YES it CAN. I can build a fence with scenes of lynchings to try and drive out my black neighbors. I bet the ugly fence next to the back door significantly hurt the resale value of the houses in question and it affected the view from their house while the lake owner demanded payment to remove the fence in order to restore the previous status of the houses.
Let;s say you live next door to a guy and he doesn't like you. So when you go to sell your house, he throws trash all over his yard, dumps some old cars and trailers in the yard and puts up a fence that he later burns in places to make it look bad. And he tells the neighbors he is doing it to spite you but will stop if you pay him $5000. Are you harmed?
The analogy is incomplete. You need to add:
- If you pay the $5000, you'll own the property in question and can clean it up as you like
- What prompted him to make the mess was you removing property markers and playing golf on his property without permission, claiming that the prior owner did let you play golf on his property.
When I was about 8 years old, the family next door moved out and a new family moved in. Operating on habit, a bunch of us local kids proceeded to play in that yard, just as we had done for years before. The new owners pointed out that the old occupants had left, someone new lived there, and that we were not to play in that yard any more. We whined a little, sucked it up, and played somewhere else. Sounds like the whiny property owners around the lake haven't learned what I figured out at age 8.
Using your obvious liberal ideology and prediliction for government interference this can be solved by reporting you to the police claiming terroristic threats and a racially motivated hate crime.
I bet the ugly fence next to the back door significantly hurt the resale value of the houses in question and it affected the view from their house while the lake owner demanded payment to remove the fence in order to restore the previous status of the houses.
If you bought property and paid extra for a view of someone elses land then it should affect the value of that property if the view goes away. What is the difference between this case and that of someone builds a row of townhouses that blocks the view? Both are ugly, both block a view that YOU DON'T OWN!
Let;s say you live next door to a guy and he doesn't like you. So when you go to sell your house, he throws trash all over his yard, dumps some old cars and trailers in the yard and puts up a fence that he later burns in places to make it look bad. And he tells the neighbors he is doing it to spite you but will stop if you pay him $5000. Are you harmed?
Boy you love strawmen don't you, this is a totally different situation. The owner of the lake in this story is offering to sell LAND, he is not charging (blackmailing) them to improve his behavior. Again, using your big government buddies, this can be taken care of by the homeowner's ass-ociation, or the city or county authorities. Most have regulations against dumping within their juristictions. My other option would be to build my own fence to improve the view. Answer, (since I wouldn't pay the a**hole) no I am not harmed.