Neighbor Fence Dragging Mine
Tonight’s wind storm knocked down most of my neighbor’s 5 plus foot white plastic fence. I noticed my fence leaning his way and went outside and saw that his fence is attached to mine. I bought the place last year and learned that the previous owner had invited him to chip in on adding a…
Tonight’s wind storm knocked down most of my neighbor’s 5 plus foot white plastic fence. I noticed my fence leaning his way and went outside and saw that his fence is attached to mine. I bought the place last year and learned that the previous owner had invited him to chip in on adding a fence. He refused. She did a 4 foot chain link with faux pine needles and he responded with 5 plus feet of white plastic (not mush space for wind to pass through).
I dont know whether she attached her fence to his or vice versa, but both fences are anchored in the cement at each end. I think he attached to my fence because his is more unwieldly and probably needed it.
I called my neighbor at his weekend house to report what was happening. When he returns to address it, can I ask that he NOT attach to my fence when repairing AND he removed the remaining 2 or 3 pieces of hardware left attaching?
Your neighbor should not be legally attaching anything to your fence unless it truly straddles the line or is on his side. Property line issues aside, IMBY is right and the issue is more structural. There should be a pole with around 2′ in the ground for every 8′ linear foot of 5′ high fence. Don’t know how long a fence your chain link is, but the general rule is a pole for every 6′-8′ of fence. Chain link doesn’t catch the wind as much and would be less likely to bow if you stretched the number of poles, but a solid fence absolutely needs the support and your fence poles probably aren’t deep enough to support his fence and yours.
There has to be more than two posts anchored in the ground along the length of the fence.
The way to ask him is to say that it looks like the bracket system used is not strong enough and a new way will have to be considered. Think of it as a problem to be solved and not about confrontation. Last nights winds were the strongest I have ever seen since the tornado.
Yes, you need to determine property line first which you probably cannot do without a survey, unless it’s so far that it is obvious.
It might come down to this:
Where is the property line?
Our neighbor’s fence sits well inside (2″) her line. I wanted to lock a ladder to it so I made sure to ask her permission (which was granted). If she had said no, there was no way I would have chained that ladder to the fence – not just out of respect but I think it would have been plain wrong in a legal sense.
Unless there was some written agreement between the prior owner and your neighbor, I think you are ok with your request.
of course I am not a lawyer.
steve