A Rock Wall Built on Our Property

We live in New Jersey and this problem started in 1991. Our neighbors, who we were friendly with in 1991, had a rail road tie and rock wall on their front property that bordered our driveway. They said they wanted to replace the rail road ties with a nice rock wall. We discussed it and we mentioned that they were on our property at the beginning of the wall by about 2 to 3 feet. Our property was not staked at the time. They acknowledged this and said they would move back to the property line when the new wall was put up. We even removed 2 or 3 trees that were at the end of the driveway because they would be too far from the wall when it was done and would look funny. We gave the people access to our driveway so they could do what they wanted to do. As the wall was being put up the neighbor complained that she didn't like the way this looked and didn't like that, it took a while for the wall to go up. It was completed on a Sunday in May, 1991 while we were out for the day. We came home in the dark and noticed it was done, but nothing else. The next day or two it rained and it wasn't until after that my husband went to put the lights back up that we had on that side of the driveway. He noticed something was wrong when he couldn't get behind one of the remaing trees. We then took a long hard look and realized they were on our property not the original 2 to 3 feet but now about 5 to 6 feet and not just at the beginning of the wall but all the way up. We confronted them about it and they proceeded to tell us we were crazy, we were probably on their property all this time. We called the police and depending on who responded, one wanted to ticket or arrest them, another would ticket or arrest us for removing the rocks. The town did not want to get involved, we had the property staked just to make sure we were correct in how much property they had now taken and we went to a lawyer. He told us we would have to go to court, which could cost us up to $10,000.00. He said we would most likely win but it would be costly and time consuming. He also said even if we did win they could file against us and take us to court again. We truthfully didn't understand this and we also didn't have $10,000.00 or the time to take off from work to go to court. The wall has remained, with many missing rocks that we have removed, all these years. Now we hear that they want to put up a new wall and we don't know what to do. The stakes clearly mark the property line, is it against the law for anyone to remove them. We will not let anyone on our property to take the existing wall down or put up a new one, but then they seem to do things when people aren't home so unless we set up a guard to watch our property things could just happen when we aren't home. In the past 13 years my husband has wanted to take the aggressive approach and just get a back hoe and take the wall down. I on the other hand have been passive, worried that if he did that he might damage their septic system which is behind the wall, which is one of the reasons we think they may have taken this extra property. The only thing we did do was remove quite a few of the rocks from the wall. Any help or solution to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated. We don't know what to do. It just seems wrong that they should have any rights or say in the matter as they have clearly taken our property.

And it what point did yoy provide them an updated survey establishing the validity of your claim and demanding the encroaching wall (if in fact the survey shows one) be removed?

We had the original survey which clearly showed their original wall on our property. We thought we would be able to work things out since we had been friendly with them. We had the property resurveyed and staked the following April or May when we realized this would not be possible. The surveyors put in steaks along with the permanent markers which our neighbors removed. The lawyer we went to did send them a letter or two telling them they had built their wall on our property and we received a letter from someone they went to saying we were mistaken and that they had built a beautiful wall that improved the property and it was their's or something to that effect. It was clear they were not going to do anything about removing it.

If there is anyone out there from New Jersey who had a similar problem and had it resolved or has any knowledge of New Jersey law and can suggest something we can do, PLEASE RESPOND. The way they work I expect people to be here this week to build their new wall! Over the years, all the people we have talked to about this problem, have had one of the following reactions: that they didn't believe that they could do this and we just couldn't call the police and have them arrested; that we should just take the wall down ourselves and see what happens; or that we should go to court. No one has ever been able to tell us that by law what they did was wrong and this is how it can be corrected. It just seems inconceivable that someone can take your property like this and nothing can be done about it without having to go to court and spend thousands of dollars to reclaim our own property.

If you went to the trouble to have a surveyor come out to put in stakes, WHY would you not have obtained a survey at the same time which SHOWS the location of the wall as on your property? That way, the issue is no longer whether the wall is on your property, but what will be done about it.

Talk to your attorney about an obtaining an injunction to stop any further work until this is resolved.

As I said we had the property resurveyed and then staked in 1992 and their wall is clearly on our property. We were told the only solution was to go to court. At this point I don't think anyone will be able to change or replace the existing wall without coming on our property and we will not allow this. Again anyone who has had a similar problem in New Jersey or has any suggestions please advise.

