The New Fence and Maintaining a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

We've had our back yard fenced ever since we moved there.  More accurately, our land backs up to the deep woods of a sanctuary so we've left that side open so we can enjoy the view of the woods and the critters who come and go from there.  Either way, we enjoy complete privacy in our back yard and unless a neighbor was working on their roof, up in a tree, or peeking through the narrow slats, they couldn't see whether we're naked or not in our pool, our hot tub, or just laying out or working in the yard.  In legal terms, we had a reasonable expectation of privacy and are perfectly within our rights to be nude there.

But the privacy wasn't perfect.  We had back to back hurricanes several years ago and the fence was down for months.  We hated it, but out of respect for our neighbors, we didn't go nude back there during the day until the fence was back up.  I'd go in or put something on if a neighbor was working on his roof, on a ladder trimming their trees, or their kids were playing along the fence on their side, since it was easy for them to see us through narrow slats accidentally, if they were that close to the fence.

But the fence was beginning to look pretty tired.  The slats were shrinking and warping, and it was getting easy for the neighbors to see onto our property from certain angles if we were in certain areas of our back yard, so it was time for it to be replaced.

The new fence is vinyl with continuous panels with no cracks in between.  Heaven.  Once again we can be anywhere in our yard and they can be anywhere in their yard, including right up against the fence, and they'll never see us.   It's not that they don't know we're nude there.  We're on good enough terms that we've mentioned it.  Even so, good fences make good neighbors.  Having enough privacy is well worth the work and expense of maintaining it.