Neighbor Property Line Dispute
Hi all - was wondering if anyone ran into a similar problem. We have an easement agreement with our neighbor where he needs access through our driveway to access his house. Between our houses on the side is a strip of land that is about 10’ at the narrowest and 40’ at the widest. Due to issues with our trash cans being on the street, we moved up them up to our house and placed it next to our house on that strip of land. These trash cans cannot extend more than 24” out of our house. There is no other good locations to place these trash cans without being an extreme inconvenience to us. He is claiming our trash cans are extending a few inches into his property and started going out of his way to curb his vehicle in a way that blocks our trash can in and in a way his vehicle partially on our property. He further claims that his property line starts at our house without providing any evidence. After we got our house plan filed with the County that clearly shows the 5’ offset, he requested we drop a certified copy of our drawing in his mailbox which I did not do.
At this point, I know he is lying. He is still parking his vehicle that way. I know the best option is to spend the $5k to get the property line surveyed and spend another $15k to fence it off but I’m frustrated at the injustice that he can make a wild claim like that but the burden of proof is on us along with spending $20k to boot! We spent $600 to talk to a lawyer and she basically said yes he’s being a jerk but it’ll cost like $50k if we go to court and we likely won’t get back the lawyer fee or the surveying cost. The court system isn’t made for individual claims like these. And since this is a civil dispute, calling OPD is a moot point.
Wondering if anyone has gone through this and if they had any other advice?
Parent Replies
Have you considered mediation? It's often a good choice for neighbor disputes. The mediator holds space for parties to have a difficult conversation, helping all participants to feel heard, understood, and respected. It's voluntary, confidential, and designed to foster joint decision-making. Everyone having their say and crafting a resolution together creates a durable outcome. Of course, if takes two to tango. There's no guarantee that he will be willing to participate or that you will reach resolution if he does, but offering to sit down and talk communicates that you want to find a solution that works for both of you. And you will be in relationship with this neighbor for a long time after this conflict passes. SEEDS in Berkeley offers community mediation services www.seedscrc.org and there are lots of private practitioners. Full disclosure - I am an attorney-mediator and a biased, zealous advocate for mediation. It works!
So sorry. Neighbor issues are the worst. I’d suck it up and build the fence; it’ll help if you ever sell your home as well. Best of luck.
If you think that you might want to get a survey, I advise that you get on the surveyors wait-list. We got a survey last year and the wait-lists were 6-9 months for several surveyors we talked to. The survey including putting markers cost us $6500 and that was the lowest price we were quoted. Do you have a legal easement agreement? This might impact the fence depending on what is in the agreement.
I'm so sorry. A few years ago we had a dispute with a neighbor that was utterly exhausting and made home feel anything but homey no matter how fair, kind, or understanding we tried to be. Our problem only ended because the guy decided to move. My advice is to log absolutely everything with photos, videos, and written notes, and make it no secret that you're doing this. Make sure when you collect such evidence that you are clearly standing on your own nondisputed property so you can't be accused of trespassing. When it became clear that we were painstakingly collecting evidence, our neighbor got scared and decided to quit fighting. The only other thing that might help is to hire a mitigator/facilitator, but there's no legal force behind that. I wonder if providing the certified copy might help settle things? I know you're angry and therefore don't want to do anything extra for the jerk, but maybe he thinks you're hiding something? Finally, perhaps ask all services into the house (electricity, gas, cable, etc.) that could possibly be underground to come mark their lines. (Call 811.) This can sometimes be used to help determine property lines and is a bit of free evidence you can collect. Hope you get peace soon.