Fence Issue: Neighbor Moving; fence attached

[JanND]

I would have her remove it now. Why deal w/ this BS. She obviously misled you about the need for the fence. Plus, you sound like you'd like to change the fence line after you remove those trees, allowing for your additional footage in your front. I would just send the certified letter, and copy the HOA....and demand that she remedy the fence situation asap, prior to her sale of the home. File an injunction if you have too. She certainly should not have led her buyers to believe that you were granting use of your property....if she did she misrepresented. Tell her that you've been made aware that the portion she had attached to your fence is not permitted, and do not want to assume the future situations this could cause. I am not sure....but I believe allowing this indefinitely will sort of be like allowing your property to be taken over, eventually you may have to fight for what is already yours. I like to be a good neighbor, but I strongly believe their has to be boundaries in every sense of the word to prevent this "being taken advantage of. If she wants to detach her fence from yours, and complete a proper fence using her property line, that would be another solution...but you should not have to give up any portion of your property...
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Originally Posted by Buildscharacter

Hello All,

I have a little issue that I would like to get some opinions on regarding a little bit of a fence issue that has come up.

We just purchased our first home (a real fixer-upper in an HOA) in September, and have been slowly doing work on the house over the past 4 months.

After living in the house for two weeks, one of my neighbors approached us and informed us that she was putting in a fence along the road-facing side of her property. She too had just moved into her house about 5 months prior to us, so she asked if she could attach her fence to mine to close off her yard. The problem was that my fence sits about 3' back from my property line (there's a row of trees that the previous owner didn't bother to cut down to put up the fence on the property line) and the piece of fence that my neighbor needed to put up would be completely on my property. I agreed that she could put the fence up, as I knew she had young children and an elderly dog that was prone to wandering (found him in my back yard).

About two weeks ago, I was searching around houses in the area (old habits die hard...) to see what was for sale and I saw my neighbor's house up for sale. Seeing as how she had only been in the house for a period of 7-8 months and is asking $75k higher than she paid, it became apparent that she was attempting to flip the house for a profit.

Here is where I stand. I stopped over there to talk to her, rung her doorbell and she answered. She was very pleasant until I mentioned to her that I saw her house was for sale (she never posted a sign out front)...she immediatly turned to a frown. I explained to her that I was okay with having the fence piece up because it was her and her family living there, but with a potential move pending, I wasn't comfortable allowing someone else to move in with their property attached in the way that it is, as it could lead to some property line disputes in the future. She informed me that she already had a buyer and had told them that the piece of fence was approved by the neighbor (me). She was very curt, agreed to remove it and closed the door. She obviously wasn't pleased.

My ideal resolution is that the fence comes down in the next 2 weeks and prior to the final sale of the house.

I have some questions:

1. From the research that I have done, I know it's very difficult for someone else to claim property, especially since everything is laid out and documented in the survey and initial plot plans filed with the city...that being said, do you think I have anything to even be concerned about? Or am I more pissed that I agreed to do something nice and neighborly and it turned out she was just sprucing it up to flip?

2. Since I've already gone over there and talked to her about it, I am going to send her a certified letter reiterating the conversation that we had. I'm going to copy the HOA as well. The way that I figure it, if this becomes and issue later on, it's best that I've documented it. Should I be bringing in the HOA? Is this even an issue they would be concerned about?

3. What other options do I have? I know that she filed a permit with the city to get the fence, got the thing inspected and then had the fence guys come out and do the last bit to attach to mine because she didn't want to have to get the plans re-written. Is that just incredibly horrible to potentially stall the sale of her house by contacting the city on a permit violation?

4. Seeing as how the piece of fence is on my yard, do I have the right to remove it? I've read in places that you must ask to remove something like that and give them time (a year?!?!) to remove it.

At the end of the day, I don't have a problem with my neighbor and I don't have a problem with her trying to sell her house. What I do have a problem with is being straight up lied to about the reasons for putting up the fence and then trying to profit from it. I just want to know what I should be doing to a) get the fence removed b) not get into any type of confrontation because well....it's just a fence.

[MRMMPM55]

Hello. I have a problem, a neighbour ask if they could hook up on our fence on one side .we agreed because they had two small kids and our street is very busy. He put it up late fall ,then it went up for sale and sold by december . We agreed to the old neighbour but not the new neighbours. They have two big dogs ! When we go out side or when they put them out, there is constant barking and they come charging against our fence ,which is 30 years old.. He did get a permit for three sides but only put up two because of the agreement. We want the fence unhooked . Do we have the right ? It is on our prperty. We are hoping that if the fence gets unhooked it will force them to run the other side and that will reenforce our fence against the dogs. P.s. We are going to be prisoners in our own house! We lived there for 67yrs. Hoping we can die there in piece.

[Magnolia Bloom]

I'd just tell them that the fence must be removed for insurance purposes and then send a letter recapping the conversation, giving them two weekends to remove it and thanking them. Instead of sending it certified, I would scan and send it via email, too. It's friendlier and if they respond to the email, that would serve as proof of receipt.

[Meezermama]

Talk to a lawyer about this. I'm sure also that you received title insurance. This fence is encroaching on your property and you want that in writing. But as I said, talk to a real estate attorney for your options - and you do have options. If you leave it as is, at some point your property becomes their property. Do NOT let sleeping dogs lie under these circumstances.

I think you also have the right to move the fence if they are uncooperative and refuse to do it. If they have a problem with that, you show them your survey. They are not paying your property taxes - you are.

[cully]

Too many issues to have allowed, even verbally, someone to take over use of 3' of your property. Who cares for those trees, who pays when a child is hurt in "her yard" but it's really on your property. If there's a survey done for the loan it will be found the property line is off. If you go to sell, same thing. If you sell and it isn't caught but your next buyer goes to sell or refininace and it's caught they could sue you.

Actually flipping is not the issue because there would be the same problems if she moved in just a few years. In fact, it would be worse if she was claiming your yard for longer.

You might contact her realtor if there is one. What does the listing you found say....that she has has this nice yard with all these trees she planted along her fence? To be honest, if I were a buyer and found that out I'd wonder what else she fudged and rigged and manipulated inside the house too.

Get it dealt with now or it'll just come back on you later.