Resolving a Dispute with Your Neighbor: A Practical Guide

Summary. The order of operations, and why it is the order.

Before you do anything

Three questions, answered honestly, will save you thousands of dollars.

What do you actually want? Not "justice." A specific outcome. The dog to stop barking at 5:30. The fence moved. The water diverted. The camera pointed elsewhere. To be paid $1,900 for the shrubs. Write it in one sentence. If you cannot, you are not ready to do anything yet.

What is it worth? In money, and in mornings. A boundary case costs $15,000 to $40,000 and eighteen months, and at the end of it you still live there. Some disputes are worth that. Most are not, and the honest calculation is the beginning of a good decision rather than a failure of nerve.

Are you sure you're right? People are confidently wrong about neighbor law more than about almost any other subject. The fence is probably not the line. You probably cannot stop them from blocking your view. You probably cannot cut that tree. Find out before you act, because several of the mistakes here are expensive and irreversible.

Part one: the conversation

Most neighbor disputes end here, and the ones that do not are much easier to handle if you tried.

Timing. Not while it is happening. Not while you are angry. A Saturday morning, at the door, is better than a shouted exchange across a yard at 11 p.m.

One thing. Bring one specific issue, not a list. A list is an indictment, and people defend against indictments.

Open with the problem, not the demand. "The dog starts barking around 5:30 and it wakes my daughter. I wanted to mention it before it turned into a thing." That sentence gives them a way to help you. "You need to do something about your dog" gives them a way to refuse.

Ask what they think. They may know something — the dog is out because of a new work schedule; the water problem started when the city redid the culvert; the fence was there when they bought.

Propose something concrete and modest. "Would it work if he stayed in until seven?" People agree to specific small things and resist general large ones.

Offer to share a cost. The single most effective sentence in neighbor law is "I'd be happy to split it." Half of a $900 tree removal is cheaper than any other path in this guide.

Then write down what was agreed — a friendly email that same day, no legal language: "Good talking today — just so I remember, you're going to bring him in by 7 and I'll trim the hedge back on my side this fall. Thanks again." That is a record and it does not feel like one.

If they refuse, do not escalate in the moment. Say you understand and you will think about it. Leave. What you say next should be in writing.

Part two: the letter

Short, factual, dated, specific, and unemotional. It does two jobs: it frequently works, and if it does not, it is the exhibit showing you were reasonable.

What it must contain:

What the problem is, factually and specifically — with dates. Not "constant noise." "On August 3, 7, 9, and 14, between 5:20 and 6:10 a.m."
The effect — one sentence, no melodrama.
What you have already done — the conversation on [date].
What you are asking for — concrete and achievable.
A date for a response.
An offer, if you have one — to share a cost, to do part of the work, to meet.
A calm statement of what is next — that you would prefer to resolve it directly, and that you will otherwise contact [code enforcement / animal control / your attorney].

What it must not contain: insults, history, a list of everything they have ever done, threats of anything you will not do, or legal citations you do not understand.

How to send it. Email is fine and creates a timestamp. For anything you may litigate, send a paper copy by a method that proves delivery as well. Keep a copy of everything, always.

Tone. Write it, then wait a day, then take out the two sentences you enjoyed writing most. Those are the ones that will be read aloud in court.

Part three: documentation

This is the part that decides outcomes, and it costs almost nothing.

Photographs

Dated. Turn on the timestamp or photograph a newspaper.
In context and in detail. A wide shot showing where it is, then the close-up.
With a measurement in frame for anything spatial. A tape measure next to an encroachment is worth more than a paragraph.
Repeatedly, over time, for anything that is getting worse.
From your own property. Do not trespass to document a trespass.

The log

For anything recurring — noise, animals, smoke, lights, traffic — a log is the entire case.

Date	Start	Stop	Duration	What	Effect	Evidence
8/3	5:22 a.m.	6:08 a.m.	46 min	Continuous barking, rear yard	Woke household	audio_0803.m4a

Why it works. Code enforcement, animal control, and courts act on documented, ordinance-specific, dated records. They ignore "it happens all the time." Six weeks of log entries showing nineteen violations of a fifteen-minute ordinance is a citation. A phone call saying the dog barks a lot is nothing.

The survey

If the boundary is at issue, get a boundary survey with monuments set and a signed, sealed plat. Not a mortgage inspection. Not a location survey. A few hundred to a few thousand dollars, and it is the cheapest thing you will buy in a boundary dispute.

