M
Michigan23
Guest
What is the name of your state? Michigan
We bought our house this past fall, and learned (through a boundary survey) that our neighbor's driveway encroaches on our property. Their driveway forms a curving L-shape, and encroaches 6 feet at the bend of the "L", cutting off a corner of our yard. We love the house and decided to buy knowing of the encroachment, but would like to resolve the issue soon.
Their house is very close to ours: it was built right behind our house on the site of an old carriage house. Since they are behind us, we only have a side yard (no back yard) -- about 1/4 acre. Our house is positioned assymmetrically, so that most of our property is at one side of our house. The yard faces the street, and the far side and back side of our yard are bounded by the neighbor's driveway.
They put the driveway in 5 years ago (without permit or survey); they apparently did not know the driveway is encroaching until we got our boundary survey. The adverse posession laws apply after 15 years, so it is not an immediate threat in that sense. However, the driveway traffic makes it unpleasant to spend time in our yard. She runs a dog-grooming business from their home (which is probably not legal in our residential district, and may be worthy of a thread on its own), and someone is always coming or going.
I want to install fencing and landscaping that will make our yard feel more secluded and less like a public park. We definitely need privacy. In order to put up a fence with normal right angles, we need to resolve the driveway encroachment. If we reclaim our six feet at the corner, they will still be able to make the turn, but it would be a sharp turn instead of a gentle turn.
I don't want to do an encroachment agreement, because I don't want to have to design my landscaping around their driveway. I'm not interested in selling a strip of land. I just want them to move their driveway.
How are these types of conflicts dealt with? They accept the survey and do not dispute that they are on our property. But it does not look like they plan on recutting the driveway -- in fact they just had it resurfaced last week! I am still deciding on fencing styles, and probably won't install anything until next summer. When we are ready to put up the fence, do we have to sue to make them remove their driveway? Can we just drill the post-holes through the driveway? Can we jackhammer and remove the offending asphalt? Yikes.
I wish they would be responsible and deal with this on their own so I don't have to stress about it... He is involved in town politics (up for re-election this fall) so I'm sure they know where the law stands on these things... Besides the driveway and dog business, they are generally good neighbors who take pride in maintaining their home and garden.
We bought our house this past fall, and learned (through a boundary survey) that our neighbor's driveway encroaches on our property. Their driveway forms a curving L-shape, and encroaches 6 feet at the bend of the "L", cutting off a corner of our yard. We love the house and decided to buy knowing of the encroachment, but would like to resolve the issue soon.
Their house is very close to ours: it was built right behind our house on the site of an old carriage house. Since they are behind us, we only have a side yard (no back yard) -- about 1/4 acre. Our house is positioned assymmetrically, so that most of our property is at one side of our house. The yard faces the street, and the far side and back side of our yard are bounded by the neighbor's driveway.
They put the driveway in 5 years ago (without permit or survey); they apparently did not know the driveway is encroaching until we got our boundary survey. The adverse posession laws apply after 15 years, so it is not an immediate threat in that sense. However, the driveway traffic makes it unpleasant to spend time in our yard. She runs a dog-grooming business from their home (which is probably not legal in our residential district, and may be worthy of a thread on its own), and someone is always coming or going.
I want to install fencing and landscaping that will make our yard feel more secluded and less like a public park. We definitely need privacy. In order to put up a fence with normal right angles, we need to resolve the driveway encroachment. If we reclaim our six feet at the corner, they will still be able to make the turn, but it would be a sharp turn instead of a gentle turn.
I don't want to do an encroachment agreement, because I don't want to have to design my landscaping around their driveway. I'm not interested in selling a strip of land. I just want them to move their driveway.
How are these types of conflicts dealt with? They accept the survey and do not dispute that they are on our property. But it does not look like they plan on recutting the driveway -- in fact they just had it resurfaced last week! I am still deciding on fencing styles, and probably won't install anything until next summer. When we are ready to put up the fence, do we have to sue to make them remove their driveway? Can we just drill the post-holes through the driveway? Can we jackhammer and remove the offending asphalt? Yikes.
I wish they would be responsible and deal with this on their own so I don't have to stress about it... He is involved in town politics (up for re-election this fall) so I'm sure they know where the law stands on these things... Besides the driveway and dog business, they are generally good neighbors who take pride in maintaining their home and garden.