After saving for years and living in a shitty apartment for a decade too long we finally were able to buy a home. We love it, its exactly what we wanted. However part of the plans included a privacy fence on one side, so we could set clear boundaries before construction is finished on the town homes next door. Part of that included running my property lines.

Thats when I discovered that I owned a LOT further over then I realized. They had clearly run the line at some point as well as we found stakes on line on the property line.

After years of working in land surveying, I am pretty laid back when it comes to my property because I know how miserable it can be to have a Karen trying to plant shrubs on the line and shit like that. I wanted to avoid immediately being a dick considering I have never even spoken to the crew doing the building work.

But its a problem I can't ignore. They laid a drainpipe over the line, exiting onto my property by 5 feet, and worse its angled so that my entire lower yard gets flooded when it rains. They didn't install silt fencing, and frankly moved a shitload of dirt onto my yard. Its clear as day and we staked the line with a flagged stake every 50 ft. I couldn't have made it clearer. I then waited for the knock on my door as we have no clue how to contact the actual owner. Then they stop coming to work on it the next week after its staked. They have been gone a month, so ironically we were drafting a letter to send to who we found on the title.

Thats when a ASV showed up. I'm not going to lie, I felt some kind of way about this. The line is fucking clear as day, and this cocksucker won't stop and talk to my wife and kept driving on my property all day. I get home from work and see that shit, and the disrespect made me fucking livid.

So I'll leave it to you guys. How would you play it?

I left a note duct taped to the Posi-Track that said exactly "before you drive on my property again, have the owner call me at __________. We need to discuss the drainpipe installed on my land". Then I stretched a string and flagged it to make it even more clear.

My plans are if he ignores me again I'll be going directly to the city with all the pictures. And if the city doesn't want to do shit, then I'll weld the bitch closed on my end, and bury it.

The posi track is actually sitting on me by a foot or so in the back. He made himself a nice little road around because there's not enough room on the side of the property for him to fit. By the time they install the HVAC there MAY be a foot of space between it and the property line.







And before anyone asks or suggests. I would have immediately peed on his leg to establish dominance, however he's been hiding and I don't think pissing on the drywallers would have the same effect.

Consult a lawyer?

Call the police or sheriff?

Hate to say it, but invite the man into your life. That is to say contact the city department of public works regarding the contractor clearing and grading outside their approved limits of disturbance for the permitted development project.

He owns the structures built in your property, such as the drainpipe. I don't think you can just damage it without bringing legal consequences on yourself.

On the other hand he has damaged your property and he owes you making that whole, including paying to restore your property back to the state it was in and removing the drain.

Obviously that's lawyers

You are within your rights to put up a fence (home depot chicken wire would do) and no trespassing signs to exclude him from your property and then you could send a registered letter demanding compensation for the damage and removal of the drain.

You could have a lawyer at least write that letter for you.

Ideally what happens is he talks to you, and you come to some agreement. If he needs the land that you own for his development to make any sense then potentially you could sell part of your land to him to make it work for him, and use that money to wipe out a bunch of your mortgage or something.

Police won't get involved.  The agency responsible for soil erosion and sediment control (SESC) may help in the sense that they may fine the contractor for not following the proper rules, but they won't do anything about encroachment.

Hiring a lawyer is your best way forward.

Dig a moat and get sharks with laser beams.

A friend had a property dispute. Lawers got rich from it. Property lines remained the same. Did I say lawyers got rich from it?

Someone built an erosion factory.

Trebuchet

If the neighbor put it in on your property it's now your property & I would tell them to move it to their property or remove it myself. I doubt anyone pulled permits and if they did the city should tell them to remove it since the work is not on the permitted property.


It's not personal, it's your property, not theirs.



My 1st house had a similar issue but neighbors on both sides ran their down spouts inches away from my back yard.
My yard was low and a duck pond after a good rain. I took the time, effort and expense of running all my down spouts to the street then brought in 45 yards of fill and graded my yard. Next rain the neighbors rain water stayed in their own yards. Let's say they were unhappy but their water is their problem, not mine.

