Help! Is this encroachment? (Philadelphia, Penn: real estate, houses, neighborhood)

[calvinahh]

I recently purchased and a house and moving in this weekend the neighborhood of Pennsport. Came home yesterday found out my neighbor son-in-law is building him a wheelchair ramp. The only problem is the entrance of the ramp is basically at the border of our house.

I tried to talk him into changing his layout and told him that I'm planning to make a garden there with a gate.. and when a gate goes up his father-in-law will not be able to get in or our. His response 'if you do that he will not be able to get in or out. You basically fcked him. I don't know where you came from but in this neighborhood we don't do that to each other. Like when you were fixing your property did you have all permits ? No body call inspection on you. That's why we are neighbor.'

I made it clear to him that I don't want to reliable to any potential slip or fall on my property. He refused to fix the layout (reason: no budget).

I called my real estate agent and was advice that he will call the city (license and inspection) first thing Monday. This is the last resort.

I just moved into this neighborhood and don't really want to upset the neighbor. I'm first homeowner and don't know how to deal with this kind of situation.

What can I do ? Help!


Image attached:



The from wood plank on the ground to the left is my house the right is my neighbor.

[maf763]

What would you rather have - your little garden or peace with your neighbor? The picture is too small to see much, but it sounds as though his ramp comes just to the edge of your house. Is there any room to do something else with the ramp, like extend it on a 90% angle to the front? You can offer to pay the difference or you can live with it the way he has it.

Personally, I'd live with it. There's limited space in the city and the ramp may be a temporary thing, but mainly I'd rather be considerate of a disabled neighbor.

[calvinahh]

Originally Posted by maf763

What would you rather have - your little garden or peace with your neighbor? The picture is too small to see much, but it sounds as though his ramp comes just to the edge of your house. Is there any room to do something else with the ramp, like extend it on a 90% angle to the front? You can offer to pay the difference or you can live with it the way he has it.

Personally, I'd live with it. There's limited space in the city and the ramp may be a temporary thing, but mainly I'd rather be considerate of a disabled neighbor.

The garden is not the main thing that I am worry about. The house is heavily traffic (meaning many people come in and out daily) and everyone come in/out that house basically have to go through my property.

I'm very concern about liability which who responsible for the damage to the asphalt from usage ? when it snow who will responsible to clear out the snow ?

I offered his son-in-law top chip in 200$ to buy wood material to maybe add a landing and turn the ramp entrance the other way. He refused and he said there are labor costs too. Do I supposed to pay for labor too ?

[Avalon08]

Isn't that the sidewalk? You were going to tear up the sidewalk to put in a garden?

Anyway, could you take a photo from further away so we can see both houses? It doesn't look like there would much room for him to angle the ramp any other way. Do you own the sidewalk in front of your house? I do understand your concern about liability. Every time he (or anyone else) comes down or goes up that ramp, he's on your part of the sidewalk that you're liable for. If someone slips and falls down the ramp and ends up on your property, are you liable? I guess I would be concerned, too.

However, the neighbor's son sounds like he's threatening you. Did you do work to the house that required a permit that you didn't have? If so, it will be a little tough to pursue a building code violation against him. Anyway, I guess the first place to look is the L&I to see what the code is and whether there are special exceptions for those with disabilities.

[Padugan]

that ramp isn't to code anyway. haven't read it in awhile, but i thought it had to be 1 inch of height for every 1 foot of travel. so you would need a 12 foot long ramp to go 1 foot up. This is why handicap ramps zig-zag in order to achieve the correct ratio.

Like I said, haven't read it in awhile so I could be wrong. but my guess is that if L&I got involved they would make him re do it anyway to correct it. might be worth contacting them so they look like the bad guy, not you. but then that all depends on if he knows you are the one that called. At the very least I hope gramps has some good breaks on that wheelchair.

*edit
by the way, you don't own the sidewalk in front of the house. (a common misconception in philly, same goes for the parking spot in front of the house). So not sure you'd be able to build a garden there anyway. You are responsible for maintaining the sidewalk, by clearing snow, debris, ice, etc. but you can't for example rip it up and put in a pond or plant grass etc.

[calvinahh]

Originally Posted by Padugan

that ramp isn't to code anyway. haven't read it in awhile, but i thought it had to be 1 inch of height for every 1 foot of travel. so you would need a 12 foot long ramp to go 1 foot up. This is why handicap ramps zig-zag in order to achieve the correct ratio.

Like I said, haven't read it in awhile so I could be wrong. but my guess is that if L&I got involved they would make him re do it anyway to correct it. might be worth contacting them so they look like the bad guy, not you. but then that all depends on if he knows you are the one that called. At the very least I hope gramps has some good breaks on that wheelchair.

*edit
by the way, you don't own the sidewalk in front of the house. (a common misconception in philly, same goes for the parking spot in front of the house). So not sure you'd be able to build a garden there anyway. You are responsible for maintaining the sidewalk, by clearing snow, debris, ice, etc. but you can't for example rip it up and put in a pond or plant grass etc.

I should clarify garden in my term. It would be a small gate with a few plants pot.

[Avalon08]

Did your realtor get L&I today? By the looks of the photo, you don't have much time before that thing is done.

And I agree with Padugan -- the ramp is too steep. Can you imagine the guy trying to wheel himself up that thing? (Much less stop himself on the way down!)

[Goldblum57]

Ramp is way too steep. Call the cops or the code inspector. That ramp would be a disaster for both of your properties.

[PennKid]

Man, this is a tough situation. A quick google search reveals that Philadelphia is perhaps the most problematic city on the East Coast when it comes to meeting ADA requirements- simply because our architectural stock is very difficult to retrofit. It seems that yes, the ramp is out of code- but so are hundreds of others in the city, and the city looks the other way. And as far as it being too steep, I'm assuming that someone is going to be helping him up and down the ramp. I'm going to have to say that you, too, should probably look the other way, considering that in a tight-knit neighborhood like Pennsport, it would REALLY suck to make an enemy.

[phillies2011]

Personally in my opinion it's too late to call L&I. Considering you already got into it with your neighbor about this, he'll obviously know where that tip came from. If you ask me, no tiny garden is worth making an enemy of your neighbor, a crippled one at that. I'd just deal with it.

I wouldn't be too worried about being sued if something happened... considering they have an obviously illegal ramp I doubt they'd be very anxious to take you to court in such a situation, and I can't imagine how you'd be found liable. Your sidewalk is fine shape. So what can they possibly blame you for. Just make sure to quickly shovel and salt your property when it snows and you'll be fine.

On the bright side I imagine the ramp is only temporary. If it's not gone in a year or two, you can always make an anonymous tip to L&I then if it's really bothering you. At least then it wouldn't be so obvious that you're behind it.

Right now I'd be concentrating on just smoothing things over with the neighbor. Who wants to have bad blood among the people you live with? No garden is worth this kind of stress. Let it go.