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town is making me move my brand new shed

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gregross823

Guest
What is the name of your state? NY, Erie County

I am a new home owner, and was ignorant to the fact that I needed a permit to build a tool shed. Well, I started building about a month ago. I used common sense and built it 9 feet away from my neighbors property, and about 3.5 feet from my back property line. Well, someone from the town stopped by today and told my wife i needed a permit. I left work early and visited the town hall, where they informed me that there is a 7 and a half foot easement in which I have violated by 4 feet. They say I need to move the shed, and the 10x12 concrete pad, off of the easement. The town said they may need to get at pipes underneath the ground there - but in general, the guys were real pricks.

I have invested about $1600 dollars in my shed so far, which is 90% complete. Now I need to move it. The thing is, there is 25 feet of unused town property between my back property line and my rear neighbors propertly line. The town has so much unused space that there is no REASONABLE reason they should force me to move my shed. I offered to sign a waiver giving the town the right to knock down my shed if they EVER, EVER, needed to get under the ground where it is in violation of the easement, and they said SORRY, NO DEAL.

Now, I talked to my builder, who said there are no pipes under the ground, and the town inspecter is pretty much an unreasonable jerk.

My question is, can I challenge the ruling to move my shed? Is there anything I can do to stand up for my rights, or, atleast stand up for common sense? The town is offering no middle ground here. They say I must move it.
Do I have any options here to protect my investment? Any legal rights?
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
gregross823 said:
What is the name of your state? NY, Erie County

I am a new home owner, and was ignorant to the fact that I needed a permit to build a tool shed. Well, I started building about a month ago. I used common sense and built it 9 feet away from my neighbors property, and about 3.5 feet from my back property line. Well, someone from the town stopped by today and told my wife i needed a permit. I left work early and visited the town hall, where they informed me that there is a 7 and a half foot easement in which I have violated by 4 feet. They say I need to move the shed, and the 10x12 concrete pad, off of the easement. The town said they may need to get at pipes underneath the ground there - but in general, the guys were real pricks.

I have invested about $1600 dollars in my shed so far, which is 90% complete. Now I need to move it. The thing is, there is 25 feet of unused town property between my back property line and my rear neighbors propertly line. The town has so much unused space that there is no REASONABLE reason they should force me to move my shed. I offered to sign a waiver giving the town the right to knock down my shed if they EVER, EVER, needed to get under the ground where it is in violation of the easement, and they said SORRY, NO DEAL.

Now, I talked to my builder, who said there are no pipes under the ground, and the town inspecter is pretty much an unreasonable jerk.

My question is, can I challenge the ruling to move my shed?

**A: yes you can, but ignorance of the building and zoning codes and the fact that the town inspector is being an unreasonable jerk, are NO defenses.
**********
Is there anything I can do to stand up for my rights, or, atleast stand up for common sense? The town is offering no middle ground here. They say I must move it.
Do I have any options here to protect my investment? Any legal rights?

**A: read the building and zoning codes and start moving your shed.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
If a person is going to both the trouble and expense of placing an improvement on their property they MUST check zoning ordinance and their title policy to be certain they are in compliance with both code, survey and E&R documents.
 
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Ummonx

Member
Just to give you an idea, in the town I grew up in. a homeowner built what was described to the zoning board as a small "studio". Instead he built a 3 story structure and violated just about every zoning law the town had. After about 7 years of litigation and thousands spend on attorney fees on his part. He of course lost. ended up having to tear it down. It probably cost him in excess of 100k to build in the 80's and prob another 60k in legal fees.

Move the shed
 
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gregross823

Guest
obvious points well taken

And I appreciate the responses.
That said, yes, hindsight for me is now 20/20. I should have checked the town ordinances etc, etc. I am a young homeowner, 27 yrs old, first house, and prone to mistakes like this one. I had never heard of a 'easement' prior to yesterday. Had I known, I obviously would not have built the shed there.

