
File this under: "The Problems of VERY Rich People."
Kevin Costner has been dragged into a nasty legal war with his neighbor in
Carpinteria, CA -- an upscale beach community near
Santa Barbara.
Long
story short -- the neighbor, Rick Grimm, claims he bought a SICK beach
property back in 2009 with KILLER views of the ocean and coastline ...
and it happens to be located right behind Costner's pad.

Problem
is ... the neighbor claims Costner is paranoid about his privacy and
planted a bunch of
trees and shrubs to make sure nobody from Grimm's
property can see into his home ... trees which are now blocking Grimm's
once-spectacular view.
Grimm filed a lawsuit, obtained by
SBView.com,
claiming he TRIED to play nice -- sending multiple requests to Kevin
and his wife to trim the hedges -- but the Costners blew him off ... and
planted even TALLER trees.
Grimm says Costner is contractually
bound to NOT plant trees which obstruct Grimm's view ... but Kevin
doesn't care. According to the suit, Kevin made it clear to Rick's
people he would not "back down" and would "do everything in his power to
secure his privacy."
Grimm is now asking a judge to force Kevin
to chop down his trees ... PLUS he wants at least $150,000 in damages
for loss of enjoyment and $500k for damage to his
property value if the
trees don't come down.
A rep for Costner had no comment.