Neighbor Drama, Fence installed over property line.
So I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. It’s a long story. Extra credit to anyone who finishes…
We purchased a house to live in, and it was a fixer upper. During the construction phase some materials were placed on the fence in the backyard, (which was on our property). The fence was in poor condition, and succumbed to the weight of the materials. No big deal, we didn't want the fence anymore. Turns out the fence belonged to our neighbor.
Apparently, the previous owner of the property accidentally built the fence over to far and onto the property of the previous owner of our house. They worked it out and no big deal was made of it. The current of the owner of that property just knew it was his fence and didn't know of that arrangement.
Whatever the case, we compensated him for the fence. We also discussed what to do about a new fence and potentially partnering on it. We had some early talks about it, but nothing formal, nothing in writing, (which you would certainly expect from a lawyer like our neighbor).
Next thing you know he’s already having the fence built on our property, without any permits being pulled. He even damaged brickwork while doing it. We didn’t pay him anything towards the fence because of the damage and the fact that we didn’t approve it being done, and were planning to tell him to just move it onto his property to avoid any confusion.
Fast forward, the sewage line in the yard, which is under the fence he installed on our property needs to be replaced. Waste has been backing up into both our yards. Now the fence will be compromised in order to complete the work. We have informed him that he needs to move his fence to his side and he has a problem with it and it’s turned into a big deal. Are we unreasonable for expecting him to move his unpermitted/unapproved fence to his side? It shouldn’t be on our property anyway.