and it probably will if not something worse). Neighbors
(at least a lot of them) love to moan and bitch about another neighbor
and a private "one-upmanship" begins. Those would be more fun to keep
tabs on rather than legal ones. Yeah, yeah, we are a llitigious
society but this doesn't even measure up to Judge Judy.

I don't think it should be a court case, however, the subject is
"Legal/Ethical Dilemma", not "how do I handle my unseemly neighbor".
However, if it comes that then it pays to be on the law's side. To
answer your question, if I like the vine, then I don't really care what
the neighbors think as long as I am not being unreasonable. Unreasonable
being if I planted an invasive vine that crawls all over the place,
destroys their property or eats their children or anything that otherwise
does not CMA legally.

What Michelle should do IMO is either get rid of the vine and do
something else or create a smiling type war of irksome antics like
erecting a board fence with the other side painted a flourescent
color. That kind of stuff. Make the creep paint the thing, thinking he
is getting even. Now THAT'S entertainment for the whole neighborhood
and she will make many friends for those holiday parties.

Fortunately I don't think Michelle is the type to be so petulant as to
bother to paint the neighbor's side of a new fence a fluorescent color.
At any rate, if she wanted to be spiteful, then why would choose your
first option and remove the vine? It's her fence. her vine. If the
neighbors have a problem with it, then it's their problem. If they
decide to spitefully ripe out the vine, then Michelle can take legal
action or she can move on. Of course if she wanted to waste her time
with little Mickey Mouse games, she could do that too. To be blunt, if
you think that painting a fence one color in order to induce a neighbor
to paint it a different color is anything other than stupid, then you
need to grow up.