Get an estimate of the cost to take down the fence up to your property line, remove and clean up, etc. take before and after pictures, hopefully you have pictures when the stakes were in place if they have been removed or replace them, take pictures, you have your survey. Go to the links below for small claims court, there is a $3,000 limit in small claims court however there is also an option to file a complaint in the Special Civil Part-Civil of Superior Court. The claim limit in that section is $15,000. The cost of filing in Small Claims Court is $15 if you are filing a case against one defendant, and $2.00 more for each additional defendant. In addition, there is a mileage fee based on the distance a court official must travel to deliver the papers to the person you are suing. The cost of filing in the Special Civil Part-Civil is $54.00 if you are filing a case against one defendant, plus $6.00 for each additional defendant.

It is important that your neighbors willfully put up the fence knowing the old one was on your property and extended it further, and failed to remove it once it was surveyed and staked. See the link below about Adverse possession, the Statute of limitations against contractors is 10 years, but longer against the property owner especially since they willfully put the wall up knowing you had surveyed it. Print out that document and or the NJ codes, that may be enough to enforce it without going to court.

You may represent yourself if your claim is for less than $3,000 or if it is between $3,000 and $15,000. However, in the Special Civil Part-Civil, procedures are more formal. Therefore, most people use an attorney to represent them in that section. In the Special Civil Part-Civil, the plaintiff does not have to appear in court if the defendant fails to answer the complaint. However, if you wish to obtain a default judgment against an absent defendant, you must appear in court to do so.
Alternatives to Small Claims Court and the Special Civil Part
Consumers who believe they have been defrauded by a violator of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 to 8-60) can ask for assistance in filing a complaint by contacting the county or municipal consumer affairs office where the business is located, or the N.J. Division of Consumer Affairs (973-504-6200).

A 1993 Appellate Court decision permits courts to order the defendant to pay the plaintiff's attorney's fees if the defendant has been found to have violated the Consumer Fraud Act.

Small Claims Court/Superior Court Law Division, and Special Civil Part
ATLANTIC COUNTY (609) 343-2355 Small Claims
(609) 345-3347 Superior Court
BERGEN COUNTY (201) 646-2236 Small Claims
BURLINGTON COUNTY (609) 518-2620 Small Claims
CAMDEN COUNTY (856) 379-2200 Small Claims
CAPE MAY COUNTY (609) 463-6513 Small Claims
CUMBERLAND COUNTY (856) 453-4350 Superior Court
(856) 451-8000 Special Civil Part
ESSEX COUNTY (973) 693-6864 SuperiorCourt
GLOUCESTER COUNTY (609) 853-3392 Small Claims
HUDSON COUNTY (201) 795-6680 Small Claims
HUNTERDON COUNTY (908) 788-1220 Superior Court
(908) 806-5123 Special Civil Part
MERCER COUNTY (609) 989-6498 Small Claims
MIDDLESEX COUNTY (732) 981-2066 Small Claims
MONMOUTH COUNTY (732) 677-4292 Small Claims
MORRIS COUNTY (973) 656-4136 Small Claims
OCEAN COUNTY (732) 929-2017 Small Claims
PASSSIAC COUNTY (973) 247-8268 Special Civil Part
(973) 247-8184 Small Claims
SALEM COUNTY (856) 935-7510 Small Claims
SOMERSET COUNTY (908) 231-7014 Small Claims
SUSSEX COUNTY (973) 579-0918 Small Claims
UNION COUNTY (908) 659-3638 Special Civil Part
WARREN COUNTY (908) 475-6140 Superior Court
(908) 475-6148 Small Court

Small Claims Court Consumer Brief.... New Jersey consumer affairs, small claims, court, consumer brief, alerts, publications, money, lawyer, attorneys, judge, recovery, fees, superior court ...http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/brief/court.htm

STATE OF NEW JERSEY ... 1079 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 209th LEGISLATURE INTRODUCED MARCH 16, 2000 Sponsored by ... limitation on surveyor's liability with exception for adverse possession cases ...
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2000/Bills/s1500/1079_i1.pdf

Thank you for your answer rmet4nzkx. Are you from New Jersey? I don't know how we can prove that they knew they were building the wall on our property from day one. The conversation was just the 4 of us sitting on the deck and talking so it would be our word against theirs, but we did tell them they were already on our property with the old wall and that is why we cut down the trees. Their old wall showed on our survey that it was on our proprety so it had to show on theirs. We didn't get the next survey done until after the wall was up, that is when we had the property staked. I am going to copy and print out all the information you suggested and see where we go from there. Again thank you.

