Fence on neighbors property...more reasons to hate previous owners

[RearAdmiral]

My new neighbor had a survey done in order to place a new shed and grade her yard. Apparently "my" fence is on her property. It starts out on the line and slowly drifts into hers, about 3 ft by the end. Just another thing to get mad about from previous owners of my home, doing just about everything wrong. She was very kind and understandable about it and I am not opposed to moving / replacing the fence(cedar is starting to fall apart), nor do I really want to go down the road of potentially trying to take title of the land.

Maybe previous owners had an agreement to put in a "straight" fence down the property. The property lines are slightly diagonal to the street out front. Or maybe they didn't need a permit/survey at the time or just did it themselves(wrong like everything else).

I've been in this house almost 8 years and I still find stuff screwed up. I just finished re-running wiring in metal conduit in the garage because they stuffed 10 awg wiring into a 1/2" metal conduit, then did 2 90 degree turns with TELEPHONE wire conduit corners which have maybe a 1" turning radius, which in turn caused them to cut the wire insulation by accident because it is so tight, which THEN caused them to reverse the hot/neutral wires coming off of a duplex outlet because it was shorting out in the conduit if wired correctly. WTF!

Anyway having a newer fence could be nice, but why can't anything be done right I'm thankful the new neighbor is being nice though!

 

[MtnMan]

The previous owner of the house next door had a fence, and I asked if I could tie into it when I had a fence for the dogs installed. He agreed.

10 years later he sold to people from Florida, and the property was surveyed as part of selling it. Apparently "his" fence, was about 18 inches inside his property line, but demanded that I move what he thought was "my" fence.

I explained the agreement with the previous owner, and that part was "his" fence. He actually paid someone to come and move the fence 18 inches.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

In my State is the fence is existing then tough cookies to the new buyers or owners. You cannot replace it but you do not have to remove it unless it is a hazard or needs substantial maintence and new owners will not give access to the land. Also I believe the new owners can remove the fence if they so choose but that cost is on them.

 

[Spacehead]

It's not out the realm of possibility that the survey could be off a bit. I've been told by surveyors that previous pins were in the wrong place. Though a person shouldn't have to have a "2nd opinion" on a survey.

 

[deadlyapp]

I'm in the exact same boat, but opposite. My land survey was done about 2 years ago when I bought the house and I never really paid too much attention to it, but now I'm finding that the fence between our two houses is definitely up for replacement, and at one end it's about 5' into my property. Now I need to have a conversation about if they're willing to split the cost of the fence (in which case I'd probably leave the location as-is) or if they don't want to pay for it, in which case I'm going to move it to the survey points.

 

[Greenman]

It's not out the realm of possibility that the survey could be off a bit. I've been told by surveyors that previous pins were in the wrong place. Though a person shouldn't have to have a "2nd opinion" on a survey.

I've personally seen two surveys that were off, both in a new housing development that I was running. One of them was off by about twenty feet.

 

[RearAdmiral]

I've personally seen two surveys that were off, both in a new housing development that I was running. One of them was off by about twenty feet.

I'm going to get a survey on my property I think, if only so I know where the rest of my land actually begins/ends. I don't want to goof up the opposite side of the property if I replace that fence too.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm going to get a survey on my property I think, if only so I know where the rest of my land actually begins/ends. I don't want to goof up the opposite side of the property if I replace that fence too.

The expense of having your own survey done might be minimal...especially if they find the other surveyor made an error.

 

[NutBucket]

If the two surveys don't agree how do you know which is correct?

 

[RearAdmiral]

If the two surveys don't agree how do you know which is correct?

Maybe we will find out! I'll hopefully have a surveyor here in the next couple of weeks. They are backed up as is everyone else.

 

[lxskllr]

It goes to court if both surveyors insist they're right. You won't typically find that in a modern(ish) subdivision though. Usually someone made a blunder, and when shown the error, will accept it.

 

[RearAdmiral]

It goes to court if both surveyors insist they're right. You won't typically find that in a modern(ish) subdivision though. Usually someone made a blunder, and when shown the error, will accept it.

Our street is pretty old. The original part of the house is probably 75+ years old. There is a survey on file but I have no way of understanding it. It might as well be asking me to measure distance with fluid ounces.

 

[lxskllr]

Here in MD, I consider the "modern era" to start about 1950. Before that, you could get just about anything, and some of the plats are terribad. There'll never be a perfect measurement of a piece of property, and reasonable people can disagree over results, but it generally won't be a disagreement over feet unless someone made a mistake.