Anyone have "those" neighbors...

[pnance]

Sorry, this is part vent part question. About 3 years ago fires burned through our area and destroyed about 70% of the houses in my neighborhood, including the one we share our driveway with. Well the owner of that property had been trying to sell the house so when it burned down he sold the property to the neighbors on the other side of it. They are the ones that everyone in the neighborhood hates...and we get to share a driveway...**!!$$**. Now their rebuilding the house and everyone thinks their going to let their kids live there, the same kids that egged our house and cars, took a baseball bat to a neighbors mailbox, put a fire cracker in anothers...and thats just the good stuff. Anyway last week I came home from work to a lovely porta potty on my side of the retaining wall seperating our parking areas. After a few choice words (luckily no one was around) I called the company who put the thing there. They agreed to get it out by Tueday (this was Friday), but when they called the owner of the other property he said the area is his property not ours. This takes away about half our parking and is not what we were told by the real estate agents or previos owners of both our and the other house. My roomate went to talk to him and was shown a blown up map from the assessor and given a bunch of double talk about angles, etc, but basically was told the area belonged to him not us. I pulled my own map from the assessors office and a friend helped me calculate the property lines, which equated to the fact that the property in dispute is at least half ours. The other owner is still claiming it's all his. Has anyone ever dealt with a property dispute? I'm not exacty sure what the next step should be? Any suggestions?

[Karen]

A surveyor from the town, and an exact copy of both deeds. You need this done ASAP, and to find out what your rights are. Then, if need be, you can get the legal system involved, but first you need to know for rock-solid sure what the boundaries of each piece of property are.

[cyber-sibes]

aaarrrgghh! We had bad neighbors before we moved and it's no fun, no matter how nice you try to be they will still be jerks. No advice, but good luck, hope it works out. How rude!

[catnapper]

If you contact the township you live in, like Karen said, they will be of more help to solving the issue. Then I'd build a taller dividing wall and a whole new driveway - no matter the cost.

[gini]

Karen has given you the best advice. This does need to be dealt with as soon as possible so you can assert your rights once and for all.

Years ago, we had a cabin at Big Bear. We had an odd pie shaped lot - and at the top of our lot people built a lovely home right up to our plot line. Because they thought it would look lovely to have a nice fence around their property, they put it up and lopped off a huge chunk of our land. They even removed the assessor's property markers.

We had the property surveyed again and new markers installed. When we approached the owners to remove the fence they ignored us.

The fence one weekend magically "disappeared" and we never heard one word.

[pnance]

Thanks everyone. Karen I'll see if I can find a surveyor. My understanding is that they can charge a couple thousand dollars which I'm not sure how we'll pay for but looks like I don't have much of a choice. I'd think the neighbors should have to pay half since they're in is much dispute as we are, but I won't hold my breath. We'll also be looking into changing the driveway. Originally it was granted as an easment across our property because the other one was landlocked, well now that the other neighbors bought it, it's no longer landlocked. I don't know yet if that will make a difference, but when everyone gets back from the holidays it's one thing we'll be checking.

[Karen]

Check with the city/town first - they may even have a staffperson who does that sort of thing, but they can at least give you a copy of your deed with the property boundaries!

[pnance]

Thanks Karen. I contacted the city this morning and managed to get a copy of the deed. Unfortunately they don't have anyone who handles surveying, they told me I'll have to hire someone, and they don't give recommendations because of liability. (Government can be so much fun.... )

[JenBKR]

I agree, contact an engineering company that does property surveying ASAP. Did you check your courthouse at all to see if there was a survey done of your property? They would have it on file if there was. Good luck!