One of the prerogatives of running a town is deciding who can own land within the borders of that town. Not only does the other player(s) have to build a town nearby, they have to expand the town, keep paying upkeep while expanding, and then pay twice as much silver as it cost to expand the claim. If you're personal claim is large enough, that's a LOT of town expansions just to cover the costs. Finally, I believe that any personal claims revoked in this way to receive at least some refund (was mentioned by jorb somewhere, but don't recall... I'll see if I can find and link here). I forget the exact amount refunded.
You can easily prevent this by building your own town bell. I know it's expensive. You can just make your claim very large. A 1000 sq m will cost something like 4500-5000 silver, not counting the value of the materials used in building.
Realak wrote:I doubt they would grief a solo hermit with a bell this early, as it requires a significant investment.
I don't put this past anyone....