Fence Rights - Can neighbor eradicate plants touching his fence on my side of the fence? (Brookhaven: for sale, lawyers)
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"this guy" sounds like he needs a good beatin'
"this guy" and the couple of 100K just like him are part of the reason LI quality of life is in the toilet...just sayin...
Actually, I can tell you exactly what is legal or not as we went to court over this very issue, a number of years ago. My neighbor had a chicken wire fencing. We were friends in that I would do for them and they would do for us. We even photographed their daughter's wedding. The husband dies and the woman goes off the deep end. We had been weeding one day and I like you have an extensive cottage garden, anyway, she was outside and we said to her, this chicken wire fencing, don't know who it even belongs to as when we bought the house it was up. She goes on to say it is hers. We said it is kind of ugly, rusted, etc., would you mind if we replaced it with a wooden picket fence that we would paint ourselves, as we are on the water and we didn't want to obstruct the view for her or us. She says that would be nice and fine, no problem. She must have thought it was going to be done that next week or something, as she became irrate that it wasn't done within two weeks of this convo and approaches the subject. I said we are real busy workwise and it would be done in the fall/early winter, as this was July. Next thing I know, she puts up a 6' stockade fence, all views now are gone and to boot, she does the nice side to her house, which isn't a law to do it the other way, but a courtesy to your neighbors for them not to have to look at the "guts" of the fence. So I hated it, period. I put in more plants and ivy which I wanted to grow up on my side to block the hideous wooden fence. She didn't like that and asked me to remove it as she said it would rot her fence. I told her that I was within my rights and didn't appreciate a 6' solid wood fence put up when we had already told her that we would put up a fence you could see through to replace the ugly and dangerous chicken wire one, she had had. At least that one you could see through! We began to not talk as she wasn't getting her way with me and my plants being removed. Then all things came to blows when at 8:30 a.m. when we normally would have been at work, only this day both my husband and I had taken off from work, he was at the bank. I was getting my daughter ready for school when I spied this man on my side of the yard doing something. I thought at first it was my husband taking out the garbage as the cans were near the area. But upon closer inspection I found it to be her gardener which he spilled the beans about, had been called by her to come over "early, when the neighbors are at work" and to pull out and remove all my azaelas, rhodadendrons, ivy, irises, lilly of the valley, daisies, and hydrangea bushes, etc. I started to cry as he was on his hands and knees with vines over his shoulder and plants strewn all over my property. I asked him who he thought he was and how could he do such a thing as I know him as well as our kids even played with each other in elementary school!!!!!! He apologized and said she made me do it! By now my husband who I called on his cell had returned from his errand and the police were there giving him a citation. She never came out. We went to court, won our case (even though he threatened us in the parking log of the courthouse and all for ruining HIS reputation as a landscaper, (he had a change of heart after his apology) and wanted to punch my husband in the face) and she had to pay to replace all the plants that were destroyed by him. She said she never told him to do it to the judge, which was ridiculous as in why would a gardener not hired by you, come over and destroy all the plants running along the property line? So ridiculous. So, in a long winded fashion, no he cannot take anything off of your property when he puts up the fence. You must remove things on the property line and only that. Otherwise face court action.
Ah, okay, I had thought from reading one of the other posts that it was today.
Elke's suggestion was good though, if you contact the town they will have at least one survey on file in the Building Department; more than one if anything was done to your house that required a permit, such as adding a room, a deck, or an inground pool. All of those require an updated survey to be submitted, I believe.
The survey would be out of date. Rooms and such were added on and changed prior to my taking possession. The original information on the house has it as a 3br, 1 bath when it's a 3/4 br, 1.5 bath now.
However, I will venture a call to the town of crookhaven tomorrow to see if I can at least ascertain my property line with it.
