fencing issue, what would U do?
 

ok, i am in the process of replacing the fence running along the back of my yard. i asked the lady that lives there if she is interested in sharing just the cost of materials. i would provide the labor DIY! she basically ignored me, and when i persisted she said she didnt speak english! damn! oh well, in the spirit of doing the job on my own simply to keep my houdini dog in the yard, i started the work. the lady asked me (in decent english) why was making so much noise. she had this pissed off look on her face. i said i was replacing the fence. she said "NEW?" i said yes. she sorta smiled and walked away. OK here is the question. after pulling out my civil engineering geekness, i discovered the existing fence is on her side of the property line by 1 foot. so i set the new post on the correct line. it was easy i had a five foot offset from some gas company easement. in order to stay a dog owner, i will have to tear out her fence, and put up mine in one day. then it dawned on me! couldnt i just build the fence on the property line without even touching her piece of schit fence? would i be a A-hole if i just built the fence and left her with her teetering POS? i would have alot of extra work tearing down her fence and hauling it off to the dump. dump fees, blah blah blah. i would have to carry the pieces around 250 yards to my truck. what d'ya think?

cliff

Hoot! I'd say it depends on how POed you are at your neighbor. I once heard that he who bears the cost of the fence is entitled to look at the more attractive side. Is this law, or just custom?

Cliff, you saw my yard and the old fence and retaining wall I have to tear down and haul away. I feel for you. I say build your fence on the correct property line and let her pay someone to haul her old fence away. You don't even have to build a good neighbor fence if they she won't help with the cost. Save your money and energy for the p-car.

tough crowd! I LIKE IT! chris, i was sick yesterday, so i had to finish the post today. sorry i missed you tech session.

No prob. I couldn't stay til the end anyway.

Let the old hag take down the fence. I run into a few rude neighbors while I deal with rental properties. They think their sheet don't stink. Just do your thing, and smile about the sweet revenge. :)

Love it out here in the Southwest. Concrete block fences six feet high. Makes for great neighbors..

"You've been here six years? No kidding...."

i say build it on your property, but check your local codes. some places require you put the more attractive side towards the neighbors

Ahhh, but you may need to consider her mental stability, and whether or not she is a member of the NRA...or even worse, the ACLU!

Leave it. She showed you that playing games is her style when she pretended not to speak English.

Couple of 'traditional' aspects.

Show the nice face to you neighbour....cos you should only build a fence on one side of your property......

Do not build on someone else's land cos they can complain, etc etc.

If the nice side faces you its generally not your fence, so rebuilding it means taking it on....maintenace etc etc.

If it is yours then it should go on the property line, especially as you have a drawing which shows you were it is. To build it on her land and therefore making your useable plot bigger could lead to problems....

Absolutely don't build it on her land! Then the fence is hers, and she could tear it down if she wanted! Or maybe you are over there ripping out her fence in order to replace it, let's say she decides she's PO'd and calls the cops. They come by and stop you, make you rebuild, yada yada yada. Or let's say 2 years from now she sells, new owners see that the fence is inside their line, they decide to rip it down. Chances of any of these outcomes may be slim, but you dont need to risk it. Put it on your land. She played her hand when she feigned no knowledge of English.

And, Kurt V is right, local zoning often stipulates that the attractive side face out. If in doubt, be sure to check first.

Having dealt with a similar situation (except the other guy was a complete a**) I'd say build the fence one foot onto your property line. No issues will arise as to who owns the fence, etc. Heck, you don't want it ugly for her, etc. you just want to keep your pet safe.

Build on your side--leave the old fence for her--"hey it's on her property, so it is her fence"--let her deal with it--you are not being inconsiderate, you are doing what is legally correct--if she *****es, show her the drawing indicating the property lines.:)

Check the code for your town. Many times you must put a fence a set distance IN from your/her property line. In my town it can vary from 3 to 15 feet depending on which border....side, front or back.
Now, if I plant trees I can do it right up to the property line. I like trees.

She sounds like the older lady I encountered at Ralphs the other day who was in the express lane with a full cart. She couldn't speak English very well either "Haaa?" :rolleyes:

Save yourself a mountain of problems, draw up your plans and present them to your neighbor, preferrably with someone who speaks her language. Build the fence on your property (verify with local codes on height and placement) and leave her's alone.

Why would you go and tear down something on someone else's property?

wow, you guys disappoint me. but maybe it's just macho posturing. Most guys I know love to "fix everything".

I would tear it down and build new. That was the plan before you glommed onto the property line issue. If you were prepared to do that from the get go, why do something else just to spite this woman?

The good karma and sense of superiority as a human being you will gain is worth the extra work.

Good point here is that Cliff seems to have already conveyed to the woman she's getting a new fence for free. He's probably in a no win situation now. Probable outcomes to Cliff messing with her fence are:

- too high
- too low
- wrong color
- wrong material
- ugly
- wrong position
- on her property and she changes her mind
- combination of above

If Cliff forgo's her fence she will be pissed and probably try to stop the construction at any cost. Hate to be the skeptic, but I've seen many folks with good intent (Cliff) go down in flames over stuff like this.

