We have a neighbor who moved in and promptly began to build a huge horse barn. That's fine, but there are deed restrictions on these lots, and barns have to be set 25' behind the back of the house. These folks ignored that, and sited their barn 20' off the lot line, right between our houses. The barn is closer to our house than theirs, and it's huge.

We worked out a verbal agreement with them that they would plant trees to cover the eyesore. When we asked them to put it in writing, they had a fit. They would not sign anything saying that they would plant these trees, because it implied that we didn't trust them.

They went from neighbor to neighbor, and had them all sign paperwork to vacate the deed restrictions. People signed, because that meant it was easier to do their own projects—they never thought about the fact that their neighbors would now be able to do their projects, too. The documents was so badly written that instead of vacating the restrictions, some people vacated their actual deeds (ha ha ha).

We gave up. No sense fighting stupid/crazy. What did we do? We stopped mowing the strip between our houses. My husband calls it his "trash tree nursery." It's slowly growing crappy trees—mostly Bradford pear and long-thorn hawthorn. The grass and weeds are waist high. As you drive by, you can't tell whose weeds they are, either.

They sent us a letter saying that it didn't bother them. I figure, if you go out of your way to send a letter stating something doesn't bother you…it really bothers you.

Edit: pics of my passive aggressive "tree nursery!"