VIC trespassing on rural property

[Ebony Bellchmabers]

Just hoping some can give me some legal advice on where i stand in this situation.
Yesterday afternoon we had a massive down poor flooding in our town.
Alot of the roads and propertys were flooded including our paddock. After the rain stopped i wittnessed one of our back neighbours jumping our fence into our property.
I went out to ask him what he was doing thinking there might have been something wrong with the fence or something. The minute i was within 5 meters of him he started to abuse me saying hes front lawn is flooded and hes sueing us as it was coming from our paddock. He presisted to walk past me and continued to walk all the way up our 3 acker propertly to our back yard taking photos of how much water was pooled in patches of our paddock and where there is a drane we have along our back yard before the 3 ackers.
I asked the guy to please get off our property as he did not have permission to jump our fence and said if he had any problems he could have come around to our front door and asked. Hes remark was he can do whatever he likes.
I then told him i was calling the police as this is treaspassing he got his photos snooped around our whole property and then climbed back over then fence im a young 23year old girl and felt very intimadated buy a 40yo male abusing me.
In the year the man has lived there not once has there been any problem with his property being flooded or ours even through winter. We knew the neighbour before him pretty well and he never had a problem either
I also noticed the man has just dug up all his front lawn flatted out all his ground to start landscaping it and re seeding it hence why he was annoyed. However when i looked at his property therw was only 2 small pools of water sitting in his dirt. And no water was running from our paddock into his yard.
The police were called and did go over and give him a warning but after the way he acted it wouldnt put it past me if he did it again.

 

[Rod]

It is good that you even got the police to come out. Well done. Often they'll just say it's a civil dispute and refuse to do anything.

Get and keep a copy of the police report if you can. If it happens again take photos of him on your property.

Depending on other factors, you can elect to take him to court for civil trespass, or you can have a solicitor send him a letter warning him to keep off your land.

Depends on how well you want to maintain a relationship with the neighbour.

By his actions one would think he is new to country life. City people moving to the country often have no idea what country life is really like.

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

Rod, I would guess the 23 year old woman/40 year old aggressive man angle got the police to come out.

 

[Clancy]

I would put a no trespass private property sign on my side of the back fence where he can see it and be reminded every day that his smart arse comment about being able to do whatever he likes is WWWRRRRRROOONG!

 

[Tripe]

Anyone's has the right to go to someone's front door to speak to a property owner, I would expect this to Be from a public road to access a driveway or foot path to access the residence front door.

As soon as you asked him to leave your property he has lost all right to be on your property, if he fails to leave then this is trespassing.

 

[Ebony Bellchmabers]

Yes thank you guys he lives in a court that backs on to our property all that attaches our land to his is where it meets at a corner. He climbed a fence into our direct back neighbours property and then climbed over mine and my neighbours fence to get onto our property while these fences are just ring lock wire fences there is no gate at all down there witch would give him the right to go on our property through a gate.
We have spoken to the council and have arranged to get a colourbond fence put up to make it safer and we will deffinatly be getting some signs made up. And funnily enough the water has all dried up over night. Some people will seriously complain about anything these days

 

[Ebony Bellchmabers]

Hey guys so its almost been 2 weeks since the incident we had with our neighbour since then.
We had the council look at the damage he was complaining about and found out that the part of property he was annoyed about is council property and he dosent even own it yet he has dug it all up. the council has advised us that when a flood happens the water is suppose to drain through the council property and into the drain beside the guys house. We told the council we were going to build a 6ft wooden fence to keep the guy out and the council asked us to leave a gap for the water to run through and make a low channel for the water to follow down to the drain so it dosent spred out and end up on the guys property however since then the neighbour has filled in the drain 4times with dirt and brick and even pored cement into our paddock along our fence its getting beyond a joke i have asked the man so many times to leave it alone but he keeps doing it.
He aso stole my no tresspssing sighn off my fence.
What do i do about it do i call the council back or go to the police.
Im planing on setting up another sighn and digging the drain out again and setting up a trail cam in the tree to get fotage of him filling im the drain and stealing the sign
Should i then take the fottage to the police is there much they can do about it

 

[Rod]

With video evidence you can go to police and take him to court as well if he trespasses on your property. Just make sure he's on your property though, not the council property.

I'd report to both the council and police. Council can fine him with damage to council property/interference with drainage - feel sure they'll have a by law or two the neighbour will have broken. Police can charge him with damage/theft of sign/criminal trespass. You can take him for damage/loss (theft of property), and civil trespass.