Walk the corners with the surveyor. Keep the plat.

The expert

A tree → a certified arborist. Written assessment of health, hazard, value, and, after damage, restoration cost.
Water → a civil engineer. What changed, what it did, what it would cost to fix.
A structure → a licensed contractor or engineer. Cost to remedy.
Noise → in some cases a sound-level reading, which some code enforcement offices will do free.

A few hundred dollars of expert opinion attached to a letter changes the response more than pages of argument.

Part four: the free enforcement machinery

This is the most underused resource in neighbor law. It is free, it is fast, it is anonymous in many jurisdictions, and it produces an official record that becomes evidence.

Code enforcement — junk, debris, inoperable vehicles, tall grass, unpermitted construction, property maintenance, illegal occupancy. Call the city or county code enforcement office. Ask what ordinance applies and what the process is.

Animal control — barking, at-large animals, dangerous dogs, numerical limits. Bring the log.

Noise enforcement — police or code enforcement, depending on the jurisdiction. Read the ordinance first. Many are decibel-based by zone and hour; many use "plainly audible at the property line." Knowing which one applies determines what your log needs to show.

Zoning — a business run from a residence, an illegal apartment, an unpermitted structure, a setback violation. Enforcement is complaint-driven almost everywhere, which means nothing happens until someone complains.

Health department — sewage, standing water, vermin, hoarding conditions.

Building department — work without a permit. A stop-work order arrives fast.

Public works — drainage in the right-of-way, culverts, street trees.

The HOA, if there is one. Covenants frequently reach further than any ordinance, and the association has notice, hearing, fine, and sometimes lien authority. Write, cite the specific covenant, and ask what the process and timeline are.

How to complain effectively: identify the specific ordinance or covenant, give the address, give dates, attach photographs, and ask for the case number. Then follow up on the case number.

Part five: mediation

Community mediation programs exist in most counties, are frequently free, and work better on neighbor disputes than on almost anything else.

Why. The parties have a continuing relationship they cannot exit. The real interests are usually about respect and predictability rather than money. And a mediated agreement can include things a court cannot order — a schedule, a maintenance arrangement, a communication protocol, a plan for the next time.

Where to find it: the court clerk, the city or county government, the bar association, a community dispute resolution center.

How to use it well:

Go in knowing your one-sentence outcome
Bring the documentation, not the grievance
Be willing to trade something
Ask for the agreement in writing and signed
For anything involving land — a boundary, an easement, an encroachment — get it recorded, or it does not bind the next owner

Part six: court

Which court

Small claims for money — a damaged fence, killed plantings, a repair bill, cleanup costs. Limits run from a few thousand to $25,000 depending on the state. No lawyer needed, modest fees, weeks rather than years. But small claims generally cannot issue an injunction, so it cannot make something stop.

Superior/circuit/district court for an injunction, quiet title, declaratory relief on a boundary, or anything above the small claims limit. Slower and far more expensive.

What to bring

The photographs, dated
The log
The survey and plat
The expert report
Your letters and any response
The ordinance or covenant
The code enforcement case numbers and any citations
Receipts and estimates — two estimates for anything you want repaired
A one-page chronology

What judges respond to

Specificity, restraint, and a documented attempt to resolve it. A plaintiff who talked, wrote, documented, complained to code enforcement, and tried mediation is a sympathetic plaintiff. One who sued first is not, and it shows in the ruling.

Ask for something a court can grant. "Make them be reasonable" is not an order. "Enjoin the defendant from operating power equipment before 8 a.m. on weekends" is.

Part seven: the agreements that actually end things

The best outcomes in neighbor law are documents, not judgments.

The written license

The single most valuable paragraph in this guide.

If a neighbor is using part of your land — parking on the corner, a shed over the line, a driveway that clips your parcel — give written, revocable permission.

"Dear [neighbor]: You are welcome to continue [using the northeast corner of my lot for parking / maintaining the shed at the rear of your lot as currently located]. This is permission only, revocable by me at any time on thirty days' written notice, and it is not intended to create or transfer any property right. — [Signature, date]"

Permission defeats adverse possession and prescriptive easement, because both require use without permission. One paragraph, delivered and kept, prevents your neighbor from acquiring your land by using it for twenty years. It is also friendly rather than hostile, which is why it works socially as well as legally.

