Property line infringment?

Since purchasing our brownstone a couple of years ago, we have noticed that the both sides of our rear property seem to have minor infringements into what might be our property line (if our property line projects straight from the width of our house to the rear of our yeard, which is an assumption). On one side, the “shack-like” garden level lean-to extension of the kitchen entry of encroaches about 1 ft. over our house perimeter. Our fence abuts that and runs straight out, so we could be losing that 1 ft through the length of the back yard.  On the other side, both our fence and our neighbors fence veer sharply into our property toward the rear, cutting off maybe two feet in width at the rear property line.  While these feet may sound minimal our house is only 14 ft. wide, so it makes a difference.  Seems like the first step might be taking a look at some record of the property and having a surveyer measure the actual property lines.  Is that right?  What would be next?  I don’t want to get into a big legal battle over this, but we also want to protect our property value.

HouseNut

in Exteriors 12 years and 2 months ago

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Goatcrapp | 12 years and 2 months ago

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also be aware that if the impingements have been in place, unchalleneged, for a long period of time – the rules of adverse posession may apply.  My sister bought a house where a shared fence line had been in place for about 30 years, and turned out to be 3+ft. over the property line for the depth of the property (about 70 feet deep)  – she had surveys until the cows came home, but after 3 lawyers and a very expensive challenge/application process,  it was decided that the previous owners had essentially given that space to the neighbors – and my sister was essentially SOL.  In such cases, you CAN go after the previous owners and sue for various things including lost property value…   Either way, good luck.

Townie | 12 years and 2 months ago

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Don’t assume anything… call Boro Land Surveyors 718-624-5500 to find out the facts.  After that you are on your own, neighbor wise!

HouseNut | 12 years and 2 months ago

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We had an engineer inspect but no survey done.  Is that standard practice?

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 2 months ago

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Talk to your lawyer but options to remove these encroachments are very limited.  they should appear on your survey done when you purchased the house and your lawyer should have explained them to you.