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I am moving a fence because it appears that it was placed about a ft. over my new neighbors property line. I have been quoted $$650 for a surveyor to mark the corners of my property..not in my budget! I have an unattached garage next to this fence and am wondering if I can use that as a gauge to figure out how many feet are allowed next to the garage in the Town of Oyster Bay...The home was built about 1920 but the garage is from the '60's. Any advice without having a survey done for this fence? Seems such a shame it's only about a 20ft. long strip of fencing!
I am moving a fence because it appears that it was placed about a ft. over my new neighbors property line. I have been quoted $$650 for a surveyor to mark the corners of my property..not in my budget! I have an unattached garage next to this fence and am wondering if I can use that as a gauge to figure out how many feet are allowed next to the garage in the Town of Oyster Bay...The home was built about 1920 but the garage is from the '60's. Any advice without having a survey done for this fence? Seems such a shame it's only about a 20ft. long strip of fencing!
If you have an old survey from when you bought the house, you can use the distances from the house and garage on the survey to find the approximate location of the lot line. You can then place the fence a few feet behind this approximate lot line to ensure its on your side. Ask your neighbor for a copy of their survey, that way you can double check the approximate lot line location using measurements from their structures.
If you do have an old survey, you may want to contact the surveyor who did it to stake out the lot line. For $650 you can get a entire new survey done, not just shooting one line in my experience. After doing a survey on my previous property, the same surveyor charged me $100 or $150 to mark the location of one lot line.
^ agree with everything jonny said. We contacted the previous surveyor and he charged half to do updates... we weren't lucky enough to get charged only $100. Good idea about asking for the neighbor's survey, especially if they're the ones making you move your fence.
Our fence installer also told us that if you've encroached on their property line for 10(?) years already and nothing was done about it, then that space actually becomes yours. Never verified though. Also Oyster Bay.
Good stuff here. I recently shopped around and got the updated survey (assuming you have an old one) for $450 which seemed to be the going rate. Whole property. More than you want to spend but that $650 quote for one line is highway robbery.
Our fence installer also told us that if you've encroached on their property line for 10(?) years already and nothing was done about it, then that space actually becomes yours. Never verified though. Also Oyster Bay.
Just wanted to update with a clarification another user PM'd me with regarding the above...
Quote:
Originally Posted by unctorious
the legal concept the fence installer was referring to is known as "adverse possession" - it's not as clear cut as the fence installer made it out to be though, if the intrusion is de minimus, the court won't uphold the change of the boundary line, the NYS legislature actually changed the law regarding adverse possession in I think 2006, the idea that people can basically legally steal another's property is one that doesn't sit well with most - the idea behind AP was that land shouldn't sit unused, it was basically to prevent naked speculation, if a person started farming on land that legally belonged to another who wasn't using that land for another, then they got to keep it after a period of time - it was to encourage the productive use of land - another thing, adverse possession must be without the owner's consent - so if your neighbor's fence runs on your land, have them sign a boundary line agreement which says "we acknowledge our fence is on their land, it is there with their permission" - no more AP, you can recover your land when need be
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