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Determining Boundaries/Fence

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WuLabsWuTecH

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Ohio -- Franklin County -- City of Columbus

Hi all, this is my fist time posting here so I apologize if I have not provided al the information you may need.

About two years ago my neighbor built a small fence on his property to contain his dog from running into our yard. Out neighbors and us have lived next to each other for 15+ years and we get along very well. We had never minded their dogs (or kids when hey were younger) in our yard but our neigobor ased his son to build a low fence in their backyard. I thought nothing more of it until recently when I was doing yard work in the back corner of our yard ad felt like one of our trees must have grown really quickly since when it was nowhere near the property line before, it was now overhanging by about 2 feet.

I looked up property line definitions in our deed and sure enough, it seems when his son built the fence, he ended up a good 3-4 feet into our yard!

My questions are as follows:

1.) I was told there are metal stakes on our property marking the corners. What sould be the best way to find these without a metal detector? I tried a powerful magner on a string as well as poking and prodding around where I measured with a tape measure but I got nothing. (If I was going to go buy a metal detector i might as well hire a surveyor right?

2.) What would be the best way to settle this? i really don't mind the fence that much, but I hear if we don't take care of this problem soon we may eventually lose the land to them which I don't want when we try to sell the house later. We are on very good terms with the neighbors and don't really want to get lawyers involved but is there any good way to deal with this otherwise?

3.) If we do hire a surveyor to figure out where the line is to relocate the fence, who pays for it? Us? Them? Split the cost?

4.) If the surveyor also does the rest of the property lines for us and we find out that our trees are too close to the easement or some of our landscaping has intruded on the other 3 neighboring properties over the years, are we now obligaed to fix that? (in other words, could we fix one problem only to be faced with 3 other ones?)

5.) My ideal solution: I find the two stakes on the border with this neighbor, get a really, really long length of string and tie it between the two and ask him if he would mind moving the fence. He says no problem, i'll have my son do it (poor kid) and we go grab a cold one. Any foreseeable problems with this? What if her prefers not to move it (OK with me), is there any way to stipulate that once one of us is ready to sell the house the fence has to be fixed?

Any other solutions you guys may have would be fantastic! Thanks in advance for your help and let me know if you need any more information!

-AW
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
Your best bet is to have a survey done and pound in iron pipe or bury pieces of Iron pipe so it can be found again with metal detector and talk to your nieghbor , If the nieghbor refuses to move the fence you could send them a registered return rct letter telling them that you are granting them consent to use the strip of land until the time that weather , normal wear tear ( rot ) causes the fence to have to be re done OR at the time either of you sells then consent expires. This way with consent they can use the land, Doesnt mean that there will never be a legal fight because some day there could be, Keep a copy of the letter in your safety deposit box at the bank as well as a copy at home so you do not lose it. This approach could easily keep the peaceful relationship you have now. And if your in your homes long enough fair odds are the fence will have to be replaced.
 

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