MiamiCuse wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
MiamiCuse wrote:
Both my neighbor and mine had erected a fence along our property.

They had a vinyl fence, and since code specified a fence cannot be
directly built on the property line but must be set 6" back minimum,
their fence was about 8" back. I hated the look of a vinyl fence so
I built a wood fence, also about 8" from the property line.

This leaves a sliver of space about 16" wide between our two fences.


A strange use of resources. It must be a difficult neighbourhood
where you cannot negotiate a fence that you can both tolerate and
share the cost.

No not at all, it's simply not done here typically.

It costs twice as much but to you it's normal. To me it's strange.

The vinyl fence
was already in place when I moved in and I wanted something more
natural, and I installed over 300 linear feet of fence bordering
three neighbors, this part is the only part that overlaps.

This is precisely why the county require fence to be placed at least
6" back from the property line, so that there is no dispute as to
whose fence it is. There have been too many dispute when two property
owner shared the cost to build a fence and then one property is sold
and the new owner inherit may not have the same idea as the old owner
and whatever "negotiated" come into question.

How sad. Is the law not helpful? In these parts you cannot force a
neighbour to rebuild a fence just because you don't like it. Typically the
remedy is to maintain good relationships so that you both get something
acceptable or to grow a hedge in front and ignore it. Once the fence is
built everybody is stuck with it until it needs to be rebuilt or unless both
sides agree to rebuilding.

Is there much litigation over fencing? Is this the reason for this
situation where you are?


So, doesn't matter who
paid for what and what was negotiated, all fences must be set back
from the property line, if you pay for part of a fence that is inside
someone's property line, then it's that person's fence. He/she may
paint, remove, do whatever to it.
In my case, the owner was out of town a person I never met, she
rented the property to someone and the property went into
foreclosure, sat abandoned for over 1 year, it was difficult to find
the right person to talk to, and I doubt they would want to remove
100' of vinyl fence in perfectly good condition where every 4' there
is a concrete post sat 18" deep into the ground.


A difficult situation.


Mysteriously things started to grow inside this sliver, shrubs, and
a few papaya trees shot up and now is about 9' tall with the trunk
diameter 3" in size. Some of the shrubs are starting to shoot up to
already taller than the 6' fence, some things are bulging against my
wood fence, nothing serious yet but if I ignore them it will be
serious in a few years.
Obviously we don't have access from the side, but only from the
top. The area is about 110' long.


It is very densely grown I doubt anyone would fit in that space and
have room to move, or manuveur.


Perhaps action a little sooner would have made the problem more tractable
:-)


What sort of wooden fence is it? Can't you take off a couple of
planks to get in or get somebody slender to climb in from the top?


Yes I can, but then only 2 or three feet the stuff is getting so
thick I would have to remove all 100' of it to access all of it. The
property was abandoned when it went into foreclosure and I saw plants
shooting up from their side, I thought it was from their property
until I looked closer the other day, it wasn't from their property it
was stuff grown inside this sliver.

I guess I was always under the assumption that the space between the
two fences would have so little light nothing would grown, was I
wrong!

Sod's law applies. Anything you want to grow will need the conditions to be
just right and anything you don't want will flourish in appalling
conditions.

David