What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA
We put up a pool when we moved here and were told we needed to have it over 5 feet off the property line as well as an entry fence and/or lock (which we did 8 ft) The neighbor put up a shed that is less than 5 feet away as well as the other neighbor put up a pool with no fence or lock that is easily accessible to young children not far from the road. In addition, they put up small bushes to try to hide the pool. The other neighbor is dumping trash on his neighbor's property that burned down (& they moved) and nothing has been done about that and another neighbor has had cement pilings on their property 1 whole year.
The borough basically stated too bad to us - that the other neighbors didn't have to follow rules but we do. In addition the code officer said too bad - note he also oversees 21 municipals and only comes here once or twice a year when the neighbor calls to harass us. The code officer before him held 3 different offices in the borough (probably illegal in PA & conflict of interest) & wasn't even certified. We want the borough sent a letter stating that the other neighbors MUST follow PA state rules as well as us (with the rules cited) and the other neighbor sent a letter to quit harassing us. She keeps turning us in for cats that people drop off/aren't ours & other issues since she has nothing to do all day but harass us. Her groundhogs keep coming over our house & eating the cat food & she says we don't feed our cats. We buy numerous bags of cat food weekly & have receipts to prove it. She also put up a high fence & tore out our property line post that we paid several hundred dollars to have surveyed to make sure where the property boundaries are. Her tree overhung our pool and put numerous leaves in it ruining it all the time. It cost us $800 to have water trucked in since we have a well. We have to put a new liner in. We paid $400 to have one of our trees cut down so the leaves would quit flying in the pool and she was all mad stating the shade was gone. We are doing the best we can with our property under all our circumstances. We have been through numerous medical issues, surgeries, diabetes, cancer, broen bones, etc over the past 3 years as well as lived in another state (Ohio) for almost 9 months of that time while trying to maintain this property. It does need work-but we have purchased thousands of dollars of supplies & equipment over the past year and it isn't like we have not done anything at all. We tried to put up a shed to accomodate all my husband's work equipment & the borough stated we had to put it where they wanted so we didn't put it up. Now we are going to put it up on our old garage cement pad they made us tear down - that we found we have been paying taxes for the last 10 years with nothing there. The borough made us tear it down because it was in poor condition. We wanted to fix it since it was cheaper than building a new one and they would not allow us. We need someone who knows the laws and can help us cheaply. Note we are zoned commercial /unclassified (although the borough states we are residential)-they also state we are not allowed to call & speak to the tax representatives regarding our tax classification.
We called the county and several lawyers and no one knows what we can do about this- if anything. There are no lawyers on this in our area and we live in the borough (less than 1,000)- although we are not really in town. Although we are in the borough- we do not have sidealks or curbs like the rest of town and the borough refuses to give us these. We were going to put our own sidewalks in until we found out it would be $1,000 and that was 5 years ago, so I am sure it ould be more now.
What can we do about all of this? Can anyone help?
Are there any laws we can use?
Do state laws supercede borough laws and if so- are there any that will help us?
We don't have money to file all these lawsuits with our thousands of dollars in medical bills and we know the fence neighbor will get the others all against us anyways- so it won't matter.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
We put up a pool when we moved here and were told we needed to have it over 5 feet off the property line as well as an entry fence and/or lock (which we did 8 ft) The neighbor put up a shed that is less than 5 feet away as well as the other neighbor put up a pool with no fence or lock that is easily accessible to young children not far from the road. In addition, they put up small bushes to try to hide the pool. The other neighbor is dumping trash on his neighbor's property that burned down (& they moved) and nothing has been done about that and another neighbor has had cement pilings on their property 1 whole year.
The borough basically stated too bad to us - that the other neighbors didn't have to follow rules but we do. In addition the code officer said too bad - note he also oversees 21 municipals and only comes here once or twice a year when the neighbor calls to harass us. The code officer before him held 3 different offices in the borough (probably illegal in PA & conflict of interest) & wasn't even certified. We want the borough sent a letter stating that the other neighbors MUST follow PA state rules as well as us (with the rules cited) and the other neighbor sent a letter to quit harassing us. She keeps turning us in for cats that people drop off/aren't ours & other issues since she has nothing to do all day but harass us. Her groundhogs keep coming over our house & eating the cat food & she says we don't feed our cats. We buy numerous bags of cat food weekly & have receipts to prove it. She also put up a high fence & tore out our property line post that we paid several hundred dollars to have surveyed to make sure where the property boundaries are. Her tree overhung our pool and put numerous leaves in it ruining it all the time. It cost us $800 to have water trucked in since we have a well. We have to put a new liner in. We paid $400 to have one of our trees cut down so the leaves would quit flying in the pool and she was all mad stating the shade was gone. We are doing the best we can with our property under all our circumstances. We have been through numerous medical issues, surgeries, diabetes, cancer, broen bones, etc over the past 3 years as well as lived in another state (Ohio) for almost 9 months of that time while trying to maintain this property. It does need work-but we have purchased thousands of dollars of supplies & equipment over the past year and it isn't like we have not done anything at all. We tried to put up a shed to accomodate all my husband's work equipment & the borough stated we had to put it where they wanted so we didn't put it up. Now we are going to put it up on our old garage cement pad they made us tear down - that we found we have been paying taxes for the last 10 years with nothing there. The borough made us tear it down because it was in poor condition. We wanted to fix it since it was cheaper than building a new one and they would not allow us. We need someone who knows the laws and can help us cheaply. Note we are zoned commercial /unclassified (although the borough states we are residential)-they also state we are not allowed to call & speak to the tax representatives regarding our tax classification.
We called the county and several lawyers and no one knows what we can do about this- if anything. There are no lawyers on this in our area and we live in the borough (less than 1,000)- although we are not really in town. Although we are in the borough- we do not have sidealks or curbs like the rest of town and the borough refuses to give us these. We were going to put our own sidewalks in until we found out it would be $1,000 and that was 5 years ago, so I am sure it ould be more now.
What can we do about all of this? Can anyone help?
Are there any laws we can use?
Do state laws supercede borough laws and if so- are there any that will help us?
We don't have money to file all these lawsuits with our thousands of dollars in medical bills and we know the fence neighbor will get the others all against us anyways- so it won't matter.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
