AITA For building a Fence and blocking my neighbours from the road, forcing them to take a massive detour?

A Redditor shared a story about building a large stone fence around their property after neighbors started using their private road and field as a shortcut and parking area. Initially, the Redditor didn’t mind, but after multiple attempts to address the situation—ranging from polite conversations to having cars towed—the frustration escalated. In response, the Redditor built the fence, blocking neighbors from using the shortcut, forcing them to take a much longer route.

While some neighbors apologized, others, including the more aggressive ones, are now demanding the fence be removed. The Redditor feels conflicted because the action also affects the nicer neighbors. Was this an overreaction, or were they justified in taking this step? Read the original story below.

‘ AITA For building a Fence and blocking my neighbours from the road, forcing them to take a massive detour?’

So I am the owner of a large house with a huge property surounding it. When I bought my property 5 years ago I basically lived at least 5 minutes away from the nearest house, however the villages and towns have been expanding and as a result started developing houses next to my property.

I was fine with it, nothing I could do about it to begin with, but my property is big enough not to really notice to begin with, or so I assumed. It’s good to mention I basically pulled out a bunch of trees when I moved here and made a dirt road with gravel of sorts to allow me easy access to the main road nearby instead of driving all the way around to access the main road.

Well soon after people started moving in to the houses I noticed people basically used my little road to access the main road nearby and kids used my field to play football, I was pretty much okay with it because it wasn’t bothering me or inconveniencing me.

Untill a few months later that was, basically whenever people had a party or a gathering I noticed my road and the field which they drove over was full of cars and a few weeks later some people started straight up using it as a parking area. I had multiple talks with multiple people and the results ranged from apologetic people moving their cars to aggressive people who told me to go F myself.

I finally had enough and started getting cars towed which led to people yelling at my girlfriend in particular, as such I build a large stone fence around my entire property. Well multiple neighbors including the aggressive ones were all apologetic and asked me to remove the fence and how sorry they were for using it as they basically had to add 15 to 20 minutes to their travel time to work without my shortcut,

I told them to go F themselves and to get the F of my property and if I saw them there again I’d be letting my dogs loose. However this is also impacting the nice neighbors so I am conflicted.

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

Starfleet_Auxiliary −  NTA. Your property, your rules. Also, if you DIDN’T do this, you could potentially have ended up giving them a right-of-way easement without realizing it depending on your local laws. Don’t budge. Leave the fence. Maybe they’ll think in the future about asking permission in the future instead of forgiveness.

GulagCumshot −  NTA and as for the nice neighbors that’s life, people take advantage of good things and ruin it for the rest of us. Part and parcel of turning small rural communities from a place everyone knows everybody and is accountable to their actions, into exactly what you’re seeing with people telling you to f**k off because you don’t want your land turning into a s**t hole.

strawberry_ren −  NTA. It’s your private property. You were doing your nice neighbors a favor by letting them use your shortcut, you don’t owe them the use of it. I get why you feel about it, since you seem like a generous person for putting up with so much for so long. But I think what you did is completely reasonable since you were having so many issues with people trespassing and then getting aggressive when you told them to leave.

[Reddit User] −  NTA. It’s your property and you have every right to do what you want to it. You were not the problem, it’s the entitled assholes who were taking advantage of your good nature. I would let everyone know the reason who the culprits were in locking down access.

If you feel really bad you could install a gate with a combo lock and give it to the nice neighbors, but honestly I would not do jack s**t now. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Jackniferuby −  NTA – As someone who owns acreage myself , these are NOT nice neighbors and never have been. They have disrespected your property since day one. That is not their road and they didn’t pay for it. They did NOT purchase the field from you to use as they please and they don’t pay to maintain that field.

You absolutely did the right thing by building the fence. Do NOT remove it. The next time a neighbor complains , tell them they can build their own road on their own land and buy more acreage to park on. If you haven’t already ,build a fence bordering your properties , get a document from your county appraisal district with property lines clearly shown for your neighbor and put it in their mailbox.

If issues continue- call your local sherif on them for trespassing. They sound like city folk trying to be country. It’s incredibly expensive and time consuming to maintain acreage and they apparently are unaware of that. I’m from Texas and you NEVER trespass on someone else’s land. None of this would have happened a second time had it been our property. Stand up for your right as a landowner and don’t let them walk all over you- literally.

[Reddit User] −  This isn’t real. I can’t grasp how this works physically. How does your driveway, that goes from your house to a main road result in a shortcut for neighbors when you’re on a property so spacious that you don’t even notice encroaching development? There’s no physically reasonable way that this is true. The stone fence is kind of the illogical icing on the cake. You have a *huge* property, and you put up a masonry fence?! Not fuckin likely.

[Reddit User] −  I’m going to say you’re a troll that didn’t agree with the earlier post about someone using the footpaths on someone else’s property and have changed just enough details to get the answer you want. Must be sad life you lead.

the-tinman −  I think Reddit requires a MS paint sketch of the properties and the road draw on it so we can all see what is happening

[Reddit User] −  NTA. That’s private property people have begun treating like public property, it won’t be long before they are completely trashing s**t. I say good on you for nipping it in the bud!

foxxservo86 −  NTA. You were super nice by letting people not only use your private road, but play on your land. You know those rude ones are not really sorry, they are just sorry they are having to face the consequences of their actions.

Do you think the Redditor was justified in building the fence to reclaim their property, or did they go too far by impacting the nice neighbors too? How would you handle a situation like this if your personal space was being taken advantage of? Share your thoughts in the comments below!