Your story reminds me of a similar situation that happened with a property I bought and moved into in 1982, same great result.
My first fence problem was a house we bought in 1962. The survey marking in the street and on the curb clearly showed a fence was on my property plus the city ordinance required the nice side of the fence face the neighbors which this fence did.
The fence needed painting and some repair so I started to do that and the neighbor came out and informed me that the fence was his and not to do anything to it without his permission, so he gave me his OK to paint and repair.
Well that winter the worst storm in recorded-history passed through the area and blew the fence over into the neighbors yard, and made it really unrepairable, cheaper to build a new fence.
As I was looking at the damage the neighbor came out and bellowed what was I going to do about my fence. I reminded him of our conversation when I first moved in. Amazing how quickly mine becomes yours.
I’ve owned a house for 12 years that had a fence between my yard and the neighbor’s. Neighboring house recently sold, and the new buyer surveyed the lot lines, and discovered the fence was not on the property line, but 5 ft into his yard. He promptly removed it.
I’m not happy. I understand I can file a lawsuit and claim 5 ft of his property based on adverse possession, and the fact the fence had been up for at least 10 years, etc.,etc.
Anyone ever dealt with a situation like this? Was it a big hassle, worth the time and legal expense, or would it be easier to just forget it?
Adverse possession usually requires payment of property taxes as well. You may have the right to an easement, but he can also claim that the fence was his property, being built on his property. This is not like the edge of a house sticking over the line where the building could be damaged or reduced in value to correct the problem. Its just a fence and likely to be considered “his” by a judge.
a negligently misplaced fence is probably not going to get you the slice of land by AP. the occupation of the other’s land must be open and notorious and intentional. but each stae has a different formaulation, so you might want to kick the tires with a local real estate atty.
so rebuild the fence on the proper line, and see if you can get him to pay for half of the cost of doing so.
(…for the original poster) He may be your neighbor for a long time so you might as well find a starting point to be friendly, or at least civil.
I moved into my present home in 1992 and there was only a crappy fence between my neighbor’s yard and mine. No one had invested in a nicer fence as the prior owners of my home were, well, problem people (and cheap, to boot). I don’t know how much friction had developed but there was no evidence of any past cooperation and the irregular terrain of the So Cal hillsides made any improvement likely to be very costly.
When I moved in, the same neighbors and I share a common interest in improving the fence, and a step better, to move a large amount of soil from a high spot on my property to low spots on theirs. This would provide a much nicer landscape solution for both of us and a nicer fence could be constructed on the even surface.
It just so happened that these same neighbors own a heavy equipment company, too.
So, at very minimum cost to me, they brought in their dozers and specialized exeprtise to move the soil, and cut in a road and walking trails to the lower part of my property at the same time. This would have cost me tens of thousands of dollars and would have been impossible to access.
By cooperating with my (new at the time) neighbors, we both forged great friendships and received valuable benefits, too.
And all along it started with a simple common vision that “good fences make good neighbors.”