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Take it from me, deal with it now! our neighbors put in a fence before we moved into our newly constructed house. We had a survey done about 3 years after moving in (never thought of it before, but we were doing landscaping and wanted to plant things far enough off of the front line.
Well, guess what? They basically planted ON our line and their fence, in the back corner, is about 8 inches in our property. Do we care? No. But, we now have a terrible relationship with our neighbors, they are simply very difficult people to live beside. Although they are very quick to report us/confront us with anything they see as an infraction, they did not take kindly to us showing them the survey we had done. They said that NO the fence was not on our property according to their survey. You see how this is going, right?
We said, listen we don't care but if we move then it will be an issue. At that point we dropped it, but I know if the situation were reversed, they would make us move our fence.
The point is this, you need to call the town of wake forest, get up to date on the regulations, you also need to just have that one line surveyed (it shouldn't cost more than 100 bucks), and then go from there.
Agree with the prior posters...talk to wake forest planning department.
Also, take a close read of your deed -- The lines are usually described on the deed. You might not see a surveyor's stake, but there might be one buried just under some leaves or underground. or it might be going from a stake across the street.
Many times, the property boundary is a relatively straight line, or you will find another stake where there is an angle. If you can tie a temporary string from one stake to another, that will go a long way to establishing your property line.
Also, do you live in a neighborhood with an HOA? The folks on the board might have some experience with dealing with this kind of issue & help you with it and/or know where the property boundary stakes are in the front of the house.
A neighbor has started building a fence on my property in downtown Wake Forest. No surveyor's stake is at the front of our properties but the stake IS present at the back (and jives w/ the fences erected by the neighbors in the back). This neighbor has erected posts that are about 18 inches onto my property, until the very back of our yards, when he juts his posts in to respect the boundary line.
Truthfully, I don't care terribly. He's annoying, so a fence of his yard will go a long way to limiting our interaction. But I'm frustrated by his (continued) arrogance, and don't want to face an issue in the not so far of future should I try to sell my house and have the neighbor appropriating about 200 sq feet of my property.
What should I do? Speaking to him just made him laugh. I've read that I might have him sign a written permission for the fence which protects my property ownership and mitigates the potential for adverse possession to be claimed (though I'm not sure I'd get him to sign it). I"m not really in the market to drop $$ on an official survey and court costs to sue him over this. Thoughts??
You need to consult an attorney. You shouldn't let him proceed, so you may need an injunction. Talk to an attorney, to many variables could exist for you later for you to ignore this ludicrous behavior by this neighbor. What an a--.
I'll be curious to hear how you end up resolving this. My parents have been fighting their neighbor for years over some privacy bushes on their property line and at this point they're just praying these people move in the very near future since police and city officials and lawyers have done little to resolve things.
If you can't find the surveyor's iron, it might be buried. We wanted to put in a line of Green Giant arborvitae to hide the remains of a forest our neighbors cut down between us and them, but couldn't find the metal stake. We rented a metal detector for a few bucks and found it right away, buried in the ground with the pink ribbon still on it. Turns out we had about twenty feet more yard than we thought.
Take it from me, deal with it now! our neighbors put in a fence before we moved into our newly constructed house. We had a survey done about 3 years after moving in (never thought of it before, but we were doing landscaping and wanted to plant things far enough off of the front line.
Well, guess what? They basically planted ON our line and their fence, in the back corner, is about 8 inches in our property. Do we care? No. But, we now have a terrible relationship with our neighbors, they are simply very difficult people to live beside. Although they are very quick to report us/confront us with anything they see as an infraction, they did not take kindly to us showing them the survey we had done. They said that NO the fence was not on our property according to their survey. You see how this is going, right?
We said, listen we don't care but if we move then it will be an issue. At that point we dropped it, but I know if the situation were reversed, they would make us move our fence.
The point is this, you need to call the town of wake forest, get up to date on the regulations, you also need to just have that one line surveyed (it shouldn't cost more than 100 bucks), and then go from there.
Leigh
there really CAN'T be a dispute about property lines. Any decent surveyor I know, if they encounter a situation where there's a small enroachment, they are definitely double-checking to make sure.
Your neighbor should show you their survey then, done AFTER the fence was built, that reflects it being within their property.
15 years ago in Wake County (time & jursidiction) when I bought an older home, we discovered via survey the neighbors' fence encroached in an area. We got along fine with them. And my real estate attorney's advice then, that I followed, was to be nice and tell my neighbor everything first, but also to send them a certified letter. The letter basically stated "no problem for now, but I'm documenting the encroachment and retain the right to change my mind anytime."
This stopped any "7 year adverse posession clock", and also if they sold their house (which they actually did eventually) their Buyers couldn't make any claim either.
And remember - these are folks we got along with. If you don't, all the more reason to have everything done legally.
To the point of Adverse Possession, try reading the statutes and you'll understand the need to consult a lawyer for a real answer. General info - in order for your neighbor to claim adverse possession the use has to be open and notorious, without your approval, and he has to pay taxes on the property for a certain number of years. Unless he's going down to the tax office and paying taxes on the slice of property he's using there can't be a claim of adverse possession.
Recommendation - fix it now, not later. When you want to sell the house your buyer will probably pull a survey and find the encroachment. They'll probably insist on it being fixed as a condition of purchase. Since they may not want that hassle, and may not want to be left with the bad blood it will generate, there's a good chance they'll cancel the purchase. You'll be pressured to resolve the issue fast so its not an issue for the next buyer that makes an offer.
Recommendation - fix it now, not later. When you want to sell the house your buyer will probably pull a survey and find the encroachment. They'll probably insist on it being fixed as a condition of purchase. Since they may not want that hassle, and may not want to be left with the bad blood it will generate, there's a good chance they'll cancel the purchase. You'll be pressured to resolve the issue fast so its not an issue for the next buyer that makes an offer.
When we were selling our home, two "done deals" in our neighborhood fell through because of encroachment. Survey revealed the overhang on the garage of one almost-sold home was on a neighboring property. In the other case, the corner of a neighbor's shed was on the almost-sold property. In both cases, the buyers did not want to wait around to resolve the issue and backed out.
I would strongly encourage you to fix it now while there are only posts to contend with.
On top of the other points, a tyrant only grows greedier if unchecked. Some people discover that others are timid to argue so they go after all they can get, by whatever means. No matter how they got it, they consider it their holy property.
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