Sometime between signing the contract for buying my house and closing, the
6' privacy fence separating my yard and the next door neighbor's yard completely fell down (and was removed from the property). The previous owner and the neighbor figured out that the fence was owned by my neighbor, who submitted it to her insurance and was reimbursed.I thought that there wouldn't be any problems, and didn't talk to my lawyer about it before closing, which I am now thinking was a mistake.
I had been thinking that the fence would be replaced "soon" as the neighbor keeps on insisting. However, it is now over two months since we closed on the house, and "soon" doesn't seem to come.
The problem is that I have a pool, so I need a fence for liability purposes. The neighbor's yard is completely fenced, except for between our properties) so this hasn't been such a concern. But in recent days, she has had a large number of children at her house in the afternoons (she is a school teacher, so I'm guessing she's running some summer daycare thing.) So, I am suddenly very concerned.
I am thinking that she's hoping that I'll rebuild the fence, so she can pocket the insurance money and still have a fence. But if I have to build a fence, the only thing I can afford is one of those orange plastic ones, after buying this house.
This seems to be a very complicated situation, and I'm really unsure of how to precede. What are the laws on this sort of thing?