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none, , CorrespondenceBern J. an Esq. 2 Chuckwagon Road Rolling Hills 90274 Work # 424.238.2062 Home # 310.356.6267 CeII # 310.962.6497 Emails bernaalvin(alcox.net, bernemvbucha.com June 13, 2010 The City Manager City of Rolling Hills 2 Portuguese Bend Road Rolling Hills CA 90274 The Manager Rolling Hills Community Association 1 Portuguese Bend Road Rolling Hills CA 90274 Mr. Robert Gledhill The Owner 37 Eastfield Rolling Hills CA 90274 Re: Your renters at 37 Eastfield. Rolling Hills Dear Mr. Gledhill: I've lived at 2 Chuckwagon, next door to your property on 37 Eastfield, for 8 or 9 years now. I think I purchased my place in 2001, though I could be off by a year either way. In that period there has been only one tenant living at your place - a young family, who stayed approximately 18 months to 2 years; and they were really excellent neighbors. Their children were nice, their dog was nice, and they were friendly and genial. It was a pleasure to have them as neighbors. I was sad when they moved out. Since that time, as you know, your place has been unoccupied, with only the gardeners and maintenance people coming on a regular basis. There's been a couple of occasions over the past few years when your sprinklers have malfunctioned or been set wrongly by the gardeners (I'm not sure which). Upon noticing this, I've taken the liberty of going onto your property and turning off the malfunctioning sprinklers, so that you didn't end up with an astronomical water bill, and I didn't end up with a saturated property. I recall the last occasion, some months back, when some workers were removing and replacing your brick patio, I didn't realize there was a flooding problem until it had persisted for some hours - the water had saturated my vegetable garden and run down Eastfield almost halfway to the guard shack, and the rush of water had carried quite a bit of soil down the hill with it. The reason I mention these things is to simply let you know that I view these things as normal occurrences amongst neighbors, and not something to get excited or upset over. In ordinary times they wouldn't warrant mentioning. Those times, unfortunately, appear to be over. 1 Bern J.' . yin Esq. 2 Chuckwagon Road Rolling HilCA 90274 Work # 424.238.2062 Home # 310.356.6267 CeII # 310.962.6497 Emails bernaalvin(abcox.net, berm mvbucha.com A couple of weeks ago, as you know, a new family of renters moved in to your property. They made their presence known almost immediately, and in some rather unfortunate ways. Despite their short tenancy to this point in time, they've managed to assemble an impressive list of faux pas. And I think you'll agree as you read this sorry missive that 'faux pas' is a very charitable epithet. I'm not one to complain normally; my usual modus operandi is to simply try to work things out in a civilized and reasonable manner. My attempts in this regard, and my girlfriend, Beate's attempts, appear to have been rudely rebuffed (especially by the wife), forcing me to spend my time committing this list of grievances to writing. Here they are - • during the first few days, they made their presence known, and very loudly - the incessant riding of a 4 wheel motor bike up and down your driveway, accompanied by the raucous shouting father (not the children) shattered the normally bucolic and peaceful atmosphere that makes Rolling Hills a good place to live. To add insult to injury they have a set of drums (the musical kind) set up outside, which they played on a few occasions (more on this below). • during the first week of their tenancy, on 2 occasions I was attacked on my own property by their large black dog. When I say 'on my own property', I'm not talking about my property near the border with your property; I'm talking about getting attacked by a snarling large black dog (your renters have two dogs - one large and other small) while watering my vegetable garden; a habit I like to pursue early most mornings at this time of the year. I should note my vegetable garden is at least 15 or 20 yards from the border between our properties. While I found this rather disconcerting, I took the view that the dog, because of the lack of fences between our properties, had no idea where his turf ended and mine began. I am a dog lover, having owned several dogs over the years. I decided to overlook this in the interest of getting along. • a couple of days later I heard a weed whacking device being operated in what sounded like my orchard (directly up the hill from my house abutting the back of your property). I walked up there to investigate and discovered that a young fellow had proceeded to cut down about 80% of the grass in my orchard (and he'd managed also to sever my water hose in the process) along with the grass on your property. I pointed out to him that though the grass on my side needed cutting, it was my property and I really didn't want my neighbors paying to have the grass cut on my side of the property line. He looked confused and told me he'd been instructed by your renters that my orchard was in fact part of their property. I showed him where the property line was and offered to have him give me a quote for cutting the grass down below in my front yard, as a way for him to recoup the price of the time he'd spent cutting the grass in my orchard. He came down and gave me a quote, which was significantly