ya i'd be pissed if i was the neighbor lmao, ignorance is bliss tho.
What would you do? Property line dispute
- Thread starter St. Louis Hawk
- Start date
I don't disagree, doesn't mean I can't hate it and think it makes her an idiot also.
This.
I would offer to sell the person the property he thinks is his at a market price first before putting a fence up.
If he says go pound sand, then I would put up the fence.
Looks like the relevant property line staked by a surveyor was accurate, or pretty damn close. I was going to say it looked like the developer was very sloppy building these houses, driveways, and the private alley.
It would be a process: Approval by HOA since it’s platted out in a Master Planned Community, city permits, approval by mortgage lenders, and updated surveys.
An appraisal to set the price. County tax assessor.
Allow six months to close. Expensive fence!
A developer just tries to get as much housing on a property as it can
Not worried about yards. Just money per foot.
She should have gotten a sawsall and cut down that tree, first thing after she found out she was right.
Back not that many years ago when abstracts still predominantly were the way title searches were done, some New England states still went with Colonial era rock walls as legal boundaries.
You would think those were so unreliable as the walls deteriorated.
One universal truism in life is to try not to be the a-hole. We had a tough one in my last house a few years ago. We owned a house built in 1925 before there was any kind of city zoning in Charlotte. A few decades later, they came in and set lot lines. If you’re looking at my old house, the front left corner sits less than 6 inches off the property line with the house angled a bit off the line going back. When I bought the house, there was a bed wrapping around the house, but the neighbor was a woman who had been there for 40 years and had no cares about it. A couple owners later, the guy starts giving me shit about it (there’s also a retaining wall that’s technically on his side as well). I just kind of threw up my hands. I wound up ceding the bed on that side to him, other than to ensure no weeds were growing up the side of my house. My favorite was one discussion when he said he was thinking about pushing the city to make me meet zoning and move the house several feet off the line. Good luck with that - you’d be ordering half the houses in the old neighborhoods in Charlotte to tear down and rebuild.
This is exactly what I figured, though I thought a Cul de Sac would come into play. Clearly the house is set to meet the minimum sideline setback at the garage corner, so when that line is extended, it moves closer to bad neighbor's drive. I'd offer to relocate the property line ( if the city allows that ) and have the neighbor pay for the fence or build it as allowable.
I actually had a neighbor do this to me. I owned the lot next to my house and my neighbor poured a new drive and and extra spot for a turnaround while I was unaware. These are 2 acre lots with timber in between. We got along OK, so when I asked him if he was aware he had poured concrete on my property, he referred me to his wife who said it was her idea. Ok, so I told her the issue saying that it wasn't really a problem for me right now, but I intended to sell the lot down the road and it might cause a clear title problem or the next owner might want it torn out. So I said for 10K I'll slice off a 40 foot to 0 pie shaped wedge so you'd be in compliance. She wrote me a check on the spot and I had it replated. He owned a car dealership so I knew cash wasn't a problem and she controlled the checkbook...
I actually had a neighbor do this to me. I owned the lot next to my house and my neighbor poured a new drive and and extra spot for a turnaround while I was unaware. These are 2 acre lots with timber in between. We got along OK, so when I asked him if he was aware he had poured concrete on my property, he referred me to his wife who said it was her idea. Ok, so I told her the issue saying that it wasn't really a problem for me right now, but I intended to sell the lot down the road and it might cause a clear title problem or the next owner might want it torn out. So I said for 10K I'll slice off a 40 foot to 0 pie shaped wedge so you'd be in compliance. She wrote me a check on the spot and I had it replated. He owned a car dealership so I knew cash wasn't a problem and she controlled the checkbook...
So they agreed to meet before she had the survey. He texts her around the approximate time to confirm she can meet to discuss, she replies that she doesn’t need to meet as she thinks it is best to get the legit survey, then runs to social media to decry her neighbor making her get a survey instead of settling it like a good neighbor?
“I did it all for the views”
- everybody, circa 2024
The guy bought an undersized lot, built an oversized house on top of both sides of his property, then built the back driveway to within 1 foot of his property line. Then realized he has no side property left and decided to help himself to his neighbor’s property. Possibly because the neighbor was a woman.
In short: **** that guy and the horse he rode in on.
I hope she digs up the tree, puts the fence directly on the property line, and tells him to get ****ed.
In short: **** that guy and the horse he rode in on.
I hope she digs up the tree, puts the fence directly on the property line, and tells him to get ****ed.
The contractor or developer likely knew this would be the outcome of building line to line. He should have put some curve in the driveway apron so there is some grass and room for that tree in the side yard...
The fence is absolutely going to look like shit.
How or why would you fence that property? Driveway in the backyard. I don't really have a problem with the setup, just see no way to fence that property without looking like crap.