You are welcome,
from Californai, just loked up the stuff on the internet, The stickler is going to be the amount of time the wall has been up but with the section on adverse possession that shoul dod the trick and you are lucky you have the special option for small claims court, perhaps you will have some leverage now. Good Luck

The rock wall is making a public destinction between your property and theirs. Thus (although, you know it's on your property), it appears to be party of both properties and by removing it, you're publicly displaying the destruction of someone elses property.

You need to put up a new fence or wall along the legally staked markers and enclose your property and maintaining the correct destinction of the 2 properties.

Once done, you can remove anything inside your clearly marked property lines that you want !! If they try to remove your fence or wall, or touch their own wall (which is on your property), you can persecute and have them arrested!!

caandla said:

We live in New Jersey and this problem started in 1991. Our neighbors, who we were friendly with in 1991, had a rail road tie and rock wall on their front property that bordered our driveway. They said they wanted to replace the rail road ties with a nice rock wall. We discussed it and we mentioned that they were on our property at the beginning of the wall by about 2 to 3 feet. Our property was not staked at the time. They acknowledged this and said they would move back to the property line when the new wall was put up. We even removed 2 or 3 trees that were at the end of the driveway because they would be too far from the wall when it was done and would look funny. We gave the people access to our driveway so they could do what they wanted to do. As the wall was being put up the neighbor complained that she didn't like the way this looked and didn't like that, it took a while for the wall to go up. It was completed on a Sunday in May, 1991 while we were out for the day. We came home in the dark and noticed it was done, but nothing else. The next day or two it rained and it wasn't until after that my husband went to put the lights back up that we had on that side of the driveway. He noticed something was wrong when he couldn't get behind one of the remaing trees. We then took a long hard look and realized they were on our property not the original 2 to 3 feet but now about 5 to 6 feet and not just at the beginning of the wall but all the way up. We confronted them about it and they proceeded to tell us we were crazy, we were probably on their property all this time. We called the police and depending on who responded, one wanted to ticket or arrest them, another would ticket or arrest us for removing the rocks. The town did not want to get involved, we had the property staked just to make sure we were correct in how much property they had now taken and we went to a lawyer. He told us we would have to go to court, which could cost us up to $10,000.00. He said we would most likely win but it would be costly and time consuming. He also said even if we did win they could file against us and take us to court again. We truthfully didn't understand this and we also didn't have $10,000.00 or the time to take off from work to go to court. The wall has remained, with many missing rocks that we have removed, all these years. Now we hear that they want to put up a new wall and we don't know what to do. The stakes clearly mark the property line, is it against the law for anyone to remove them. We will not let anyone on our property to take the existing wall down or put up a new one, but then they seem to do things when people aren't home so unless we set up a guard to watch our property things could just happen when we aren't home. In the past 13 years my husband has wanted to take the aggressive approach and just get a back hoe and take the wall down. I on the other hand have been passive, worried that if he did that he might damage their septic system which is behind the wall, which is one of the reasons we think they may have taken this extra property. The only thing we did do was remove quite a few of the rocks from the wall. Any help or solution to resolve this problem would be greatly appreciated. We don't know what to do. It just seems wrong that they should have any rights or say in the matter as they have clearly taken our property.

Click to expand...

Rule #1 for noobs: This post is 4 years old. DON'T necropost.

What's rule #2?

The reading was getting interesting until I seen a members name that apparently no longer post . Then I looked at the dates .

They have probably took more rocks off one by one , maybe until there's none .

BL said:

The reading was getting interesting until I seen a members name that apparently no longer post . Then I looked at the dates .

They have probably took more rocks off one by one , maybe until there's none .

Click to expand...

**A: or maybe they took the prison procedure and made small rocks out of big ones.