Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer
The United States more and more is becoming a society of haves and have nots. But one principle applies to everyone, across the economic spectrum: It's pretty much impossible to determine who can move in next door to you.
Plenty of Americans live in gated communities or build homes in the midst of vast acreage. But even they cannot prevent a crappy person, or an annoying entity, from buying the adjoining lot.
At its core, our Legal Schnauzer story is about the giant lottery we all play when it comes to neighbors. This blog grew out of the fact Mrs. Schnauzer and I could not control who moved in next door to us. And in the game of chance that plays out in neighborhoods across the country, we were unlucky enough to have a rotten individual become our next-door neighbor.
Our neighbor's name is Mike McGarity, and I have written about him at length on this blog. It's not just our opinion that he's a rotten guy--he's got the criminal record to prove it.
McGarity turned our once peaceful lives upside down. And given the number of Web sites out there about nightmarish neighbors--neighborsfromhell.com, annoyingneighbors.com--we are not alone in coming face to face with this most unpleasant problem.
How to fight back? Well, we tried the courts--after all, there are plenty of laws designed to protect your right to the quiet enjoyment of your property. But many courts around the country are corrupt, and many law enforcement agencies are inept, so legal remedies are likely to just make your problem worse. That certainly happened in our case.
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