Mowed a section of land on neighbors property

[bcp]

By now that trail on the neighbor's land should have four years growth on it and be hard to see.

Bruce

 

[Lineman North Florida]

It was MediaOne, Comcast, and XFinity cable companies stringing 2" diameter overhead cables on the poles well below the State Law limiting ground clearance requirements. They sagged the poles and electric wires so low, delivery trucks could not come up my driveway. Plus, I could no longer get my NH Stack Wagon out into the hay fields because the lines were less than 6 feet off the ground in a few places. Meanwhile DTE (electric utility) found out from my lawsuit, that the cable companies were not paying rent ($1.50 per pole attachment, per 'wire') also as required by State Public Service Commission. That meant over $2M in annual fees were not being paid to DTE, and that was just in my county. They all did this while I was a work without me knowing they were there, which county residents stated was a common practice on their properties.
I found out about it after seeing a 26 ton truck mired out in one of my fields, that no towing company would touch. They tried to borrow one of my tractors to free it (bent the bucket & loader arms beyond repair). The judge ruled that all of them owed me $1000 PER DAY rent of my poles until they were removed, AND none of them were allowed on the property to remove them ! I cut them down by myself after cogitating a week or so on how best to do it.

Then I found out that their trucks broke the waterline to the barn, plugged a field drain, cracked my concrete driveway, rutted the fields, and the truck removal efforts ruined a good part of that field and my fences.

Yes, they are MY poles because there were none there when the house & barns were built, so we had to pay Detroit Edison to bring electricity onto the property. Same for a natural gas line. There are NO utility easements on this property anywhere, even for the road right of way. The County has use of 12' at the road for school bus traffic with my permission, IN WRITING. When I sell this place, there will be 25 $.5M homes here in a PUD, and developers do NOT want unsightly overhead wires of any kind hanging around. All must be buried by zoning rules. BTW: I've already turned down similar offers for the place, so I'm pretty sure of the value. Great schools, access to expressways for commuters, gas at 12,000 ft an crude oil at 15,000 feet. 6 other wells already in operation nearby (One of them just blew up recently, tossing the 'blowout preventer' more than 1/2 a mile away). That's about a mile away.

Tank explosion at GM Proving Ground in Milford damages nearby homes

A tank that stored oil and brine at GM Proving Grounds exploded early Tuesday. The blast was felt from up to 6 miles away.

www.freep.com

Cost me $10k in legal fees and I got to kiss my lawyer ! There's even more laughable details, but this is enough for now...

Sounds like you got the last laugh at $1k per day attachment fee, it takes some nerve to go get a tractor of someones without permission, I'm shocked the judge didn't make them pay for your destroyed loader. I have dealt with a lot of customers through the years having to go on their property to do work, although we had easments or there were dedicated ROW's , but we would still climb the poles rather than destroy someone's crop or field during wet times even though we had the right to drive to the poles with equipment, in the rare occasion that we had no choice we would always send some ground hands back after it dried up to fix the ruts with fill dirt, was always able to maintain a pretty good relationship with most folks.

 

[tradosaurus]

Changed title to reflect actual details.

 

[ruffdog]

Changed title to reflect actual details.

Abracadabra! Now you see it, now you don't.

 

[Lucky Dog]

I'm doing the neighbor a solid by keeping brush and limbs away from his barbed wire fence in a 100 ft stretch.

Send your neighbor a bill for brush clearing services.

 

[Richard]

It would have been nice for the land surveyor to have notified me that the neighbors barbed wire fence was 10 ft inside of his property on a 100 ft stretch.

I'm confused.... if you (ostensibly paid) for a survey of your land and the border was "here", now you know. Why do you care where his fence is and why would the surveyor need/want to talk to you about it being set back at all?

Should the surveyor let you know that the guy's barn is 100' set back which might be 75 feet beyond the 25'? Why would he/she even think to wonder and bring that up?

Not trying to gang up here (as I don't feel anyone is). Just some very interesting perspectives of a situation.

(dashes off to join the popcorn party!)

 

[dodge man]

Let’s face it, we all know the OP can be an intentionally difficult poster and enjoys the controversy otherwise why start this thread. There are people very sensitive to the smallest trespass while others are not. I personally don’t see it as a big deal, he has met the neighbors and probably judged them as not overly sensitive.

 

[ning]

A few years ago I re-did a fence that borders a neighbor; I built the fence 5' back from the line because I wanted to ensure I could manage both sides of the fence without trespassing in case the neighbor turned nasty, and I also have a 1/2 mile cross-country single-track I can run around my entire property on the outside of my fencelines.

A couple times a year, I tell him I'm going to mow "the outside of my fence line" with my tractor; I usually offer to mow a bit for him too if he wants. My tractor is just over 5' wide and I definitely drive a bit on his side going around corners; he knows the fence is 5' on my side.

Keep communicating with neighbors; don't hide or obfuscate.

In the op's case, I'd tell them that I'd accidentally made a path & mowed on his property, apologize, and ask if he wanted me to keep up that area since it benefits his fence, or to just stay off of his property. If he's got a decent relationship with the neighbor, mentioning it would likely make it an even better relationship. If it's currently a bad relationship, op should gfto the neighbor's property and pretend he never set foot on it and get a clue for the future.

 

[1Mech]

Four or five years after you found out the trail is not on your property and the neighbor still has not said anything good or bad? I would guess, the neighbor is not too concerned. I agree with most of the others and go talk to your neighbor about it. Then you can sleep with a clear conscience and the question will be settled. You should know and communicate with your neighbors every so often anyways, just to be neighborly!

 

[tradosaurus]

We need to get back on topic.
So, what kind of trail? Grass? Wood Chips? Paved?
And what style of fence?

Grass. Cleared brush and limbs.
Fence is barbed wire.