My 12 neighbors and I share a 30 acre private lake. We are all considered joint owners of the lake.
Per our restrictions, we may have guests, but they must use the host family's own watercraft (no gas motors) which has to be marked with the family's house number. Guests must enter the lake through the hosting family's back yard, and the host(s) must be home.
We are having lots of people accessing the lake through the empty lots. We occasionally have them launch their boats, but most will fish or swim from shoreline. A group of kids even swam to our pier and started jumping from our pier into the lake. (Pier is part of my backyard.) The developer has put no trespassing signs.
Moreover, people learn the names of the families living on the lake, and they will drop our names when confronted by other homeowners or police.
Today, a young couple parked in my neighbor's driveway, then walked around the other side of her house and started fishing in the lake. I contacted the homeowner when we saw the car in the driveway (house is for sale by owner) and asked if they were showing the house today. They weren't, and they told me that no one had permission to be there. They were in a neighboring town and headed home immediately.
My husband and other neighbor walked over and informed them that it was private property. They said they had permission from the homeowners. Husband and neighbor told them that we had contacted them, and no consent was given. They were incredibly belligerent. They told us the land and lake weren't ours; we informed them that it was, and that it was private property. Their attention was directed to the No Trespassing signs, which they said they didn't see. They finally left after cussing my husband and neighbor.
The other neighbors (whose driveway was used), arrived shortly thereafter. They were upset at someone using their driveway.
The three households discussed it, and we decided to simply get a license plate and/or picture if we can safely do so and simply call the police in the future.
Neighbors have called the police in the past, but are told something different based on who responds or calls back. One officer removed a man from the vacant lot (that guy was belligerent with the officer), and told my neighbor to call anytime. The officer I spoke to today said that he can't remove someone without the individual lot/land owner's consent. That's frustrating, because the homeowners stock the fish, and we've also had to spend hundreds to deal with invasive plant species. We do not get state funding for this. (There are public boat launches and fishing areas in our town for anyone's use, and the upkeep is paid with tax dollars.)
What more can we do? We already have private property signs on our piers behind our houses. The developer has posted No trespassing signs on the vacant lots. One sign is large and says "Private Property: No Hunting, No Fishing."
My husband is going to purchase another sign tomorrow to put on the other neighbors side yard.
I've started a Facebook neighborhood group for neighbors to better communicate. Many are in the age 70+ category (some are in the 80s and 90s), and not all of them are comfortable with technology. I'm concerned about personal and property security due to all the unknown people making their way out here for recreation.
We are also concerned with security if people can so easily access the lake.