Not in the near future. And if I do send it, I wouldn't be copying NYC.
I met with the architect today. Even the sides where he put cement board between the soil and the wood are problematic. He says the contractor thought he left enough leeway that it wasn't on my property. I don't know what markers the surveyor left for his survey on that property. But the dimension he gave them from the house to the back line became less useful to them after the neighbor built an addition across the back of his house. The backside of the house as a reference point was lost.
I'm not going to do anything until the city inspector comes and cites the owner for the fence being too tall, and gives some opinion on the 3/4" cedar retaining wall that is already bulging some.
Then I will work with the architect and contractor to resolve it. Remember, the architect is also my architect. And the contractor was to be my contractor, though he is so slow on that job I no longer trust him to renovate my kitchen in a timely fashion.
y. They have a survey. I also have a survey from the same surveyor. I showe d them where the line was. But they went ahead and did this in order to hav e the entire top fit behind a phone pole that is on their property. Had the y not faced the good side towards themselves, it would not have been an iss ue. All that is on my property are the 4x4 posts and the top. Do I have the right to slice the posts and top right at the line? The fence back is atta ched to the fence sides, which would give it stability. The reason for doin g this is the properties are staggered. I'm adding a fence to the back wher e this fence isn't, and it won't line up. I know I have the right to cut of f tree limbs that hang over. But do I also have the right to cut back a fen ce that is hanging over? Don.
formatting link
(e-mail link at home page bot tom).
return receipt requested to the offending back-lot homeowner???? There is a lot of almost random speculation going on here, Mr. Wiss could settle mos t of it by formally notifying the property owner that his fence is in viola tion of (height, location, etc?) and stating in the letter EXACTLY what the offending homeowner must do to satisfy Mr. Wiss. I would also send a copy of the letter to the city official/dept that is responsible for enforcing whatever laws Mr. Wiss cites. This isn't quite rocket science, these thing s have been going on for centuries and the remedy is to do what I just sugg ested.
You know, after the above, you've earned being added to my list of village idiots for which there is no hope.
If I have to send a registered letter I will. But at this early stage it makes no sense to rub the neighbor the wrong way with a threatening letter.
The contractor has not stated that he isn't going to correct it. Even in my conversation with the owner I said I was going to wait to see what the city says about its height, and how much over it is. Certainly no one is going to do anything until we know the answer to this.
erty. They have a survey. I also have a survey from the same surveyor. I sh owed them where the line was. But they went ahead and did this in order to have the entire top fit behind a phone pole that is on their property. Had they not faced the good side towards themselves, it would not have been an issue. All that is on my property are the 4x4 posts and the top. Do I have the right to slice the posts and top right at the line? The fence back is a ttached to the fence sides, which would give it stability. The reason for d oing this is the properties are staggered. I'm adding a fence to the back w here this fence isn't, and it won't line up. I know I have the right to cut off tree limbs that hang over. But do I also have the right to cut back a fence that is hanging over? Don.
formatting link
(e-mail link at home page bottom).
il return receipt requested to the offending back-lot homeowner???? There is a lot of almost random speculation going on here, Mr. Wiss could settle most of it by formally notifying the property owner that his fence is in vi olation of (height, location, etc?) and stating in the letter EXACTLY what the offending homeowner must do to satisfy Mr. Wiss. I would also send a c opy of the letter to the city official/dept that is responsible for enforci ng whatever laws Mr. Wiss cites. This isn't quite rocket science, these th ings have been going on for centuries and the remedy is to do what I just s uggested.
You just don't get it. I've sided with you, that the fence should be moved and that you'd likely prevail if it went as far as court. But everyone here, even those of us that disagree about that aspect, AFAIK, agree that you should be communicating with the property owner, not his architect and contractors. Yet, for some strange reason, you persist. As for rubbing someone the wrong way, if I were your neighbor, by now, I'd be royaly pissed. He's paying those companies to follow his directions an d you are wasting their time, interfering.
That path is a perilous one. You talk to the architect, you talk to the contractor, what happens if they tear apart what is there, redo it and then the neighbor sues you for $5000 for the cost? IMO, he would have an excellent case. You have no business being involved in crafting a "solution" with any of the contractors of the owner, only the owner directly, unless the owner says he want you involved with them. He just says, "I didn't tell them to do it that way....."
As to how contract interference can screw you, just ask Texaco. Back in the 90s, Getty oil had just a memorandum of understanding with Penz oil to be acquired by them. Texaco came along and made a better offer to G etty, at which point Getty told Penzoil to get lost, they were no longer in terested. Penzoil sued Texaco and won a $10 bil judgement that bankrupted Texaco.
It is *A* means of business communication, not the primary means though.
It's so easy to send emails that your "important" email gets lost in the dozens of other "important" emails everyone else is sending.
The email is proof you made contact. You still need to follow up with a phone call, to make sure they read the email and understood it.
At work, management gets so many emails in a day it's not humanly possible to read them all, so they don't. "I sent you an email" is not an excuse when they're not aware of some issue that goes up the food chain to the executives.