The boundary line agreement

Where a line is genuinely uncertain or where a long-standing fence differs from the deed, adjoining owners can agree on the boundary, sign, notarize, and record it.

Why it beats litigation: it costs a few thousand dollars instead of tens of thousands, takes weeks instead of years, produces certainty instead of a probability, and makes both parcels marketable — which is worth more to both owners than the disputed strip.

Get a surveyor to prepare the legal descriptions and a lawyer to review. Then record it.

The easement or maintenance agreement

For shared driveways, access easements, and shared walls or fences, a recorded agreement stating who maintains what, who pays what share, how decisions are made, and what happens on a sale prevents years of argument.

Most recorded easements say nothing about maintenance, which is why so many of these disputes exist.

The settlement agreement

For anything resolved after a real dispute, put it in writing: what each party will do, by when, who pays, and — if it involves land — record it. Include a provision about what happens if someone does not perform.

Part eight: playbooks by problem

Each of these assumes you have already tried the conversation. Each ends with the cheapest thing that usually works.

Noise

Read the ordinance. Decibel-based by zone and hour, or "plainly audible at the property line"? This determines everything your log must show.
Log it. Date, start, stop, duration, description. Six weeks is plenty.
Record from inside your own home, with a visible timestamp. Do not go onto their property.
Write, citing the ordinance and the specific dates and times.
Call the enforcement agency — police or code enforcement — while it is happening, every time. A pattern of dispatch records is a case.
Ask code enforcement whether they will take a sound-level reading. Many will, free.
Cheapest fix that usually works: the log plus a citation. Repeat citations with escalating fines change behavior faster than lawsuits.

A tree you want to trim

Check the local tree ordinance. Many require a permit above a certain trunk diameter, on any property, with substantial fines.
Check whether the trunk straddles the line. If it does, you generally cannot remove or seriously damage it without consent.
Hire a certified arborist, and get a written scope stating the work will not damage the tree.
Trim to the property line only. Do not reach over.
Be careful with roots — severing structural roots on your side can kill a tree ten feet away and make you liable for all of it.
Cheapest fix that usually works: offer to split the removal cost. Half of $900 beats every other outcome in this section.

A tree that fell, or was cut

Photograph everything immediately — the stump, the debris, the damage, the site.
Get a certified arborist's appraisal, using a recognized valuation method.
Look up your state's timber trespass statute. Double or treble damages are common, and the measure is frequently restoration cost, not land diminution.
Check your homeowner's policy — damage where a tree lands is generally the landing property's own coverage.
If it fell: was it known to be hazardous? Prior written notice converts an act of God into negligence.
Cheapest fix that usually works: an arborist's appraisal attached to a demand letter. The number is usually far larger than the neighbor expects and settles quickly.

A boundary you doubt

Get a boundary survey with monuments set and a signed, sealed plat.
Walk the corners with the surveyor.
Find out how long the current condition has existed — this determines whether acquiescence or adverse possession has run.
Do not move anything until you have advice.
If the neighbor's surveyor disagrees, that is a real dispute — consider a third surveyor.
Cheapest fix that usually works: a recorded boundary line agreement. A few thousand dollars, five weeks, certainty, and both parcels stay marketable.

An encroachment

Survey, then photograph with measurements.
Determine when it was built — if long enough ago, it may already be theirs.
Write, factually, describing what and by how much.
Decide what you actually want: removal, payment, or paper.
Options: removal · damages · a written revocable license · an easement at fair value · a boundary line agreement · a lot line adjustment.
Cheapest fix that usually works: a written revocable license, which stops the clock on adverse possession and costs a stamp — or a recorded easement for fair value if the structure is permanent.

Water and drainage

Photograph and video during a rain event. This is the evidence and it is only available when it is raining.
Find out what changed and when — fill, paving, a downspout, a French drain, a regrade, a new roof.
Determine your state's surface water rule — common enemy, civil law, or reasonable use.
Hire a civil engineer. A short report stating what changed, what it did, and what it would cost to fix is the whole case.
Check the plat for a drainage easement — someone may be building in one.
Call public works if the right-of-way or a culvert is involved.
Cheapest fix that usually works: the engineer's report attached to a letter, with an offer to split the cost of the fix.

