fence not on boundary. who is responsible for maintenance of land in front of fence?

[uhliscool]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

I live on a mountain and am uphill from the fence. My neighbor put up a privacy fence between us and the fence sits directly on the ground line and it is about 8" set back from property line. The problem is that erosion keeps backfilling dirt and debit (much of which is from a tree that leans over onto my property that belongs to him). He insists that I am heaving garden dirt up on his fence but I am not… nature is and I can not stop nature!

My questions are: who is responsible for the 8" of his property that he fenced behind? Do I need to put in a retaining wall to slow erosion (as he insists)? If I do have to put in a retaining wall, who is responsible for maintaining the 8" of his land in front of his fence?

Thanks. This is keeping me up at night

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

I live on a mountain and am uphill from the fence. My neighbor put up a privacy fence between us and the fence sits directly on the ground line and it is about 8" set back from property line. The problem is that erosion keeps backfilling dirt and debit (much of which is from a tree that leans over onto my property that belongs to him). He insists that I am heaving garden dirt up on his fence but I am not… nature is and I can not stop nature!

My questions are: who is responsible for the 8" of his property that he fenced behind? Do I need to put in a retaining wall to slow erosion (as he insists)? If I do have to put in a retaining wall, who is responsible for maintaining the 8" of his land in front of his fence?

Thanks. This is keeping me up at night

He is responsible for his property unless you have done something unnatural to cause damage to his property.

 

[STEPHAN]

Check with your city/county. The might have regulations regarding retaining walls. Here we have a department of the city that can order you to put one up.

 

[FarmerJ]

When you look into your city/ county ords you may want to search for rules related to changes that one property owner does that trigger things like changing drainage, or installing retaining walls to prevent harm to a adjacent property.