So, you email, follow up with a phone call, and in some cases, a physical visit to the manager's office.
ct, and don't let up until you physically talk to someone.
Again, if this is such a big deal to you then you will do what is necessary to make contact.
You cannot just go and slice off the encroaching part of the fence. If not for the fact that it is wanton destruction of private property if you are c aught, but for the fact that if you do, you will likely end up with that di rt pile in your yard sooner rather than later!
I've talked with the property owner. Apparently he is willing to delegate the solution to the architect and contractor.
How am I wasting their time? It is not like they are billing the owner by the hour to talk with me. The architect is on a fixed price contract. The contractor only charges for work that is done.
You think they would tear it down without telling the owner what they are doing and what it will cost? You got to be kidding me.
And as I have repeatedly pointed out. Nothing is going to happen until after the city comes and inspects. There is nothing to talk about until we get their report.
And I am certainly not going to send some threatening letter by registered mail. Unless he has refused to fix it. But at this point no one has said anything about not fixing it.
I assume the posts are in concrete but that may be a bad assumption. I have to wonder if the people who are so insistent that a 1.5" error on the SURFACE must be corrected don't care that under the surface the concrete encroach's on the neighbor.
Maybe you can clarify something. Originally I was left with the impression that immediately before this fence was built there was a brand new survey done outlining all the corners of the lot. From what you wrote above it sounds like that survey was a while ago and that since that time some of the reference points for the survey have been destroyed and the property line was established as best it could be with whatever reference points were left. If that's the case how much assurance is there that the presumed current fence line for this new fence is within 6 inches of the right spot?
The neighbor's survey was done some years ago. He had to do it before he added the extension across the back. That job is now going on three years. He bought the house on August 10, 2010. One would usually contract with the architect prior to that, and probably prior to going into contract on the house.
My survey was more recent, but before they put their new fence up. I got the name of the surveyor they used from the contractor. I wanted to use the same one. When he was doing my survey he checked to see if they put the new extension on the property line. They did. He had me look into his scope and see it pointing right along the edge of the building.
I don't know what reference points were given to the neighbor. I was only given side ones. I had the length from the back of the house for the back line. There were no stakes. Old fences were in the way. There are marks on the house. Then pins in old fences with distances and marks on the phone pole (covered over with the new fence) and a mark on my a/c condensor pad.
Why, after all this time, and even after your earlier acceptance of the facts, are you still using the word "error"? I really thought we had gotten past that issue.
Have you now reached the point where you are arguing just to argue? When I trim the limbs of my neighbor's tree that hang over my house, do you think that I dig down along the property line and remove roots? Can you guess why I don't?
It's an error, that's why. Seems to me you fit the bill of someone arguing just to argue. And why don't you answer the question about the concrete? Concrete is not "limbs" or "roots" that can grow on it's own, it's something man-made that was PLACED on the other persons property. You seem to be ok with that.. why is that? What if instead of the concrete being the usual roughly 9" diameter, making it encroach several inches, it was a 3 foot diameter blob that encroached
1.5 feet? It's implicit in your dismissal of the concrete as a problem that you understand that some things are so trivial as to be meaningless yet you keep wanting to fight over the 1.5 in by 6 inch x
5 post encroachment (a total encroachment of 0.31 square feet). In your world you'd just go tear down the whole fence over this 0.31 sf of property loss.
Holy cow, you're right. When someone places a fence on another person's property for the expressed reason of making sure it fits around a pole, that's an error, a mistake, pure happenstance.
I wonder what something done on purpose looks like.
I really didn't think I had to explain that, but since you asked so nicely, I will. I'll go slowly and explain the difference between the fence and the concrete. Perhaps once I do, you'll understand my point about the roots.
The Fence:
The offending fence is above ground. The offending fence made Don's yard smaller. The offending fence will cause the fence that Don wants to install (in it's legal location) to either not line up with the offending fence or be at an angle or be inwards of the property line making his yard even smaller.
The Concrete:
The concrete is below ground. Grass and/or gardens can be planted right over it. Mulch can be placed right over it. Unless Don is planning on digging down right along the fence line (an illegal pool perhaps?) the concrete will have no impact on him or his yard.
That is why I am "ok with that".
If that were the case, and the concrete negatively impacted Don's ability to enjoy his yard, then the concrete would indeed be an issue. However, since Don has not that brought that up, and only asked in his OP about cutting the fence, I'll assume one of two things: The concrete is below ground so as not to bother him or the concrete is above ground but it doesn't bother him because it's not causing any issues. The fence itself is causing issues with the fence that Don wants to install, so that has a much bigger impact.
Of course, all of this pales in the face of the simple fact that the contractor intentionally installed a fence on Don's property without Don's expressed permission to do so. That in and of itself just isn't right.
Well,yes , 1 1/2 inches matters. Depending on the length of your property it adds up. I'd rather have the bad side on my property if is going to there against my wish. My neighbor put up a fence , post on the line, then added a 2" thick board going across the post to hang the wooden fence panels. And top it off with adding a 2" with of stones at the bottom. So yes it matters...give and inch, they take 5 more....
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.