Law regarding planting on property line.

[dmccarty]

I see no "adverse possesion. Neighbor gave him permission to mow that side. Should be put in writing though.

There was not permission in writing so it would be he said, he said. We also don't know how long the mowing was going on before the other owner left nor how long the mowing was occurring after the first owner left and the new one arrived. There might, key were might, have been enough time to make a claim. I have heard of successful adverse possession claims but they seem to be very difficult to win. Which is one of the reasons I used the word might in my other post. :laughing:

For sure the new owner is thinking adverse possession and started a p...ing contest with his new neighbor even though the adverse possession was not really in play. It is sad.

Later,
Dan

 

[mvwwld4u]

Good neighbors are rare and getting harder to find!

 

[teejk]

There was not permission in writing so it would be he said, he said. We also don't know how long the mowing was going on before the other owner left nor how long the mowing was occurring after the first owner left and the new one arrived. There might, key were might, have been enough time to make a claim. I have heard of successful adverse possession claims but they seem to be very difficult to win. Which is one of the reasons I used the word might in my other post. :laughing:

For sure the new owner is thinking adverse possession and started a p...ing contest with his new neighbor even though the adverse possession was not really in play. It is sad.

Later,
Dan

I find it amazing some people never learned to "choose their battles". We are talking about mowing!...not like the OP is building a parking garage! Grass will grow back. So stop mowing...maybe the neighbor will ask him to resume trimming around the bushes.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

After reading all these nightmare stories, I need to talk with my elderly neighbor about buying there house when there done with it lol.

I would rather own it, rent it out and chose my neighbor rather than roll the dice on having a crappy neighbor lol.

The couple said I could fence in the back lot of there's that I already take care of and have my cattle back there, for reasons lots in this thread has ran into, when I built my fence I eye balled the line and tried to stay about 12-24in inside the line on my side.

The couple is in there mid to late 80’s, if there health turned south I didn't want to have to rip out my fence anytime soon. But who knows, I might be on them now lol I just kinda guessed.

 

[CajunRider]

Most likely you made the right decision.

Flip side is he may have been saying things to stop you from buying. He might have wanted to buy the place himself and by talking trash, no one will buy, the price will drop and he scores a deal. Or the place does not sell and he is still able to use the vacant lot without spending any money. I have seen a situation like this with an absentee owner and a local who uses the land like it is his own.

Ironically, after I read this discussion yesterday, I ran into a coworker who is building a house. The neighbor to be has already reported him to the county and started playing games. :confused3: This is in a subdivision and they will be close neighbors yet the p...ing contest has already started. It really is sad.

Later,
Dan

When my brother started to build his house, his neighbors on both side did the same thing with calling the county on everything. After 14 work stoppages for the inspectors to check out things the neighbors complained about just during the old home demolition and the lot clearing, the home building contractor told my brother he would cancel the contract because of disruption of his work. My brother got so pissed so he scrapped his plan of building the house on stilts along the bay, he built 15 ft tall retaining walls along both sides of his lot and built his land up 10 ft to satisfy the new federal elevation requirement. Now from the inside of his house he would see a nice 5 ft wall as fence while his neighbors see monstrous 15 ft walls. They took him to court multiple times and lost each time. He counter sued and they were ordered to pay his lawyers' fees. In the end to make peace he waved the fees but, for all their meddling, the neighbors now have to look at the wall and have limited view of the beautiful bay.

 

[bigtiller]

I am sure it has been discussed on here before but just couldn't find the link. We bought a lot that had been split 10 years ago from next door neighbor. We planted flowering shrubs 4" on our property. (sort of a barrier to catch the trash that blew on our yard from him) No objection from the owner. When it came time to mow he said I could mow on his side a swath the width of the mower as he didn't want to mow around them, in fact he said I could mow his whole yare as he rarely mowed. Last year he abandoned his property and it came up for sheriff sale. I showed new owner where pins were and his comment was, "I see you are a claim jumper, mowing over on my property". I explained the situation. Nothing else was said and I haven't talked to him since and he posted a "no trespassing" sign on the property line. Heard he was going to make us move them. Mowing season is here and I intend to stay on my property. He hasn't mowed yet so I don't know if he will mow around them. I guess, legally I cant even trim on the back side. There are trees on the back of the lot and branches hang over on our property.. And I see no reason to make this a issue to him. Can he make us move the shrubs?.

I am curious. Were the shrubs planted 4 inches or 4 feet from the property line.

 

[Dftodd]

When I purchased my property, the neighbor had already had his lot surveyed and the property pins clearly marked. When I put up the fence between our properties for the back yard I got with my neighbor before putting in one post. He and I ran a string line from property pin to property pin. So we both were in agreement on the line. Then put in a few grade stakes with orange flagging to mark it.

I then ran the string line again. This time 3" inside the property line. Then sunk my posts to the new string line

 

[oosik]

When we moved on the property in 1982 and built our house, the property had been surveyed once in 1884. The legal description of the property is a "meets and bounds" description and ran on for almost 1/2 of a full typed page. The old property corner descriptions/locations were "carved" into the under bark of giant pine trees at or near each corner. The exact location of the corner was then a bearing off these "carved" pine trees. I'm probably not saying this right, but a surveyor will know what I'm talking about. This is the way the original homesteads where surveyed in those days.

Since that time - three of my four corners have been officially surveyed in and corner rods set. Surrounding property has changed hands, banks were involved and exact surveys were required - so that's how my three corners were surveyed and established.

My 80 acres is, BY FAR, the smallest chunk of divided land for a long distance(miles) in any direction. I always say - "my 80 is simply a pimple on the hinney of society out here".

 

[hawkeye08]

Reading this reminded me of our first house (small lot). When we were adding an attached garage and fence, the neighbor (who had owned the land before it was divided into lots) came over and told me that we were on his property. I went in and got a six pack of pepsi and the survey docs from the county that we had obtained copies of when we bought the house. We used the map and survey pins to arrive at the property line (right on the markers I had put in already). He apologized and we had a good relationship while we lived there..

Then we wanted to put a board fence on back line (different neighbor) to replace the very old and useless barb wire fence with rotted posts and missing wire... since the neighbor behind us had weeds growing and a mess, I had pushed the weeds down on his side so I could work without wading through the mess.. we were about half done with nice 6' cedar fence when the sheriff's office came by. It had been reported that we were throwing trash, making a mess and building a fence on the neighbor's property. I asked the sheriff to come out back and see what we were doing and tell me if I was doing something wrong. The survey markers were there, all of our materials were on our side of fence, the only things on the neighbor's property was his trash and weeds. Sheriff said, all good, I will explain to neighbor (I volunteered to go over and explain), you don't want to go over there. Sheriff said neighbor is retired LEO with PTSD and can get violent.