Actually, I can tell you exactly what is legal or not as we went to court over this very issue, a number of years ago. My neighbor had a chicken wire fencing. We were friends in that I would do for them and they would do for us. We even photographed their daughter's wedding. The husband dies and the woman goes off the deep end. We had been weeding one day and I like you have an extensive cottage garden, anyway, she was outside and we said to her, this chicken wire fencing, don't know who it even belongs to as when we bought the house it was up. She goes on to say it is hers. We said it is kind of ugly, rusted, etc., would you mind if we replaced it with a wooden picket fence that we would paint ourselves, as we are on the water and we didn't want to obstruct the view for her or us. She says that would be nice and fine, no problem. She must have thought it was going to be done that next week or something, as she became irrate that it wasn't done within two weeks of this convo and approaches the subject. I said we are real busy workwise and it would be done in the fall/early winter, as this was July. Next thing I know, she puts up a 6' stockade fence, all views now are gone and to boot, she does the nice side to her house, which isn't a law to do it the other way, but a courtesy to your neighbors for them not to have to look at the "guts" of the fence. So I hated it, period. I put in more plants and ivy which I wanted to grow up on my side to block the hideous wooden fence. She didn't like that and asked me to remove it as she said it would rot her fence. I told her that I was within my rights and didn't appreciate a 6' solid wood fence put up when we had already told her that we would put up a fence you could see through to replace the ugly and dangerous chicken wire one, she had had. At least that one you could see through! We began to not talk as she wasn't getting her way with me and my plants being removed. Then all things came to blows when at 8:30 a.m. when we normally would have been at work, only this day both my husband and I had taken off from work, he was at the bank. I was getting my daughter ready for school when I spied this man on my side of the yard doing something. I thought at first it was my husband taking out the garbage as the cans were near the area. But upon closer inspection I found it to be her gardener which he spilled the beans about, had been called by her to come over "early, when the neighbors are at work" and to pull out and remove all my azaelas, rhodadendrons, ivy, irises, lilly of the valley, daisies, and hydrangea bushes, etc. I started to cry as he was on his hands and knees with vines over his shoulder and plants strewn all over my property. I asked him who he thought he was and how could he do such a thing as I know him as well as our kids even played with each other in elementary school!!!!!! He apologized and said she made me do it! By now my husband who I called on his cell had returned from his errand and the police were there giving him a citation. She never came out. We went to court, won our case (even though he threatened us in the parking log of the courthouse and all for ruining HIS reputation as a landscaper, (he had a change of heart after his apology) and wanted to punch my husband in the face) and she had to pay to replace all the plants that were destroyed by him. She said she never told him to do it to the judge, which was ridiculous as in why would a gardener not hired by you, come over and destroy all the plants running along the property line? So ridiculous. So, in a long winded fashion, no he cannot take anything off of your property when he puts up the fence. You must remove things on the property line and only that. Otherwise face court action.
are you sure? i was told by my fence guy that the nice side must face yours. you should complain because after all, you have a say in whether the fence goes up.
Rooms and such were added on and changed prior to my taking possession. The original information on the house has it as a 3br, 1 bath when it's a 3/4 br, 1.5 bath now.
If a CO was obtained for the added rooms and half bath, there is probably an updated survey on file with the Building Dept.
The Assessor's Office might not have it but the Building Department's file should contain it..... along with the permits, inspections, COs and CCs that were (hopefully!!!!) obtained by the former owners.
Sorry, but if a 6-foot fence is allowed by Town code in the part of the yard that the fence is going to be put in (the backyard), and if the fence is put anywhere INSIDE the fence owner's property line (even if only by a few inches) and the fence owner obtains a permit from the Town .... that person's neighbors have NOTHING to say.
No more than if you were to put up a legal (conforming) shed on your property, or build a deck, or put in a swimming pool.
Unless someone does (or wants to do) something that is NOT currently permitted by the town's building code, their neighbors have nothing to say and no basis for objection.
Now if the Town code says "No fences more than 4 ft high permitted anywhere on this kind of property" or "... on this type of property line", and someone wants to or puts up a 6 ft fence instead, then yes then the neighbors have a voice in the process.
But if a 6-footer is allowed by code in that circumstance, and a 6-footer goes up with a permit, then there is no legal grounds for objection by anyone else.
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