It sounds like you tried to be reasonable. Since they aren't around, perhaps you could be neighborly and move their drainpipe to their side of the property line for them. Looks like they left some equipment to help with the job.

First: I would have it surveyed to make sure. That’s the first question whomever will ask.
Then the next hour I would build a fence. Any thing on your side of the fence do as you will.
Day 1 you should have done this.

This.

I mean I honestly wanted to be nice about it. I was even going to offer to let them skip reseeding and leveling the yard back out so long as the pipe got moved back over.

Now I kinda wanna be a douce about it.

Trust me when I say this. First thing I did was survey it.

I never wanted to own all the way over there. But I do.

But I also don't have 2k to waste build ling a fence in a washout.

introduce yourself, have your survey in one hand and your lease agreement in the other

they can lease that land and pay for any damages to the surrounding area for 100 years at $xxxxx.xx per annum, paid in advance.
or move that pipe, fix the drainage issue, reseed the area and

GET OFF MY LAWN
Attached File

I cane home to having a 50 by 25 deep stretch of property almost cleared.
It took awhile to finally speak to the new  owner...
It went as I expected..typical what's yours is mine...type.
Posted signs....and a call to the county about no permits backed his ass up fast.
Not feasible to run fence on thst because it's all natural growth " woods" /,swamp.

Dig up the drain up to a foot of your property line, cut off the excess and fill the end with concrete and bury it all again.

Post no trespassing signs.

Inform the worksite that any trespassers will be prosecuted.

Obviously do this after they remove the drain pipe. Also call the building dept, they are not allow to drain water onto your property.

Please do not make the mistake I made.  Get that fucking drain pipe off your property.

There could be a storm drain easement or other type of easement. Check your title policy.

This sort of situation clearly calls for a string of toilet bowls along the property line.

You're welcome.

Plug your drain pipe with concrete

Are there any easements involved with your property?

Hire an actual surveyor. I don't doubt your surveying abilities but you can't have the situation be your word against theirs. Have monuments put in if you can afford it.

Look up the owner via public tax records. It takes ten minutes.

Inform the owner of their transgressions via certified mail and any additional means you see fit.

Do you have a local building department? Ask if there is a permit for this work. Water draining like this is no bueno.

I would give them a window then remove it myself if they don't.
Fun part is if you shoot the grade & build your area higher than their inlet it's now a French drain for your yard.....

If you can't get ahold of the guy, send a cease and decist via certified letter to his house. If he ignores it, take it to the zoning board board and get some movement pretty quick. Should be pretty straight forward. 30 years ago my boomer neighbor decided to put up a fence and run it almost 50 feet on my property to tie into my fence. Knocked on his door and politely asked him to get it off my property by the end of the week or I'll do it for him. Some people don't give 2 shits about property lines or encroaching on someone else's property.  

Document Document Document

The city is going to tell you its a civil dispute and to take it to court

Lawyer

While I have been involved in construction projects that have for whatever reason [usually a staking problem or drawing issue] have had boundary disputes.
Nobody waited for anyone to come to work.
The issue was double checked by a surveyor and results were taken directly to the permitting authority who issued a stop work until the issue was straightened out.
This when the lawyers get involved and a resolution is agreed to.

The last one was a city project.
City was building a parking garage and developers were building an apartment building.
Some of the apartment dwellers would be able to lease a parking spot and be able directly access the parking garage on a floor of the apartment building.
So the buildings were to built inches apart - the distance of a building expansion joint apart.

So the parking garage starts slightly after the apartment building and everything is going great until the lower level walls were being placed for the garage.
The furthest south 4 panels were going to run into the apartment walls.
Surveyor is immediately called and confirms apartment was built slightly crooked.
City building department  is called a stop work order is issued.
The surveyor who staked the apartment is called and also confirms the apartment is over the line.
The claim is that the sub-contractor min-interpreted some survey marks.
Lawyers for all parties are called - apartment GC, garage GC, developer, city lawyer, our lawyer, and lawyer for the architect who designed the apartment.
I believe the final resolution for the land dispute was that the developer had to pay the city for the additional sliver of land that they encroached and had to pay for the changes required to the parking garage construction.

