California.
Our new neighbor decided to build a new retaining wall between our property and got a survey. The survey showed that the entire street was shifted 5 feet from "official" property lines meaning that each property was giving and taking 5 feet from neighboring plots. Based on the official line, the wall to our house is where the property line should be with our new neighbor. Because the new neighbors feel entitled to 5 feet, they tore down the old concrete retaining wall, and took about 18 inches of our "unofficial" property to build the new wall. Their line of thinking was that we should be fortunate they only took 18 inches and not the entire five feet. I find this frivilous because all the homes (and walls) on the street were built about 50 years ago.
Furthermore, the reason (or so they claimed) they took 18 inches was to build a legal/permitted retaining wall. In their own words, it would have been illegal to rebuild along the same line of the old wall. Interestingly, I checked with the city and they have no record of permits being issued for any wall. The fact there was no permit shocked me because who would be stupid enough to build a new 6 foot retaining wall along a questionable property line without a permit?!?!
Additionally, the contractor damaged our sidewalk, made a huge mess, and caused erosin due to missing dirt on our side of the wall.
What sort of action can I take to correct these issues? My main concern is the new neighbor tries to sue us to literally take the wall of our house. Do they have a case against us?
All of this has occured over the past month or so.
Our new neighbor decided to build a new retaining wall between our property and got a survey. The survey showed that the entire street was shifted 5 feet from "official" property lines meaning that each property was giving and taking 5 feet from neighboring plots. Based on the official line, the wall to our house is where the property line should be with our new neighbor. Because the new neighbors feel entitled to 5 feet, they tore down the old concrete retaining wall, and took about 18 inches of our "unofficial" property to build the new wall. Their line of thinking was that we should be fortunate they only took 18 inches and not the entire five feet. I find this frivilous because all the homes (and walls) on the street were built about 50 years ago.
Furthermore, the reason (or so they claimed) they took 18 inches was to build a legal/permitted retaining wall. In their own words, it would have been illegal to rebuild along the same line of the old wall. Interestingly, I checked with the city and they have no record of permits being issued for any wall. The fact there was no permit shocked me because who would be stupid enough to build a new 6 foot retaining wall along a questionable property line without a permit?!?!
Additionally, the contractor damaged our sidewalk, made a huge mess, and caused erosin due to missing dirt on our side of the wall.
What sort of action can I take to correct these issues? My main concern is the new neighbor tries to sue us to literally take the wall of our house. Do they have a case against us?
All of this has occured over the past month or so.