And I guess I will end up moving it, but I was hoping for a bit of reasonableness to shine through here.
The town has 25 + feet of land running behind all of the houses on my side of the street. There is no pipes underneath, and probably will never need the 4 feet of land that I am in a violation of in our lifetimes. That is why I wanted to ask for a variance by the town, which would state that they could not down my shed if they ever needed to get at that ground.

Am I asking too much to have an act of some reasonableness and civility from the town, the town that I pay taxes to? I don't get the beurocratic crap that spews out from the town.

Any lawyers out there?

I feel like just putting up a fight for the principle of it.
 
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gregross823

Guest
re:

no, I was the builder of the shed.

The 'builder' I referenced earlier was the builder of the entire development, who said that the town is doing nothing with the 25+ feet of land between me and my neighbors property, and the town lied to me when they said there were drainage pipes under there, which there are not.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
Sorry, but the "principal" is that one CANNOT willy-nilly build whatever they wish, wherever they wish - and after the fact claim ignorance.

You KNOW that there is such a thing as building codes and permits. Many municipalities now even have them accessable on municipal websites, so no trip down to town hall is even necessary to check this out, in many cases.
You know that buildings must conform to certain setbacks from the street. Odds are you DID recieve a title commitment as part of your closing papers that spells out what the applicable easements and deed restrictions are for your property. The fact that you never read them does not make them go away. And it doesn't make them wrong and you right. Yes, you are young. But you can't be THAT naive. It was your RESPONSIBILTY to research what you needed to conform to.
 
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gregross823

Guest
also

to any other 'should have known' comments, you are all correct - I should have known, but didnt.
My point is about can I do anything about standing up for myself, and whats right. The town has no reason not to grant me a variance, other than wanting to be jerks
 
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gregross823

Guest
re:

I have not formally applied for a variance, I just spoke with the town supervisor of building permits yesterday. But I do know that there are no pipes or anything under the ground. They are still building houses in my development, and its only one builder, and he told me yesterday that there is nothing under the ground in the easement.
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
Apply for the variance but it will help to have proof that there are no utilities in the easement and that your encrouchment into it would not prevent it's future use, of course then the other neighbors will want to do the same, if they all did would it still be usable?
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
gregross823 said:
to any other 'should have known' comments, you are all correct - I should have known, but didnt.
My point is about can I do anything about standing up for myself, and whats right. The town has no reason not to grant me a variance, other than wanting to be jerks
**A: not true. To get a variance approved you must show hardship. Yours is not a hardship case but one of ignorance of the zoning ordinance.
 

Indiana Filer

Senior Member
Let me tell you a story about a barn...

gregross823 said:
to any other 'should have known' comments, you are all correct - I should have known, but didnt.
My point is about can I do anything about standing up for myself, and whats right. The town has no reason not to grant me a variance, other than wanting to be jerks
Sometimes zoning boards don't like it when they feel that they rules were flaunted or ignored. (Not saying that you did so, but they may have been burned before.)

Here's a story from about 10 years or so ago in central Indiana in a county just south of Indy. I don't know if the regulations are still the same, but I'm willing to bet they are.

A home lot outside a planned development or city limits had to be a minimum of five acres in size to be approved as a home site. Any smaller than that, and the county could refuse to approve the home for habitation.

Well, this guy owned about 7 acres and had a home already on it. His son wanted to build a home next door, subdividing the lot into two lots--the original home on 5 acres, and the new home on 2 acres. The county refused a building permit for a home since neither lot would be the minimum size of 5 acres.

They decided to build a barn instead. No problem, except, when completed, the barn looked exactly like a house from the outside. Now, it did have dirt floors and no interior walls so it was a barn.

After the "barn" was completed and approved by the county, the owner added a regular floor and interior walls. OOPS! The county filed suit and refused to grant a certificate of occupancy. The county's argument was that the family was trying to skirt the regulations of minimum lot size.

The county won. It was the purtiest hog barn I ever saw.
 

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