New neighbor wants to replace my fence? How to avoid future problems?

[jamies]

I have a weird situation in my front yard. Part of my yard is on my neighbor's land by about 3 feet. Between the houses we have about a 150 ft retaining wall that is all mine. But it's his responsibility to maintain the slope. The front 20 ft or so used to just slope to his driveway, but my (technically his) decorative gravel and dirt was always sliding into his driveway, and made a mess of "my" yard (which is actually his yard - confused yet?).

If we straightened out the wall he'd have a big dirt mess by his driveway to have to fill. (We are talking $600K homes.)

So I offered to extend the wall out to the sidewalk along his driveway, we're only talking a 3 ft high wall that drops to about 18" at the end. It solves the mess problem and both homes look much better. Even though 3 ft of "my" yard is actually his yard.

Solved our mutual dilema. Basically building the wall was my gift to him. It was a work of art, perfectly level and straight. It'll be there when we're both worm food.

I probably wouldn't recommend this to most folks. But, we've been neighbors for years, and I've done a lot of masonry. Several years later we are both happy. Also, we'd talked about it off and on for a couple of years before we built it.

Neighbors CAN get along.

Epilogue:
About a month after the wall was in the neighbor across the street backed his million dollar Prevost motorhome into the end of my wall. My SOLID CONCRETE poured wall... It put a scratch in the wall, and caused about $20,000.00 damage to the RV. Boy was he mad. WTF was he doing backing a bus into my yard? But technically it was my neighbors yard. Anyway they sold shortly after. And I need a drink.

[Woody01]

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry

Have him put the fence on his property and there’s no problem. Putting it on your property is guaranteed to cause a problem eventually especially if you ever decide to sell.

This ^^ Why let him put his fence on your property? Just asking for trouble down the road.....

Either put it right on the property line and split the cost or let him put it on his side and do whatever he wants.....

[beckerd2]

I am curious on what are you going to do IF the county decides to raise your property taxes because of this improvement? Are you going to tell them "no, no, no that fence is my neighbors, but I am allowing him to have it on my property." I do not think they will listen. I know rural unincorporated areas of AZ are not very strigent, but it could happen. They may get a wild hair about needing more money and start looking at satelite images (which they do...I have had them tell me that about my unincorporated property) to look at what is on your property.
Looks like almost all the previous posts are telling you to have the guy put it on his property. That should probably tell you something.

[urbex]

Originally Posted by beckerd2

I am curious on what are you going to do IF the county decides to raise your property taxes because of this improvement?

Well gee, maybe this is why I'm asking questions rather than just knee-jerk reacting or doing nothing and hoping for the best?

[curly5759]

I have a similar situation as the OP, but with better results. (So far). My property is right next to a gated development that was put in before I moved here. After the 2008 crash, the development sat idle ( no homes at all) until last year. Now,there are 2 Mcmansions on the other side of my barbed wire fence. The developer came and talked to us about the fence, well placement, etc.

The survey showed the barbed wire fence was right on the property line, so they built a 6 ft block wall on the line. Cost me nothing, but did ruin a great view of the nearby mountains. The developer also agreed to lower the fence at the S end of the property to preserve some of the view.

So, I have a new fence for no cost and the loss of a priceless view. Win some, lose some.

[smoochaz]

Originally Posted by mikeugh

Why replace it? Why doesn't he just build a fence on his side of the property?

Exactly! He doesn't need to touch yours. He can go ahead and build his fence on his property and then it's up to you if you want to remove your barbed wire fence.... he shouldn't touch it. But since it's unincorporated land I would double check with the town and see how best to proceed.

[AZ Desert Guy]

Originally Posted by urbex

Guy bought property bordering my land in an unincorporated area. I have a barbed wire fence sitting roughly 6 inches inside the property line on my side, so that it is 100% on my property. Looks just like the ancient barbed wire that is around virtually all other rural properties. I.E.- nothing fancy, rusty, but not falling apart either.



He clearly has WAY more money than I do, and wants to rip up my barbed wire fence and replace it with something else. Haven't yet heard the details on it, just that I got a note asking if I was OK with it.



On one hand, sure..I'd love a new fence that I don't have to pay for! But given that it it's currently entirely on my property, I also don't want to set myself up for a future property line dispute, nor do I want to find myself on the receiving end of a bill for tens of thousands of dollars that I can't afford to cover half of some super fancy fence that he might decide to put in (I honestly don't know what fancy fences cost, but I do know that if it's more than new barbed wire, I likely can't afford it right now nor do I want to be on the hook for future maintenance costs of such a thing)



I've read about drafting up a "rental" agreement for putting his fence on my land, and this would avoid any future issues with adverse possession claims since I'm expressly allowing the use. Is this something where I could basically say I'm allowing him to use my land for free for this fence, wherein he would be liable for 100% of the construction, maintenance and repair costs, but not have any rental costs involved?



Or is this the kind of thing that could get real sticky real fast, and I'm going to want a lawyer involved regardless of what his plans are?

Avoid problems, tell him to put it 6" inside of HIS property and stay off of yours.

I own a home on a 1 acre lot I was renting out for several years that has only one close neighbor, a widow in her 60's who lives alone. In 2021 she placed a 6' privacy fence on her side, about 140 feet long, about 6" in on her side as she did not like my tenants much at the time (I ended up not renewing that lease, they were not decent tenants).

I moved into the property last year, and talked to my neighbor about fencing, she allowed me to tie into her fence in 2 spots (the 6" onto her property) so I could make a containment area for my back yard to keep my dogs in and javalinas out.

She told us last week her son has built her a casita on his property in Winslow, and her home will be up for sale soon. so the fence arrangement may not last much longer. I am sad, she is a great neighbor, but I understand why she is moving.

Hopefully the new buyers will be decent folks also, but if not I may also have a fence issue.

[fengxg]

Your neighbor's intention might be more innocent than you think. There are several possibilities:
1. He wants to put a fence within the boundary of his property, and wants to rip off your fence for cosmetic reason. In this scenario your neighbor doesn't need your permission to put up the fence, and it doesn't have any adverse impact to your property, so you make the call if you want to rip your fence.
2. He wants to put a fence ON the boundary line. In this scenario, you two needs to agree on two things. One is the boundary line location. If you two agree where the boundary line is, or one party doesn't care, then you two can save a survey. If not, then you two needs to agree on the cost of the survey. Another thing needs consensus is the cost of the fence. By law it is both sides responsibility but if he agrees to pay all by himself, it is OK if both of you put it on paper and have it notarized. Remember in this scenario the new fence will be the legal boundary line after 5 years (in Arizona). It will override any survey. This is called adverse possession.
3. He wants to put the fence on your side of the boundary line. This is a NO NO and I don't see any good intention for doing that.

So why don't you talk to your neighbor about his true intention. The good news is a wealthy neighbor is always better than a financially stressed neighbor.