It’s so interesting how this world works – just a couple of days ago, I wrote a post about someone who bought a plot of land with a house, and then discovered that their neighbors had built a house and a garage partially on their property. And today I’ll have to tell you about a diametrically opposite case.
Well, the user u/KamalaTrump2024 (what a wonderful username, I’ll tell you what! I’d be very surprised if it was registered before July 21…) tells us that their neighbor was outraged when they simply updated the fence on their own property – and even filed a lawsuit. Now let me check the registration date of the original poster, and you may read this story further…
More info: Reddit
The author of the post has been living in their neighborhood for over 15 years and decided to build a new fence on their plot recently
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author has a neighbor named Tom who’s a bit of a stickler, but this time, upon seeing a new fence, he lost it completely
Image credits: maxtheblackcat
Image credits: Samuel Peter / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Tom demanded the author take the fence down despite the papers claiming it was built on their property
Image credits: maxtheblackcat
Image credits: Randy Fath / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The author was adamant and a week later they received a letter, allegedly from Tom’s lawyer, threatening legal action if the fence remains there
Image credits: maxtheblackcat
The author was pretty much sure they had every right to build that hapless fence, but decided to ask for some legal advice online – just to make sure they’re in the clear
In fact, everything is very simple. The original poster (OP) has a neighbor named Tom, who, as the author admits, was always a stickler – but in the last 15 years that the OP has lived in this lovely and peaceful suburban neighborhood, nothing serious has happened. However, any period of calm sooner or later comes to an end…
The end of calm for the author came when they decided to update the completely dilapidated fence on the border between their and Tom’s plots. Moreover, to be on the safe side, the OP asked the contractor to build a fence about a foot inside their property. And yes, they had previously ordered a land survey, which confirmed that it was their land.
The next morning, Tom saw both the fence and red. He demanded that it be taken down immediately and didn’t want to listen to any explanation from the original poster that the construction had taken place on their property. The guy even threatened to call the cops – but the author was adamant and remained calm.
And so, a week later, the OP received a letter from Tom’s lawyer, which stated that the author, firstly, had infringed upon his property, and secondly, violated the neighbor’s ‘airspace.’ And the lawyer threatened to sue the original poster if they didn’t immediately tear down this fence. At their own expense, of course.
You know how it is – when you are absolutely sure that you are right, you have all the papers confirming that you’re in the clear – but your opponent behaves so brazenly and with such entitlement that timid shoots of doubt involuntarily settle in your soul. Well, such confidence cannot be out of the blue, can it?
So the original poster, despite having had a recent land survey, began to doubt their own rightness and decided to ask the netizens for some kind of advice – what to do in such a situation? After all, you must admit, there’s always a risk of losing more in case of a lost lawsuit!
Image credits: krakenimages.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Okay, first, I checked it – the original poster got registered on August 16, 2024, so I was damn right. Secondly, experts say that if you are building a fence on your property and have a recent boundary survey, you have practically nothing to worry about. In the vast majority of cases, of course.
“In most jurisdictions, you do not need your neighbor’s permission to build a fence that is located entirely on your own property. This assumes, of course, that you definitely know what your property boundaries are. A new or recent boundary survey can help you determine those boundaries,” the Rocket Lawyer’s dedicated blog post claims.
“There are exceptions, however. For example, if your neighbor has been crossing part of your property to get to their own property for a long time, they might have a ‘prescriptive easement’ on your land that prevents you from building a fence that blocks their usual route,” the same source admits. However, as far as I understand, Tom had nothing of the sort.
So this is likely either an attempt to spoil the original poster’s mood, or Tom is bluffing big-time. That’s why most commenters are almost certain that the author is right here. “If you have a recent survey then you are fine,” one of the responders reasonably wrote. “The letters are empty threats.”
And people in the comments also think that the OP should check whether this letter was actually Tom’s own attempt to scare his neighbor. “Confirm that the letter is legitimate and then start preparing all of your documentation. Fake legal letters are a common scare tactic,” another person presumed. And what do you, our dear readers, think happened in the situation described?
People in the comments mostly sided with the fence-builder, and even suspected Tom of sending out fake legal letters
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