The word "occasionally" was doing a lot of heavy lifting. By July, she and the children were in my pool four days a week. By August, it was five days a week, and she had begun bringing a rotating cast of guests. By September, she had brought people to swim on seventeen occasions when I was not home, using a gate key I suspect she copied during a maintenance visit.
I addressed this with a calm, clear conversation. I told her I was not comfortable with the volume of people or the unauthorized access, and that the arrangement would be limited going forward.
Sandra replied, "I had thought you were more open to sharing." It suggested a perspective in which my pool was a communal resource, and my desire to control it was a character failing rather than a property right. I noted the tone, said nothing, and went back inside.
I added a new lock to the gate. When she asked for access the following April, I simply said no. She left, unhappy.
The situation escalated from an annoyance to a liability between May and July of the second year. It started with the standard six-foot wooden privacy fence separating our properties.
In late May, two boards adjacent to my pool were loosened. Not by weather, but by someone prying them from Sandra's side to create an eighteen-inch gap. I repaired them. In June, after a work trip, I found the pool chemistry depleted, a stray flip-flop on the deck, and the reinforced fence boards forced open again.
I installed four motion-activated, night-capable security cameras logging to cloud storage with timestamps. Then, I began building the documentation file.
The Documentation File Contents:
-
Proof of Ownership: Original contract with Aqua Design Solutions, county building permits, final inspection certificate.
-
Financial Records: Twelve years of maintenance invoices, property tax documents showing the pool as a capital improvement, and homeowner’s insurance declarations.
-
Security Logs: A meticulously organized flash drive containing labeled video clips of every unauthorized entry.
-
Correspondence: Copies of all written notices and certified mail receipts.
Throughout July, the cameras captured Sandra entering through the fence gap on eleven separate occasions. Sometimes with guests, sometimes at night. She used my pool equipment without a care. I watched this footage every morning, saving and labeling every clip. I was not watching it to generate anger; I was watching it to build an unambiguous record.
In early August, I hired a contractor to permanently repair the fence gap with steel post connectors and exterior-grade screws. I mailed Sandra a formal, certified cease-and-desist letter. She signed for it four days later. For three weeks, the cameras showed no activity.