Property line issue

[Lady D]

We have a neighbor who has lived next door to us for about two years now. Just himself and his wife. Probably in their 60's. Before they bought the house this man that was living in the house and remodeling it at the same time removed the property line stake that was in front of the telephone pole between our property and that property. It was the property stake the city put there upon surveying the property. When we moved in this house back in 1994 this elderly lady lived in that house and had lived in it probably 30 years or more. She took us up to the telephone pole and uncovered the property stake buried in the ground right in the middle, showing it to us. Then covered it back up. First, he was just coming over around two or three feet into our yard, we figured it was because of him having to use our yard to turn his mower around. This morning upon mowing his yard he came 6 or 7 feet over into our yard mowing that section of our yard all the way down to our fence line at the back yard as if it is his yard. He mowed our entire side yard right by our bedroom window including all the way up to the street, a good 7 foot wide area. My husband says he doesn't care if he mows it as long as he is not trying to claim that part of our yard. I feel he is. I just went up there and put a pressed board stick that I spray painted red on the top part down in the ground right in front of that telephone pole to mark the property line. Should we say anything or let it go? We don't want to have to pay for another survey and have another stake put there, however I feel that stake does need to be replaced. We have a copy of the survey of the property when we bought the house showing where it starts. Just wondering what other people think. Thanks.

 

[Ocean Lover]

We have a neighbor who has lived next door to us for about two years now. Just himself and his wife. Probably in their 60's. Before they bought the house this man that was living in the house and remodeling it at the same time removed the property line stake that was in front of the telephone pole between our property and that property. It was the property stake the city put there upon surveying the property. When we moved in this house back in 1994 this elderly lady lived in that house and had lived in it probably 30 years or more. She took us up to the telephone pole and uncovered the property stake buried in the ground right in the middle, showing it to us. Then covered it back up. First, he was just coming over around two or three feet into our yard, we figured it was because of him having to use our yard to turn his mower around. This morning upon mowing his yard he came 6 or 7 feet over into our yard mowing that section of our yard all the way down to our fence line at the back yard as if it is his yard. He mowed our entire side yard right by our bedroom window including all the way up to the street, a good 7 foot wide area. My husband says he doesn't care if he mows it as long as he is not trying to claim that part of our yard. I feel he is. I just went up there and put a pressed board stick that I spray painted red on the top part down in the ground right in front of that telephone pole to mark the property line. Should we say anything or let it go? We don't want to have to pay for another survey and have another stake put there, however I feel that stake does need to be replaced. We have a copy of the survey of the property when we bought the house showing where it starts. Just wondering what other people think. Thanks.

Maybe he's just being neighborly and helping you out with the mowing.

 

[Lady D]

Sorry the post was so long but I would like to hope so as this is the first time he ever mowed that entire side section like that. If that were the case, I wish he had done the upper part along the street also.

 

[Smiling JOe]

maybe he is trying to send you a message to mow your yard. :funn:

I'm not sure on the legalities of moving a survey marker, but I doubt that is allowed in many states. Just a guess. Perhaps you should have a talk with them and if that doesn't work, build a big @ss privacy fence between you and him, and then he'll get the message.

 

[Lady D]

maybe he is trying to send you a message to mow your yard. :funn:

I'm not sure on the legalities of moving a survey marker, but I doubt that is allowed in many states. Just a guess. Perhaps you should have a talk with them and if that doesn't work, build a big @ss privacy fence between you and him, and then he'll get the message.

Well, we do mow our yard when necessary, we work fulltime, husband 12 hour days, and the man has all the time in the world to do yard work. I'm hoping my husband may have mowed that by our bedroom and not the neighbor. But I don't know.

 

[seacrestkristi]

You might wanna tell him how great it looks and how hubbadebubba 's it a lot but you just have to ask to make sure he doesn't have any building plans like to build a chain link fence in to your yard real quick one day while your at work. :roll: You can honestly tell him this happened to a friend of yours. A little proactivity might pay off in the long run and help you rest a little more assured. ;-) That fence WAS ugly in my yard.

 

[Will B]

You should be able to pull the plats from the county records. They may help visually.

We had a similar issue when the "S" house sold in Santa Rosa. We have the house next door to the east. The houses always shared a common driveway, and there were easement notes in the deeds; however, there was an error that was not in our favor. We wound up suing but settled out of court with the agreement that they build us a new driveway extension and put up a privacy fence. We had the drive built, and 6 months later they built the fence...on the wrong side of the driveway!! :funn:
That was over two years ago, and they have never fixed it. Too bad so sad!

 

[Smiling JOe]

Or he may do like one of my friend's neighbors, who cut down trees on my friend's lot, rather than his own. One afternoon, and he took out the entire row of trees on the east side of my friend's yard.

 

[jodiFL]

I suggest you have another survey done. You could ask the neighbor to split the cost. The survey lines that were used/marked when we bought our property in '84 did not come any where near the ones that were posted when we had surveys done last year. The maps were so different that even the surveyor said that he was going to double check it. He came and shot the lines here on 3 different occasions and we came to realize that our entire property was actually off by 10'. The 10' feet to the north that we have ALWAYS used as a driveway was on the lot to the north and the 10' to the south was a scrub area that we had kept for privacy.
Go figure

 

[NoHall]

If it were me, and if I knew exactly where the stake went, I would (as subtly as possible) put it back in its place. (And it sounds like that's what you did...)

My western property line is really funky, and I have two neighbors on it. None of the three of us really follow the property line when we mow; we all overlap the lines just to be safe.

But all of our iron pins are in place. That seems to be the important issue, if you ask me. As a gardener, that's one of the first things I ask a new client--where is the property line EXACTLY? They say that good fences make good neighbors. Established property pins are as good as a fence in most cases. (And I don't like shared fences or hedges for that matter. Someone's side of it is always neglected.)

Every once in a while, my crazy redneck meth-manufacturing foster-parent neighbors will breech the lines. The last time was kind of funny: I saw something lying in the yard and figured it was a bag or something that blew out of their permanent construction dumpster. (I guess trash cans would be too easy.) Dad went to investigate it for me, and came back grinning. It was a wind sock on a broom handle. In a fit of culture or something, they had dug a hole in my yard and put a plastic cup in it for putting practice. Dad asked them to move it off my yard, and they did.

Later I could see them out there hitting golf balls into the road--shirtless, in trucker hats, with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. (Sometimes I wish that natural selection would speed up a little!)