Among Friends

[Lipstickdiva]

This happened to my best friend. She and her husband bought a home that had an existing fence.  Part of the fence was on the neighbor's property and that was okay with the elderly neighbor so nothing was ever done. 

Fast forward 20 years and the elderly neighbor sold the house.  About a week later, my friends gets a letter from the new neighbor that her fence is on their property and they want it moved. 

There was nothing my friend could do but move the fence.  It was clearly in the neighbor's yard and even though it had been up for the 20 years they lived in the house plus who knows how many years prior, that didn't matter.  When my friend moved in, they should have gotten an agreement in writing from the neighbor about the property the fence was on and it would have been all good. 

[Pook]

When we put our 5 ' chain link fence in we had to get a permit and were told it could not be directly on the property line and had to have at least a foot between properties.  If we were to put up a solid privacy fence we would have had to get our neighbor sign off on it.  I would think most areas have such mandates and a permit is needed and it seems like your neighbor didn't do this.

[gardenman]

Property lines, especially in the country, can be a bit ephemeral. The property next to ours has been surveyed three times in the last twenty years. Each time the property line ended up in a different spot. It moved about two feet one time.

We had an old fence in place that my grandfather had put up. That fence was put up a foot inside what was then the property line. I replaced that fence maybe fifteen years ago and put the new fence up inside the old fence so our dog couldn't sneak out without a fence in place. I then removed the old fence. At the last survey, the surveyors said our fence was exactly on the property line by their survey.

Surveying is typically done from a known location, and in the country without water mains, fire hydrants, etc. it can be challenging for the surveyor to find a "known" location. The latitude and longitude on the deeds often bear no resemblance to the readings they get from their modern GPS units. Very often the maps and math don't match up and the surveyors resort to the old, "It's more or less here, or so."

[sabatini]

TMI.

Good luck! So glad you're having the survey done today.  

[DiAnne]

I put up a fence around my backyard when I bought this house 25-years ago and I know a survey was not done.  Recently the back fence went down in a windstorm and was replaced.  The neighbor made the arrangements to replace it (I paid half) and again no survey was done.  It must not be a requirement in Washington State.  

[Still Raining]

We had this type of thing come up with an older fence between our yards.  When the neighbor had a survey (for either a pool or a sale, I forget) we all found out that his fence came over onto our property for a shortish distance at the bottom of the hill.  We just all agreed to forget it.

[HappyDaze]

@Gayle2 ah yes, very familar with these types of issues and currently dealing with two.

In our area, you don't have to have a permit to build a fence but if they build it on someone else's property and they get caught, they will have to take it down unless you grant them an easement. In my case, it appears they have built a shooting range at least several feet into my property and it is facing my property which is against the law (you can't shoot towards/into someone else's property for obvious reasons). There are still survey flags and markers up from the last survey and it appears they tore them down in the area where they put up the range. I will now have to leave a note on their gate (can't get to their house) and ask them to call me so we can work this out. I don't know anything about them but if they refuse to work with us, I will have to get the surveyor back out and then ask them to remove the range and have it not face our property since we hike our property with the dogs all the time. If they refuse, I will have to get a lawyer involved which will not make me happy and will cost a bit of money although I suspect just a letter from the lawyer with proof that it is on my proeprty from a surveyor will be enough for them to fix it (hopefully??) It is frustrating but if you aren't careful, slowly neighbors can whittle away your property lines!

Let us know what the surveyor says about their fence and how it all works out.

[HappyDaze]

---

@wismiss wrote:

Did they put the fence up themselves or did they hire a company to do it?  Hopefully it was a company---then the company will have to correct it.

In our state if someone encroaches on your property and nothing is done to correct the situation, after a certain number of years (I believe it is 10), the encroached property then belongs to them and no longer belongs to you, so I would definitely check this out.

By the way, I recently bought a house and gave up putting an offer in on a house I loved because just by looking you could tell that the sitting area on the property that I wanted was clearly over the lot line and I was not about to absorb the cost of correcting the situation.  Maybe years ago neighbors were more laid back about sharing space, but it doesn't seem like that and you want to avoid having a problem when you are trying to sell your house.

---

It isn't so much about not wanting to "share" our space but we pay good money for the property and pay taxes on it. I doubt people would be willing to pay some of the taxes on the part they are "sharing", would they?  There is also liability issues that many of us don't want to deal with. And also it seems when you give an inch, they take a mile and slowly move more and more into your property.

[nun ya]

Here you have to have a building permit for a fence. The zoning officer informs you of where the fence can be placed. How many feed right- of- way if you are near the street etc.

[sunshine45]

after reading these stories, i am so glad that our community doesnt allow visible fences at all, except for around a pool if you have one.