Animals

Read the ordinance — barking duration, leash, at-large, numerical limits, dangerous dog process.
Log it — dates, times, durations.
Call animal control with the log attached, and get a case number.
If a dog has bitten or threatened: report it, and ask about the dangerous dog declaration process.
Cheapest fix that usually works: the log plus repeated animal control contacts.

Cameras and privacy

Photograph the camera and its apparent field of view, and photograph your window or yard from its position.
Check your state's video voyeurism and recording consent statutes. Audio is treated far more strictly than video.
Write, describing the specific intrusion, asking for redirection by a date.
Install a screen, shade, or hedge. The fastest solution to being watched is not being visible.
Cheapest fix that usually works: the specific letter plus the privacy screen.

HOA problems

Get the covenants, not the summary.
Get your state's common interest community act — most impose notice, hearing, records, and fine limits that associations routinely ignore.
Write, citing the specific covenant, and ask for the enforcement process and timeline.
If you are the one cited: request the covenant relied on, request the hearing, and document selective enforcement.
Cheapest fix that usually works: a written request for the hearing plus photographs of five other lots doing the same thing.

Part nine: a timeline

Week 1 — Have the conversation. Send the friendly confirming email the same day.

Week 2–3 — If nothing changed: start the log and the photographs. Read the applicable ordinance or covenant. Order the survey or the expert report if the dispute needs one.

Week 4 — Send the letter. Specific, dated, with a response date two weeks out.

Week 6 — If no response: file the code enforcement, animal control, or HOA complaint. Get the case number. Keep logging.

Week 8–10 — Follow up on the case number. Request mediation.

Week 12 — If nothing has worked and it matters: a lawyer's demand letter, a few hundred dollars, which changes the temperature more than people expect.

Week 16+ — Small claims for money, or superior court for an order.

Throughout — keep everything, keep it dated, and keep it in one folder.

Part ten: mistakes that cost the most

Acting before checking. Cutting the tree, moving the fence, regrading the yard. Several of the mistakes in this area are irreversible and carry multiplied damages.

Assuming the fence is the line. It usually is not, until it is — and by then it is not yours.

Giving permission verbally. Verbal permission is real permission but unprovable permission. Write it down or you will have given away the land.

Never writing anything. The conversation is the right first step and a terrible record.

Complaining vaguely. "All the time" gets nothing. Nineteen dated entries exceeding fifteen minutes gets a citation.

Skipping the survey. A few hundred dollars against a dispute that costs tens of thousands.

Trespassing to gather evidence. It destroys your credibility and creates their claim.

Escalating in the moment. Everything you say at the height of the annoyance will be quoted back.

Writing the satisfying letter. Take out the two sentences you enjoyed most.

Suing first. It is the most expensive step, the slowest, and the one judges are least sympathetic to when the cheaper ones were skipped.

Winning at any cost. You will still live there. Sometimes the eighteen inches is worth $14,000 and a decade of bad mornings. Usually it is worth a thousand dollars and a handshake.

Part eleven: three that worked

The 5:30 dog

Emeric Vasilenko tried the conversation twice over two years. Nothing changed. He did not sue.

He read the county ordinance and found the operative language: barking "continuously or incessantly for more than fifteen minutes" between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. That sentence told him exactly what his evidence needed to prove — duration, and time of day. Not annoyance. Not frequency.

For six weeks he logged: date, start, stop, duration. He made short audio recordings from inside his own kitchen, with a clock in frame. Nineteen entries exceeded fifteen minutes in the prohibited window.

He filed an animal control complaint with the log attached and asked for a case number. Warning, then citation, then a second citation with an escalating fine. The owner installed a dog door.

Cost: zero. Time: about ten minutes a day for six weeks.

Why it worked: he proved the elements of the ordinance rather than describing his experience. Enforcement agencies act on the former and file the latter.

The fence that was four feet off

Hyacinth Trabuco-Wells surveyed for a pool and discovered the fence sat four feet onto her lot for ninety feet, including the pad under her neighbor's shed. On the deed she was right.

Her lawyer told her three things: her state recognizes boundary by acquiescence; fifty years of mutual treatment is a strong case for the fence being the line now; and litigating it costs $15,000 to $40,000 over eighteen months with a genuinely uncertain outcome, after which she still lives there.

They did a boundary line agreement instead. A surveyor prepared legal descriptions fixing the line at the fence. Her neighbor paid for the survey and the recording. In exchange he granted her a small easement at the other end for the pool equipment pad she actually needed.