Hey cliff,

We want fence pictures.....yeah!

no fence pictures! that would be weird. plus i am a sucky carpenter. you guys gave good advice. i dont think i can give her the good side of the fence because fence "A" would be in the way of my wild hammer swinging. ****, if she does see i am about to abandone her, she could eff my world by calling the city inspectors.... the damn dog!

Build it 3 feet over, on to her property. . ..barbed-wire and electrified.


just to test her full english skills, doncha know. :D

Who knows, maybe it will test her negotiating skills too. ;)

Build the fence one inch on your property and good side facing you. Leave her fence. Make it the same height so she can't see it sticking up. Don't paint it, stain it.

BTW, there is a design which has each panel between posts facing opposite sides in an alternating fashion. This gives each neighbor the same look.

Good neighbor fence.

My new neighbor has turned into a royal PITA. She has tag teamed with another bleeding heart, granola eating, tree hugging flaming ass liberal neighbor of mine to complain about everything from cutting down a tree on my property to claiming that my driveway is on her (she rents) property.

Well we fixed them good, we are selling our home to a young single guy who plans to put a big addition on the house & build a big ass garage out back, convert it to an apartment & rent it out. We are moving to an upscale neighborhood that I doubt will have many renters.

So my point is, try to keep peace with your neighbors or they may sell or rent with less than desirable results.

Cliff,

You need to read this.... http://cnews.canoe.ca//CNEWS/WeirdNews/2004/03/30/401970-ap.html

One nice thing about living where housing is cheap, when we bought our house, we bought the entire block (which was vacant, but zoned residential). Now I don't have to worry about any neighbors!

Leave her fence. Concrete block on your side to the letter of the law (you can paint a nice mural and hang planters and shelves off it). Mabye even a covered drive-through carpad for extra parking if allowed.

"Well I asked for your imput", or you could just say "mange mon penai, vous etes un merde-a-la-tete" (my poor french) and ignore her.

I did not read all the replies but here is what we did.

When we moved in...our yard had tall wood shadow fencing on the north & south sides but regular short chain fence west facing our back neighbor. They kept pretty much to themselves but would say hi if we did. They had 2 young boys and our dogs seemed to want to jump the fence.

So...we decided to complete our yard with the tall shadow fencing about 1/2 foot inside our proprty line and left their fence right where it was. They were not home the weekend Tim completed it so there was no discussion about our project.

The next summer we noticed that they took their fence down and used it to complete other open areas of their yard. They also put up flowers leaning against the side of our fence that faces their yard. I liked it...now we have some pretty flowers that hang over the top. :)

I would keep your project to your yard and let her deal with her own fence. I think it will save a lot of issues/stress/headaches.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1080755611.jpg

that is a cute dog! it looks tired from jumping all those fences :)

Thanks. He was eating ice cubes. :)

One winter the snow got piled really high on the south side fence. Our Sharpei Bailey thought he was a mountain goat and decided to climb to the top and look over. That was a lot of fun shoveling that load of snow down so he could not escape. ;) ;)

Here is another picture that shows the short fence that crosses our drive-way just for another idea.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1080757421.jpg

Sarah,

Your fence appears to be the "Neighbor frinedly" type mentioned earlier.

BTW, I'm tempted to put an interesting caption above your doggie's pic.....I wont though. :)

Build your fence, on your property, after reviewing local codes. Let her deal with her fence. There are a variety of reasons for this suggestion, many of which are outlined here.

Rick...we have been very lucky with our neighbors (on both sides & behind us). None of them have dogs and each summer we have to ask them to sign this license form for the city stating they "sign-off" on us having 3 or more dogs. It is a city code. We pay $135 and the city council has to approve it.

Anyway..you think that picture was funny of spanky...here is another one as he is chomping more ice...he looks drunk! :)http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1080759016.jpg

Cliff:

In the law, there is a doctrine called adverse possession, and a related doctrine called prescriptive easement.

The policy behind the law is to encourage people to make use of their land. The way adverse possession works is, if I come onto your land, and I act as though it is mine, and I stay there for a statutorily prescribed period (depends on the state, sometimes 21 years) and you don't bring an action to eject me, then guess what?

I own it!

Likewise, if I live on a corner lot and the neighbor kids cut across the corner of my lawn every day to get to school, and I don't try to stop them or put them on notice that they are trespassing, and then one day the City decides to widen the intersection and take that corner of my lawn, guess what? By failing to exclude others, I may have inadvertently granted a prescriptive easement over that corner of my land, and the city can take it, gratis!

Those of you who live in or visit NYC may have seen the bronze plaques embedded in the sidewalk that say, "Property of 1251 Avenue of the Americas Corp (or whatever) Crossing is by revocable license only"- can you guess why?

Anyway, are you CERTAIN that your fence is built one foot into her property? You have what the dirt lawyers would call an "encroachment!"

One way to tell is if you have the survey, you may have gotten one when you got your mortgage.

In Texas, I was told to place a newly installed fence "ON" the line. This prevents quibling over whose property line is on which side of the fence. That "adverse possession" that John just mentioned has a time period of 7 years in that state.