{"id":6970,"date":"2026-07-22T06:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T06:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=6970"},"modified":"2026-07-22T06:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T06:51:30","slug":"my-neighbor-reported-my-fence-for-being-two-inches-too-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=6970","title":{"rendered":"MY NEIGHBOR REPORTED MY FENCE FOR BEING TWO INCHES TOO HIGH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My neighbor’s confidence vanished.<\/p>\n

“What do you mean?” she asked, forcing a laugh. “You’re here because of his<\/em> fence.”<\/p>\n

The inspector remained polite.<\/p>\n

“I noticed a few things while I was measuring the property line. Since I’m already here, I’m required to document any obvious code issues.”<\/p>\n

Her face tightened.<\/p>\n

“There aren’t any.”<\/p>\n

“We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

He walked toward the side of her house.<\/p>\n

The first thing he examined was a newly built shed sitting only a few feet from the property line.<\/p>\n

He measured the distance twice.<\/p>\n

Then he wrote something in his notebook.<\/p>\n

“What was that?” she asked.<\/p>\n

“The setback doesn’t appear to meet city requirements.”<\/p>\n

She immediately protested.<\/p>\n

“The previous owner built it!”<\/p>\n

The inspector nodded.<\/p>\n

“That may be true, but the current property owner is responsible for bringing it into compliance.”<\/p>\n

She didn’t answer.<\/p>\n

Then he looked up.<\/p>\n

A section of her gutter emptied directly into the neighboring yard, creating a muddy ditch that crossed onto another property.<\/p>\n

Another note.<\/p>\n

He continued walking.<\/p>\n

Near the back fence, he stopped beside a large fire pit.<\/p>\n

“Have you obtained a permit for this installation?”<\/p>\n

She blinked.<\/p>\n

“A permit?”<\/p>\n

“If it’s a permanent structure, one is required.”<\/p>\n

Her voice became noticeably quieter.<\/p>\n

“I… didn’t know that.”<\/p>\n

The inspector made another note.<\/p>\n

By then, several neighbors had wandered outside, pretending to water plants or collect their mail.<\/p>\n

Everyone was watching.<\/p>\n

The woman who had spent weeks criticizing everyone else’s homes suddenly found herself answering uncomfortable questions.<\/p>\n

Finally, the inspector closed his notebook.<\/p>\n

“I’m afraid I’ll need to issue notices for three separate violations.”<\/p>\n

Her eyes widened.<\/p>\n

“Three?”<\/p>\n

He nodded.<\/p>\n

“The shed setback, the drainage issue, and the unpermitted fire pit.”<\/p>\n

She looked as though she might cry.<\/p>\n

“But… I was the one who called about the fence.”<\/p>\n

“And we investigated your complaint,” he replied professionally. “Your neighbor’s fence is fully compliant.”<\/p>\n

She stood speechless.<\/p>\n

The inspector handed her the paperwork.<\/p>\n

“You’ll have sixty days to correct these issues. The instructions are included.”<\/p>\n

After he left, the street fell silent.<\/p>\n

I turned to walk back toward my house.<\/p>\n

“Wait,” she called after me.<\/p>\n

I stopped.<\/p>\n

“I’m… sorry.”<\/p>\n

I looked at her.<\/p>\n

“For what?”<\/p>\n

She took a deep breath.<\/p>\n

“I guess I got carried away.”<\/p>\n

I nodded but didn’t say anything.<\/p>\n

She continued.<\/p>\n

“When I moved here, I wanted everything to be perfect. I thought if everyone followed every little rule, I’d feel more at home.”<\/p>\n

“And did it work?”<\/p>\n

She looked around the quiet neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“No.”<\/p>\n

Over the next few weeks, I noticed a change.<\/p>\n

The complaints stopped.<\/p>\n

Instead of watching everyone through her front window, she spent weekends fixing the drainage problem and relocating the shed with the help of a contractor.<\/p>\n

One Saturday morning, she knocked on my door.<\/p>\n

I half expected another complaint.<\/p>\n

Instead, she held out a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies.<\/p>\n

“I figured this was a better way to introduce myself.”<\/p>\n

I laughed.<\/p>\n

“I think so too.”<\/p>\n

A month later, the inspector returned for a final review.<\/p>\n

Everything on her property had been corrected.<\/p>\n

As he drove away, she walked over to my fence.<\/p>\n

“You know,” she admitted with a smile, “it’s actually a nice fence.”<\/p>\n

“It always was.”<\/p>\n

She laughed.<\/p>\n

“I know.”<\/p>\n

From that day forward, we weren’t close friends, but we became good neighbors.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we’d chat while bringing in the trash cans.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we’d wave from our driveways.<\/p>\n

And every now and then, we’d joke about the fence that wasn’t two inches too high\u2014but turned out to be exactly the lesson both of us needed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My neighbor’s confidence vanished. “What do you mean?” she asked, forcing a laugh. “You’re here because of his fence.” The inspector remained polite. “I noticed a few things while I was measuring the property line. Since I’m already here, I’m required to document any obvious code issues.” Her face tightened. “There aren’t any.” “We’ll see.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6971,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6970\/revisions\/6971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}