Signed, notarized, recorded. Total about $2,600 split, in five weeks.

Why it worked: both parcels became clean and marketable, which was worth more to both owners than 360 square feet of side yard. Certainty beat probability.

The regrade that flooded a basement

Ottoline Achterberg-Ruiz fixed her soggy corner with fill, a regrade, and a French drain discharging at the fence. Her downhill neighbor's basement flooded twice that spring.

The neighbor did not start with a lawyer. He started with photographs during the second rain event — video of water leaving the drain outlet and crossing the line — and then spent $600 on a civil engineer.

The engineer's two-page report said what changed, when, and that concentrating previously diffuse surface water into a point discharge at the property line increased flow onto the downhill parcel by an estimated factor. It also noted the discharge lacked a required permit.

He attached it to a one-page letter and offered to split the cost of re-engineering the outlet to the municipal storm system.

Ottoline's insurer got involved, paid the basement remediation, and the drain was rebuilt properly.

Why it worked: the engineer's report converted a neighbor's opinion into a technical finding, and the offer to split gave everyone a way out that did not require anyone to lose.

Part twelve: what to do if you are the one being complained about

This guide assumes you are the complaining party. Often you are not, and the moves are different.

Do not ignore it. A code enforcement notice, an HOA violation letter, or a neighbor's letter that goes unanswered escalates automatically. Silence is read as refusal.

Find out what the actual requirement is. Ask the enforcement office which ordinance, which section, and what compliance looks like. Ask the HOA which covenant. You cannot fix what you cannot identify.

Comply where you are actually in violation. It is cheaper than any argument, and it removes the leverage.

Document where you are not. Photographs, dates, and the ordinance text. If code enforcement inspects and finds no violation, get that in writing.

Ask for the hearing if there is one — HOA fines, code citations, dangerous dog declarations all have processes, and defaults are how people lose.

Raise selective enforcement where it is real, with photographs of other properties in the same condition. This is a genuine defense in most HOA contexts and matters in code enforcement too.

Ask for time. Enforcement offices routinely grant extensions to people who call, explain, and give a date. They rarely grant anything to people who go quiet.

Write back to the neighbor. Even if you disagree entirely: "I got your letter. I don't see it the same way, but I'd rather work it out than have this get worse. Here's what I can do." That letter is worth a great deal if this ever reaches a judge.

If the complaints are retaliatory or serially false, document the pattern — dates, complaints, inspection outcomes — and say so in writing to the enforcement office. Some states have remedies for harassment by false complaint, and enforcement offices themselves get tired of complainants whose complaints never verify.

Part thirteen: the letters, written out

Most of this guide reduces to four letters. Here they are in usable form.

The friendly confirmation (same day as the conversation)

Hi [name] — good talking this morning. Just so I remember what we said: you're going to [bring him in by 7 / trim the branch over the driveway this fall], and I'll [move the trash cans to the other side / split the cost of the removal].

Thanks for hearing me out. — [Name]

No legal language. It is a record and it does not feel like one, which is the point.

The first written notice

[Date]

Dear [Name],

I'm writing about [the water coming across the property line at the rear of our lots].

What's happening. On [dates], during and after rainfall, water has been discharging from [the drain outlet at the northwest corner of your yard] onto my property, pooling against my foundation. Photographs from [dates] are enclosed.

The effect. My basement has taken water twice this spring, on [dates].

What I've already done. We spoke about this on [date].

What I'm asking. That the discharge be redirected so it does not concentrate at the property line. I'd be glad to split the cost of having a civil engineer look at it and recommend a fix — I'd guess a few hundred dollars each.

Could you let me know by [date, two weeks out]?

I'd much rather sort this out between us than involve the city, and I'm happy to talk any time. [Phone].

Sincerely, [Name]

The escalation notice

[Date]

Dear [Name],

I wrote to you on [date] about [issue] and haven't had a response.

The [condition] has continued: [dates and specifics since the last letter].

I've enclosed [the engineer's report / the arborist's assessment / the survey], which [summarize in one sentence].

I'm still asking for [the specific thing], and my offer to [split the cost / do part of the work] stands.

If I don't hear from you by [date], I'm going to [contact code enforcement / file a complaint with the association / consult an attorney]. I'd prefer not to.

[Name]

The written license (the most valuable paragraph in this guide)

[Date]

Dear [Name],

You're welcome to continue [parking on the northeast corner of my lot / maintaining the shed at its current location, which extends approximately three feet onto my parcel].