The construction solution wasn’t as easy.

Oh yeah in on page one

Isn't there a place where the jobs permits are posted that gives contact information?

I wouldn’t fuck around with trying to contact the owner.

I’d immediately move what shit they have on your property back over on their side and stop whoever is trying to drive across you.

I’d tell the guy driving that he can stay off of you or force you to call the police for trespassing and file suit against him.

It looks like they have been having drainage problems on their property and their solution is to cause you to have drainage problems on your property.  You aren't being a dick by confronting them.  I know of someone that lost a 100k lawsuit over something very similar.

If the neighbor was required to get a building permit and did not it's illegal construction.
If he did get a permit the city needs to inspect the work and either give the OK or cite its off property.


It's still coming out but nice to try things by the book 1st.

Some states have laws against discharging storm water within a certain distance of a property line.  Also find out what the setback is for buildings, you can check their permits.

It's all going to go back to a survey, so once you get that done, get pictures so all your stakes don't get accidently run over by a bobcat or moved by a neighbor.

Looks like you are in a neighborhood. Frequently those properties have a convenance connected to the deeds and it includes language about allowing drainage pipes and easements. I'd review anything along those lines before you do to much else.

Get a hold of a lawyer for legal advice first.

I'm going to pile on with the posters who are pointing out that your advantage is the building permit. Some one drew and stamped a plot/drainage plan and that was approved for the building permit. The permit is still open, so a call to the inspection agency (might be municipal, around here that's mostly contracted to engineering firms now) should get the problem corrected before they continue work.
If the plot plan has the boundary wrong, which seems unlikely since you found stakes, then there could be a survey battle.
In any case that erosion with no containment is a big deal. Around here the DEP would be happy to shut that right down.

What's an ASV?



Sometimes people UANEKB making reading the story difficult.

Step 1 - check the minimum required setbacks.

You might be saving him having to tear down his house.

Step 2 - if it's new construction have a couple of people go out there wearing white hard hats, carrying clipboards, and a transit. Dig for the property corners, then leave.

Step 3 - start installing fence posts.

Skid steer, lmgtfy

My previous neighbor planted trees about 10 feet onto my property.  Neither of us at the time thought it was wrong until I had my septic pumped and looked at a property plot.

My current neighbor understands the real line and mows everything up to the trees and I don't really care as I got some free trees.

Neighbor needs to remove current pipe and redirect his drainage system to further back on his own property to prevent foundation issues. He tried to go cheap and dump his problem on your property. Looks like his plan backfired.

Good luck!

Wouldn't be surprised to find that building violates a setback too... more so if AC is installed even closer.

If it's a subdivision, there's probably a SWPPP by the job trailer... chances are that will have the information.

Beat...

Sue the bastards.

No that's what I'm saying, I didn't want there to be any doubt and I retired from that work over 3 years ago. I paid to have it done, and it checked to a 1990s plat to about a half inch. Unfortunately the line isn't in question but he's welcome to waste his money to check it. I welcome that.

We do and it's not even a mile away. I had just hoped to resolve this nicely but it's clear after yesterday they don't care.

Check your local code, some places require a certain distance off property lines for building, whatever they are putting there, be it a house , town home , whatever, may be too close to your property line. Remember the words "causing irrepairable harm to your property from the improperly placed drain, by flooding your property"  in your talks attempting to rectify the situation.

Best I could tell the setback is 15ft but I think they got a variance because it's just as close to the property line on the other side.

I did notice a small little wooden sign near the shitter on that side so I'm guessing that's his work permit.

I'm more concerned that this is more along the lines of a fly by night kinda operation because of the pace of the work. Even before the line was staked there crews working were sporadic at best. Then they stopped coming all together for a month. Now this random piece of equipment showed up.

But I work from 5 am until 5pm so catching the fuckers there has been a challenge

The tracked bobcat basically. I just always called it an ASV