September 3, 2010 Only In Honduras! My Neighbor Decides To Make A Window Into My Patio Area

In Tegucigalpa houses are built right up to the property line.  

This means, one's property line and airspace are right next to one's neighbor's property line and air space.

This is what I woke up to this morning!  The neighbor hired an unscrupulous handyman to make a window in the wall, looking directly into the backyard/patio.  The worst thing is that the man cut the steel rebar column, after he finished making the hole.  So now the 4 floor building is minus a column and since the entire building is NOT up to code, I am praying that the building doesn't fall over with the next big wind or next small earthquake.  (see how small the column is just 4 small rebars and this is for 4 stories of building and they have one column like that every 6 feet)

I had already had the same problem with the previous owner, but that was resolved when he found out that I knew the building code.  So he closed off the 5 windows which were illegally looking into my patio.  So I have had the pleasure of looking at the, filled in with block, window holes minus the stucco.  Sometimes I get really tired over people trying to run over my rights... just because I am a gringa... and they think I am too dumb to know any better...  Or maybe it is because they want to do what they want to do and it really doesn't matter to them that they are breaking the law.  Either way, what happened to common decency and respect for the law?

The end to the story is that they have their window and I have a huge piece of tin covering it up on my side of the wall.  No air goes in and no light goes in.  If they don't close it up soon, I guess I will have to build a small wall to hang my plants on and fill between the new small plant wall and their window hole with concrete!  Would I do that?  Yes I would...