Screenshot of GIS (not jiz)
Dude moved the stakes. I'd cut that tree down so fast he wouldn't be able to get his shoes on to stop me.
If I was her I'd put it as close to the line as permitted by ordinance.
If was him I'd insist that any further communication be done electronically rather than in person, until she grows out her bangs.
If was him I'd insist that any further communication be done electronically rather than in person, until she grows out her bangs.
Do they allow tacking on prior owner's use in Florida? That would typically be the main risk depending how long this has been going on.
The obstinate neighbor is an idiot in any case.
Block off her shitty neighbor.
She tells stories like my wife.
“So I went over to ask my neighbor why he pulled out the survey stakes, and funny thing… while I was walking over there I saw Jessica the kids’ kindergarten teacher driving by…what a weird coincidence… anyway…about the stakes. I went over there and they have this really weird video doorbell and they didn’t answer and I didn’t want to leave a video message because I’ll probably end up on TikTok Karen channel… have you seen those? IN. SANE. Definitely not a Karen just want to get this property line situation sorted out.
Anyway, about the stakes. So I rang the doorbell again…”
Likely not as every state has a time period, and those houses don't seem to be very old. IL is 20, 18 in CO unless paying taxes on the property. All states vary.
I've had this exact problem in my last house, posted about previously. I would and have put the fence as close to the property line as permitted, esp as the relationship regressed. Private attorney to start and then title insurance took over once lawsuit began. We won, she lost.
That's what I thought, what are you doing putting a gate in to get into your driveway. If you fence that side yard your fencing in a tiny piece of property. I don't get that.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 99,305
- 208,508
- 113
I'd put the fence up on the legal lot line. Neighbor's beef is with the developer, not the adjacent homeowner.
While I agree in general. Maybe they have small kids or dogs. Maybe they don't want to look at the pickup truck when sitting on the back porch. Maybe they are tired of the neighbor stomping all over their property. Maybe she is just as petty as she is making the neighbor seem.
I'd never buy a lot like that unless forced to, but regardless, it's hers and within her rights...
Those houses are pretty new and should have established property pins in the corners of the lot to help reestablish the line years later. There are also sketches and legal descriptions of your property filed at the county accessor office. This should put an end to any dispute quickly.
Anytime you have a property dispute you find those records then have a licensed surveyor or LS preform what’s called an Alta survey on the property.
Anytime you have a property dispute you find those records then have a licensed surveyor or LS preform what’s called an Alta survey on the property.
I’d be so tempted to have the survey double checked, build the fence right on the line, then ask the city to see if his house/drive is too close to the new line, and if he has to move stuff or get a variance — watch hilarity ensue.
That's why she hired a surveyor.
I'd build the fence I wanted to build in the first place. It never makes a lot of sense to do something solely to poke someone in the eye. Oh...and mow a strip on the other side of it once it's up to confirm your ownership.
I worked on a survey crew one summer in college. We got hired to survey a lot because the neighbor had just put up a beautiful new deck, so the homeowner wanted to put in a fence so that both families would have some privacy when they were in the backyard. We uncovered the property corners and quickly realized that the neighbor had built that nice new deck five feet over the property line. We put up the stakes and left and I've always wondered what happened when both homeowners got home from work that day.
This is knowable via Google maps and probably, the county assessor's website.
I see a lot of posts like this on r/homeowners. People doing big backyard projects and the neighbor doing a survey after the fact.
99% of the time in newer subdivisions, the lot pins are covered by just a few inches of dirt/sod and all it takes is a tape measure or in the worst case a metal detector to find the pins, usually 5/8 inch rerod about 2 foot long with a yellow cap...
She should talk to an attorney before doing anything else.
I think it would be a mistake to build a fence right on the property line. It is customary for the person building the fence to err on the side of giving the neighbor some space. Even though it's her property line, it's so close that it may fall into his "curtilage." Real estate laws are arcane and often subject to interpretation from a judge. And her psycho neighbor is clearly ready to go scorched earth.
Just build the fence in the middle of the two houses and move on with your life.
I think it would be a mistake to build a fence right on the property line. It is customary for the person building the fence to err on the side of giving the neighbor some space. Even though it's her property line, it's so close that it may fall into his "curtilage." Real estate laws are arcane and often subject to interpretation from a judge. And her psycho neighbor is clearly ready to go scorched earth.
Just build the fence in the middle of the two houses and move on with your life.
The funny thing here was that the homeowner that hired us was not doing it because he thought that the deck had been built over the line. He only hired us because after the deck was built, he decided to build a privacy fence between the two and wanted to know where to put his fence. So I'm assuming that this was as big a shock to him as the guy who built the deck.
Except that it was 30 years ago and I only have a vague recollection of which area of Waterloo it was in.
Similar threads
