on 6/21/2008 9:15 AM MICHELLE H. said the following:
The last comment from "willshack" is EXCACTLY right!! In our city, the
ZONING LAWS state that "whenever a fence is installed by a homeowner on
private property, the smooth side of the fence MUST face your neighbors
property, and the inside of the fence must face your property. Failure
to install the fence this way is a CODE VIOLATION and is subjected to a
DAILY fine by the city, until the fence is installed the CORRECT way".

So if I report him for this, he would would be in big trouble, and have
ALOT of work to do. Because as I stated in one of my previous posts, he
installed the fence backwards not only on the left side of his house,
108 feet, where our shared property line is, but he installed it this
way in the back of his house as well, and that is about 75 feet long.

So basically it looks pretty stupid. On the RIGHT side of his house, he
has about 108 feet long of 6' x 8' foot wooden spruce stockade fence,
and this is facing the CORRECT way ( per our city zoning laws and codes
), with the smooth side facing his neighbors yard, and the inside facing
his yard.

But on the LEFT side of his house where we share the property line, he
has the 108 feet of 6' x 8' foot wooden spruce stockade fence facing the
WRONG way, with the smooth side facing his house, and the inside facing
our yard and house.

It is also the same way in his backyard, where last year he installed 75
feet long of 6' x 8' foot wooden spruce stockade fence. This is facing
the WRONG way as well, as he has the smooth side facing his yard and
house, and the inside facing the woods.

So if we wanted, we could get him in trouble for not obeying the citys
zoning laws for having the MAJORITY of his fence installed the WRONG
way. But as someone said in another post, how would this solve the
problem of the 24-25 foot long, 10 1/2 to 11 inch wide, 18 to 19 inch
deep trench/ditch that he dug there on the property line which is our
main concern anyway.

Even if he turned his fence the correct way, and faced the smooth side
of the fence toward our property as the city zoning laws state, the
trench/ditch is still going to be there.


Well, if the fence was installed wrong according to your local zoning
law, then the zoning department probably was never contacted before
installing this fence, because they would have told him the right way to
face the fence, and how far from the property line he could install it.
Additionally, there probably would have been a permit required, which
would be followed up by an inspection for compliance. Ask the zoning
department for the distance from the property line that a fence can be
erected (it's called 'setback'). He may be in violation of that code
too. When I installed my fence in 1986, the minimum setback distance was
6 inches (I added a couple of inches to that to make it 8 inches from
the property line). The current revised code is 3 feet. I don't have to
move my fence because it is 'grandfathered' to the 1986 code.
He may have to remove the whole fence, posts and all, to comply with the
setback code.
Good luck.


--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
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