Property Boundary Fence Went Over Our Property

[Jason2222]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Oakland, CA

I bought my house a year ago, and the fence of dividing my neighbor's property and my property began to collapse/ fall over to our side because the properties are located on the hill. While my neighbor's property is on the upper side of the hill and my property is on the lower side of the hill, the fence dividing the properties is gradually falling over to my side. It has already tilted more than 2 feet on a 8 ft fence. We asked the neighbor if we can fix the fence together and share the cost equally, but they decided that it is my problem and they won't pay to fix it because it cost over $10,000 to fix this encroachment problem. Is there anything I can do to make my neighbors pay to fix the dividing fence?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[eapls2708]

Per CA Civil Code §841. Coterminous owners are mutually bound equally to maintain:
1. The boundaries and monuments between them;
2. The fences between them, unless one of them chooses to let his
land lie without fencing; in which case, if he afterwards incloses
it, he must refund to the other a just proportion of the value, at
that time, of any division fence made by the latter.


That means that if it is a boundary fence in obvious need of repair, your neighbor shares that responsibility equally with you. You could start by showing your neighbor the law (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html - check the box for "Civil Code" and put "841" in the keyword box). If that doesn't work, see an attorney about your options. If it's an immediate safety issue, you may need to just take care of it and then collect by court action or some other means.

Good luck.

[Jason2222]

It seems that I talked with our neighbor and he is not willing to split the cost of the fence, and also I found out that he built a second house near the fence about 10 years ago without any kind of permit. My friend who's a civil engineer believed the second unit was done improperly and cause the dirt to fall over and made the fence collapse/tilt over to our side. Because of the illegal unit was built, I believed that the neighbor also took about 100 square feet of my property. I believed that my neighbor is not willing to settle the dispute between ourself because he is not well educated and he doesn't want to pay even thought I am right. I am going to get a survey done on my property to see how much of my property he took. I was wondering how much does a survey usually cost for a property that's about 2600 square feet? And if I were to hire an attorney for this, will I get reimburse for the survey that I am going to do?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[eapls2708]

The cost of the survey will depend upon several factors:

• mapping records in the area
• existing survey monumentation
• the description of your property
• terrain on and near the property
• vegetation on and near the property
• other obstacles which may exist

Depending on the factors, plan on several hundred to about $3000. Some areas in the E Bay are relatively easy surveying, others are pretty tough. there is a mixture of newer subdivisions based on recent mapping (easier) and older properties formed from poorly marked surveys and based on older records. When hiring a surveyor, find someone who can explain how some of these factrors might affect your property boundaries. If a particular surveyor you call says something to the effect of "we will lay out the deed description that is in your title report", thank them for their time and call someone else. There are at least a couple of companies who survey that way in your area, but more often than not, determining a boundary location is a good deal more complicated than that. I've seen instances where surveyors operating on the "lay out the description in the title report" model have incorrectly surveyed property boundaries by several feet or more.


Since a survey is considered to be an improvement to your property, it is unlikely that you will be able to get reimbursed for it.