This letter is permission only. It is revocable by me at any time on thirty days' written notice, and it is not intended to create, transfer, or acknowledge any property right or easement in your favor.

No need to do anything — I just wanted it in writing so there's no confusion later.

Sincerely, [Name]

cc: file

Send it, keep a copy, and note how you delivered it. Permission defeats adverse possession and prescriptive easement, because both require use without permission. That paragraph prevents your neighbor from acquiring your land by using it for twenty years, and it reads as generous rather than hostile — which is why it works on both levels at once.

A closing thought

The single most useful reframe in this whole area is this: you are not trying to win. You are trying to make something stop, or get paid for it, at the lowest total cost — where cost includes the next twenty years of Saturday mornings.

That reframe changes what you do. It makes the conversation worth having properly rather than perfunctorily. It makes the offer to split a cost a strategy rather than a concession. It makes a recorded agreement better than a judgment, because a judgment leaves someone who lost. And it makes the written license — permission, freely given, in writing — the best move available in a whole category of disputes, because it protects your land while making you the reasonable one.

The law is on your side more often than you think, in ways you probably do not expect, and against you in a few places where you are confident it is not. Find out which before you pick up the chainsaw.

Part fourteen: figuring out what the rules actually are

Half the work in a neighbor dispute is finding the rule. Here is where each one lives.

The boundary — the recorder's office (deeds, plats, prior surveys), and a licensed surveyor. Many counties have parcel maps online, which are useful for orientation and not authoritative for a boundary.

Easements and covenants — the title commitment from your purchase is the fastest source; it lists them as exceptions. Otherwise the recorder's office, searched against your parcel.

Zoning — the municipal or county code, usually online and searchable. Look up your parcel's district and the adjoining parcels' districts. The planning department will tell you over the phone.

Noise, animals, junk, grass, lighting, fences — the municipal code, usually a searchable database. Search terms that work: "noise," "nuisance," "animals at large," "property maintenance," "junk," "fence," "outdoor lighting."

Tree ordinances — often under "trees," "urban forestry," or "vegetation." Many cities have heritage or protected tree provisions with permit requirements and substantial fines that apply on private property.

Building and permits — the building department. Permit records are usually public and searchable by address, which tells you whether the neighbor's structure was permitted.

State statutes — the state legislature's website. Useful searches: "adverse possession," "boundary by acquiescence," "timber trespass," "spite fence," "division fence," "partition fence," "dangerous dog," "right to farm."

Surface water rule — this one is case law rather than statute in most states. A short call to a real estate lawyer or a search for "[state] surface water common enemy reasonable use" will orient you.

HOA covenants — the association, the recorder's office, and your closing package. The state's common interest community or condominium act sets the procedural floor.

Two calls that are free and unreasonably useful: the code enforcement office, which will tell you what ordinance applies to what you are describing; and the planning or zoning department, which will tell you what is permitted on the adjoining parcel. Both do this all day and neither requires you to be in a dispute.

Frequently asked questions

They won't talk to me. Then write. The letter is the record either way, and it is the step before code enforcement.

Can I just move the fence? No. Not without a survey and legal advice, and possibly not even then — the fence may be the boundary now.

Can I cut the branches? To the line, at your expense, generally yes. Check the local tree ordinance first, do not cross the line, do not kill the tree, and get an arborist for anything substantial.

They cut my tree. Photograph everything, get an arborist appraisal, and look up your state's timber trespass statute. Double or treble damages are common and the measure is often restoration cost.

Water from their yard is flooding mine. Find out which surface water rule your state follows, get a civil engineer, and write with the engineer's report attached.

Should I put up a camera? On your own property, pointed at your own property and the street, generally fine. Pointed into their windows or fenced yard, not. Audio is treated more strictly than video — check your state's recording consent rule.

They report me to code enforcement constantly. Comply where you are in violation, document where you are not, and if the pattern is retaliatory or harassing, say so in writing to the enforcement office and keep the record. Some states have remedies for harassment by serial false complaints.

How do I find out if there's an easement? The title commitment from your purchase, the recorder's office, and the plat. Easements run with the land whether or not you knew.

Is it worth suing? Rarely, first. Almost always worth talking, writing, documenting, complaining, and mediating first — and each of those improves your position if you do end up suing.