Dealing With Neighbors' Misplaced Fences in New Jersey

**kalisto546** · 07-07-2006, 10:54 AM

Hi,
my husband and i purchased a home in nj around dec 2002. in 2005 we decided we wanted to erect a fence. we looked at the original survey provided by the bank and noticed that 3 of our neighbors were on our property line..to our 1 on our left and 2 behind us. we proceeded to get another survey done and this time have the lines marked. we advised the owners of our plans to erect the fence along with the findings on the property line issue. at this point only 2 of the neighbors were an issue the 2 owners behind us. when we spoke to them neighbor 1 was very agreeable and only requested we let her know before we start work..neighbor 2 was more like "do you really need that piece of property" to which my husband responded "we're paying for it so yes, it would be nice to have", this neighbor's fence close in what i believe are trees that i think belong on our side (not that i want them they would be knocked down) now in july 2006 neighbor 1 has sold and not mentioned anything to the new owners, i briefly mentioned it to them as i was walking home from work to which they responded "we will go by the city survey"...(i thought the city does not provide residential surveys)is..both neighbors have a current fence 2/3 feet into our property (not to mention with the UGLY side facing us) we would like to erect the fence properly 6 inches within our line. is there anything that we can do about this..

**BlueCrystal** · 07-07-2006, 02:02 PM

I have to say I had the same problem with the people behind me. I hired a survey company and had my property surveyed. The people behind me removed that stakes and were caught on camera doing that and I had to pay the survey company to survey and put stakes in again. I then had a fence company standby as the survey was completed and immediately put up a fence. I sued the people behind me for the additional cost of the survey company in small claims court and won. It takes planning but can be done even if the neighbors try to prevent you taking the land you purchased and pay taxes on.

**kalisto546** · 07-09-2006, 08:36 AM

wow, they actually took it out.. (thats funny you mention that because when i was trying to show the new owners where the stake was i could not find it) hmmmm.. however i still have the 3 others (would that be enough so that i would not have to buy another survey)

jk · 07-09-2006, 09:20 AM

No, three isn't good enough.

Often when a survey is done, a rod is driven into the ground, actually below ground level . The above ground stakes are there as a temporary indicator.

If you cannot find the stake in the ground by yourself, call the surveyor that performed the survey and ask them if a rod or pipe was driven into the ground as a corner point.