higher than market. I told him this whereupon he departed rather grumpily. He came back later with a slightly lower but still above market quote, which I declined. • the next day Beate and I noticed a whole lot of dog shit had been deposited in the middle of the narrow path that leads up the hill to our orchard. This seemed odd in a couple of respects - first it was far too much for 2 dogs to have excreted in the 24 hours that it suddenly made its 2 Bern J. an Esq. 2 Chuckwagon Road Rolling Hill 90274 Work # 424.238.2062 Home # 310.356.6267 Cell # 310.962.6497 Emails bernaalvinCa cox.net, bern(mvbucha.com appearance, and secondly, it was in an area that is not a natural spot for a dog to want to evacuate his bowels. We decided to, again, ignore our now growing suspicions of our renter neighbor's motivations. • a day or so later Beate noticed your renters digging on the path that leads up the hill to our orchard. She went up to investigate to find your renters, incredible as it may seem, in the act of digging up the path and planting a vegetable garden. Beate pointed out to them politely that this was not their property and that they needed to uproot their vegetables and move them elsewhere. When Beate informed me of this, I realized that there was a serious problem here that, much as I didn't want to, I would have to confront. Beate and I walked up to our orchard and observed them re -planting their vegetable garden further up the hill on the appropriate side of the property line. I asked could we come over and speak to them? They consented. I asked them whether they were aware of where the property line was? With the wife mumbling incoherently about I'm not sure what, I walked with the husband to the property line and showed him exactly where the fence had been that you had removed a few months back. I explained to him that there was a bridle easement on either side of the property line. He indicated that he understood. We then rejoined the wife who was busily re -planting and watering the previously uprooted vegetables. I related to the two of them that their black dog had tried to attack me twice on my property in the first week they moved in. The wife offered by way of response (quite hostilely, I should add) that the dog was a rescue dog and anyway there were no leash laws in Rolling Hills. I pointed out to her that the lack of leash laws did not absolve her of responsibility for her animals, and neither did the fact that the animal was a rescue dog. I also requested that they desist from playing their drum set (mentioned earlier) outside, but rather move it inside where they could play to their heart's content. The wife told me that there was no room for it inside, and that they could play it outside if they wanted to. • yesterday an unpleasant verbal altercation occurred when the smaller dog decided to threaten Beate when she was up in our orchard tending one of our fruit trees. The wife came out again muttering in a hostile fashion that she was looking into the property line issue. Your renter apparently continues to believe that our orchard is on your property. • this afternoon brought even more bizarre behavior from the wife. I was sitting in our orchard hand watering some of my fruit trees (a form of relaxation for me) when the wife arrived home and the small dog decided to come over and start barking at me as I sat watering my trees. This was slightly irritating at most, but I noticed from the corner of my eye the wife becoming more and more agitated because her dog would not come to her and disengage from barking at me. I could not help noticing the extreme degree of the wife's agitation. The dog finally discontinued barking and retreated back to the renter's side of the property line. I resumed watering my fruit trees in peace. Not for Tong! A few short minutes later a loud engine -like noise again disrupted my Sunday afternoon ruminations. The noise came from your property. It stopped after a few minutes whereupon I again resumed watering in relative peace. Concluding my watering, as I walked back down the (now infamous) path to my house, it became clear what this engine -like noise was I'd heard a few minutes previously. It was apparently some kind of high pressure 3 Bern J.vin Esq. 2 Chuckwagon Road Rolling Hili'.:A 90274 Work # 424.238.2062 Home # 310.356.6267 Cell # 310.962.6497 Emails bernaalvinecox.net, bernOmvbucha.com water cannon that the wife, enraged over little Rocco's disobedience, aimed down the hill from your driveway onto my property and turned on full force. The result was a long fairly narrow swath of vegetation on my property ripped out and pushed down the hill onto the edge of my vegetable garden along with a large amount of displaced soil. I was frankly astonished at this behavior, so astonished that I had Beate take photos of same. I'm being forced to the view that the wife's (in particular) repeated, frantic, angry, hostile and inappropriate behaviors are so bizarre, Beate and I are now seriously concerned what these people will do next. Please understand that while I've related this tale of woe in a somewhat comical (depending on one's viewpoint) fashion, I am serious about putting the addressees of this letter on notice of the behaviors of your renter's in 37 Eastfield. If you could help resolve some of these issues, it would be much appreciated. Sincerely, -ja'43L1 Bern Galvin Beate Kirmse 4