Many years ago we were living in Florida and had a neighbor that was clearly mentally ill. He was paranoid and also extremely aggressive. It started with our pets being poisoned and escalated from there. We had the main electric feed to the property cut, water turned off and padlocked, damage to plants and landscaping on the property line etc. I installed an extensive security system (45 cameras with night vision and sound) after which things calmed down for a while. The next thing was a handicapped parking zone installed for him (he was allegedly handicapped) not in front of his house but in front of ours! That was the last straw. I hired a private investigator and had him followed 24/7 for months. Yes it was expensive but it was worth it. Finally his next move was to take us to court for code violations and use of his (personal?) parking space. During the court proceedings we presented all the blueprints and permits and sign offs that showed everything we did was within the law. However he made a huge pain of himself especially when it was clear he was losing. Finally he claimed we blocked his view of the ocean which while untrue required the entire courtroom to pay a visit to his home to see his alleged lack of a view. Unbeknownst to him we had done a full investigation of the history of his property including permits, construction and violations. Once on his property which was 2 stories he could not make his case for the lack of view since ours was 3 stories. However he made it very clear he had built fully from lot line to lot line and installed windows overlooking his neighbors on both sides (a clear violation). In the end he managed to prove to the court that his entire renovation of 1/3 of his building was completely illegal and the original property was built 4 feet too close to the lot line. The court ruled he would have to apply for a variance and no matter what the result was he had to eliminate all windows on the lot lines. If the variance was denied he would be required to demolish the addition done without permits. He would also have to apply for a hardship variance for the original property as he purchased it. In the end he got his hardship variance but lost the battle for the new construction which he had to remove at great expense. We also got the handicapped parking removed since we had him on camera clearly not handicapped.

The moral of the story:

People in glass houses (or illegal ones) should never throw stones (or lawsuits).