Problems with the neighbor

Hi everybody
I am in a situation that I consider emergency. Nobody's sick yet but I feel very very bad.
I am renting one part of the duplex, the owner lives in another part but he never introduced himself as owner, we found out occasionally. When we moved in, we didn't have pets. Later we got bunnies. Our backyard is not divided. He is a type of a guy that only goes outside to mow - literally. He leaves by his car thru garage and comes back home the same way. Never does anything outside if his house, he is middle age single guy.
I was planning to let the bunnies out in the back so I asked him if he minded. He didn't. We made the yard bunny and other animals proof and didn't have problems for a long time except for cats trespassing sometimes. Bunnies do have a hutch but its kind of clumsy and they don't use it much. We house them inside garage overnight (we never park there) , they come into the house in extreme heat but they are not house bunnies.
Anyway, some time ago the neighbor started to express that he is not very happy that bunnies sometimes sitting where he can see them. As far as I understood they chewed up some of his cables , as you can see cables repaired and he put up a small fence around. I always told him to come to me and tell if bunnies are causing any problems.
Finally he saw me feeding them in the yard, he came out and told me that he needs to put up a fence dividing the yard. I apologized for inconvenience. Then nothing was going on for a month, I thought he forgot.
By that time I decided to divide the yard with stakes and chicken wire. When I was about to get stuff and start, he came to me and said people will be working on the fence. I told him I could do smaller fence without expenses. He said its decided that he needs a fence as other tenants annoyed him in the past.
Now is a problem. People from COX came and marked A WHOLE yard with paint that is probably toxic and they put LOTS of sharp flags to mark the cables. I don't understand if we need a fence between us, why they did most of the marking in my far corner where we have bushed and certainly it will stay ours. I am concerned that bunnies will be hurt. While that guy was working he left the gate wide open. Good thing I was at home and nobody escaped.
I understand that most people would say that the best thing is to keep bunnies in the hutch. Right at this time its not possible. I also have to say that my husband is a jerk and he is no help. I have 4 baby cockatiels hatched in the house and it was a complete shock as we thought we had 2 boy birds. I am stressed a lot. I am at school and I have a young child.

When it rains, all the paint is probably goes into the ground. We had some COX marking in the past (not so much though) and buns were OK.
I even went to the neighbor to tell how pissed I was but luckily he wasn't home. I expect a lot of expenses and trouble when we move out. So I thought I should keep my mouth shut.
What to do and how to behave? thanks.

That does seem unreasonable but there's nothing you can do about if the paint is already down. I guess the bunnies will have to be housed in the garage permanently. If there are windows for ventilation and natural light, it's not so bad, bunnies don't need to be on the grass to be happy and a whole empty garage is plenty of space to live in. If you like you could occasionally pick them some grass to munch on, from the far edges of the yard away from the paint.

If the garage is dark and all closed in, I'd maybe house them in there for just a couple of weeks while working on litter training and transitioning them into being indoor bunnies. It is tedious, but better than having sick bunnies.

Your neighbour does owe you an explanation for all the paint in your side of the yard though. I believe there are laws that all renovations on a tenant's area while they're living there must be fully communicated to, agreed on and signed off by the tenant.

whiskylollipop said:

Your neighbour does owe you an explanation for all the paint in your side of the yard though. I believe there are laws that all renovations on a tenant's area while they're living there must be fully communicated to, agreed on and signed off by the tenant.

Click to expand...

thank you! Can this be that there is no "his" or "my" side of the yard in the situation when the yard is not divided?
I will visit Cox tomorrow to find out what paint they use and possibly to get a specification on it. They often have to mark grass, and most people have pets, maybe the paint is not toxic....
Its not exactly remodeling in my rental property. He wants to put up a fence. Sure he can! But, by the law he has to invite people from communication company to have cables locations marked, the fence company probably wouldn't do fence without such marking. I would say he could specify the area where approximately he will be having a fence so there would be no need to mark a whole yard. I will certainly talk to him tomorrow.
I regret so much about not communicating with him more efficiently earlier.

Even if the yard is not physically divided, there should be a stipulation in your rental agreement that states your half (or section) of the yard is property that comes with the house, so when you are paying rent you are essentially also paying to rent the part of the yard that comes with the house. If the house was rented to you with the selling point that the yard section is included, then any judge/adjudicator will rule in your favour.

However, I wouldn't recommend bringing this situation to the courts without trying to work things out with the owner first. Paint that is cat/dog/child safe may not be bunny safe - bunnies are much smaller and consume far more of the grass than other pet species. So be sure to get a guarantee from Cox that the paint is safe for bunnies. If it is not, then maybe you could approach the landlord for compensation, such as a temporary rent reduction or maybe he could just let you pick grass from his side of the yard to keep your buns happy in the garage.

Thanks again,
to tell honestly, I don't think housing them in garage permanently is an option (btw, they are litter trained). There is much more things he can accuse us in, rather then we can accuse him in. He may say garage was never intended for housing bunnies, garage is for parking the car. Even having bunnies litter trained, accidents happen. They were trying to chew walls in garage so we had to block access to the walls (and garage is the room that divides our part of the house from his). Our agreement says no pets are allowed unless a special permission is gotten. Later we paid a deposit for them, but we also have birds indoors that, I guess, he also knows about. I am afraid we can be kicked out and won't be able to find affordable rental having so many pets (4 bunnies, 2 cockatiels + 4 baby cockatiels). Its in our interest not to produce noise, but it doesn't mean we should risk the well being of our pets.
I would rather block unmarked piece of the yard for them but it would cut off significant part of what I thought logically is "ours"

Actually it sounds to me like your landlord has been more than accommodating. You got pets against your original lease. He allowed you to keep them and pay a deposit. His cables were chewed and he still didn't make a fuss. And now he's willing to put up a proper fence to divide the properties.

While construction is going on, it would seem reasonable to just keep the bunnies in the garage. When the construction (and paint) are done and gone, you will have an area for your rabbits.

I don't know how things were explained when you took the lease, but sometimes when a yard area is not fenced, it is all considered 'shared' yard.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't make any fuss. I would keep the bunnies in the garage for now. (or transition them to indoor bunnies). Then once the fencing project is complete, work with what you have.

Blue eyes, thanks!
I asked people from Cox if the paint is toxic. They said it shouldn't be because federal regulations prohibit using toxic paint in this situation. But really - who knows. I just wonder how long it would take to eliminate the effect of the paint on the land and grass, and if watering would help or did an opposite. I will try to get exact name of the product that was used.