'AITA for telling my neighbor if her new fence is on my property I’m going to ask she moves it?'

"AITA for telling my neighbor if her new fence is on my property I’m going to ask she moves it?"

I have historically had a good relationship with my elderly neighbor. We have always been nothing but friendly with each other . We own hillside homes in Southern California. Each worth about 1 Million in today’s market. Last week she told me she was going to fence her yard because she doesn’t like the high school kids down the street trespassing.

I told “go for it”, all I ask is keep it on your property. This week the fence was completed. She flagged me down in my driveway today and asked me what I thought of her new fence. I was honest with my concerns and let her know the contractor installed the fence several feet to the south of the sewer grates which I believe is several feet on my property.

Per my title records we split the easement so I thought it should be placed on the north side of the sewer grate on her side. (Fence was installed in one day and all took place while I was at work, I had no time to pause it while they were building or I would have said something).

She kind of shrugged it off and told me she doesn’t think it’s placed wrong. I told her due to the expense of land in our area I would be scheduling to have a survey done to confirm the fence is property placed. I informed her if it was off by inches it wouldn’t be a problem but if it’s discovered it’s several feet on my property I would ask it be moved.

She seemed kinda surprised and irritated that I would request the fence be moved asking if I would be willing to just live with it due to the expense. I informed her due to the small yard and expense of land in our area I don’t think that’s something I would be okay with.

I kindly informed her I think she should have had a survey done prior to fence placement if this was something she was concerned about. I don’t think I should donate land I pay for because of her error.

TL;DR: Neighbors new fence appears to be on my property. I’m getting a survey to confirm. Neighbor is upset I’m getting survey and says even if her fence is on my land she asks I don’t make her move it.

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Spare-Shirt-24 wrote:

NTA.

Getting a survey should have been part of her due diligence before she got the fence installed.

Discount_Mithral wrote:

NTA. If it is indeed several feet over the line, that needs to be moved ASAP. Heck, even more than 6" and I'd say move it. Land/Property taxes keep going up, you're paying for land you can't access if her fence is in the wrong spot. End of story. Do not let her keep your property that YOU have to pay taxes on.

inductiononN wrote:

Yeah what is this neighbor thinking? OP even said it shouldn't be on their property and neighbor was just like whatever? Kind of a dumb move on her part. If OP lets it slide, doesn't that mean they could lose that land eventually? Regardless, NTA. Neighbor was very foolish here.

NYCinPGH wrote:

We had a fence put in about 10 years ago, to replace the old falling down fence, as we were getting a dog soon.

Our fence guys would not even start until a survey was done, and there were a couple of instances where issues could have arisen - property line went straight through a large tree - so we talked it out with the neighbors before the fence was installed (in a couple of instances, it was just easier if the fence went right around the tree onto the neighbors’ property).

Lincolnshiresausage wrote:

We have a field behind our back yard and there are houses surrounding this field. The (obnoxious) neighbors directly opposite started putting up a fence. They had got about 30 feet of fence up when I got up one morning and saw a surveyor out at the property marker on the corner of my yard.

He was pointing over at the neighbors building a fence where I saw another surveyor. They then stopped building the fence and it’s been like that for 2 months now. Apparently they were about 10 feet over their property line and on the field which is owned by another neighbor.

I’d really love it if those idiots put up a fence but they need to do it on their own land. I keep looking over to see if they have moved it or taken it down or tried to complete it but there’s been no action since then.

Not long after posting, OP shared an update.

UPDATE: Wow. I did not anticipate this one would be of any interest. Yesterday I was in contact with several survey companies. Some have sent estimates, some said they will have one sent by Monday next week. From the two I’ve gotten thus far I’m looking at about 4-5K. Spoke to a real estate attorney who made me feel better about the situation.

He advised he has seen this many times and it’s a very straight forward case especially when fresh. In a nutshell if survey confirms it’s on my property at all then I notify neighbor it needs to move. He said in his experience it rarely has to see a courtroom. He additionally added it should be a red flag that I don’t see any underground utilities marked prior to work starting.

Especially because it’s on a sewer easement. He added in my city the manhole shouldn’t be fenced into her yard in the event it needs servicing. With the new fence it’s now enclosed in her yard. I will update when survey is done. Some companies are booked until January…

Here's what people had to say to the update:

popbangwiggle wrote:

Maybe this has already asked or I missed it, but where were you the whole time this was happening? Why was this not caught before the contractors even placed the first post?

OP responded:

I was at work when the fence was placed.

FraserGreat wrote:

NTA. Depending on where you live, property rights can be a "use it or lose it" kind of deal. You should absolutely enforce your property rights. I've seen people employ tactics like this to encroach on their neighbors property and "gain" more land because property rights were not enforced in time.

If you let this stand, legally it can be as if you're consenting to having hundreds of feet worth of land taken from you.

ReviewScary9200 wrote:

I had an invisible fence installed for my dogs. It did not require a permit but the installer required survey AND all the utilities marked before installation. In all honesty I was pleased.

PirateQuest wrote:

> She kind of shrugged it off and told me she doesn’t think it’s placed wrong. I told her due to the expense of land in our area I would be scheduling to have a survey done to confirm the fence is property placed. This should have been done before it was built. Obviously. Instead of initially saying "go for it" a wise course of action would have been to say "make sure you get a survey done first."