Boundary Line Problem Discovered During House Sale

[cburkes]

I've been 'inter-hunting' for advice on this matter and this thread is the closest to my situation I can find. I realize this topic is at least two years old ... hopefully the moderators are still about to help or advise.

My wife and I live in Hempstead, Long Island. We've lived here for the past five years. When we purchased the house, we didn't get a survey (probably problem #1) ... and we've lived blissfully off the existing one that is about 40 years old.

So now we're through with New York and we're trying to move to Georgia. The buyer, who took interest in our home back in May 2007, dragged her heels on the purchase of our home ... and so she can get this special rate on her mortgage, she has forced us to need to go to closing sooner than expected (let's say, last week, we discover she wants this rate and we need to go to closing within 7 days).

She missed a chance at one rate deal, filed for an extension, so here we are. Today is Wednesday and she wants to close by Thursday. The buyer is crazy ... but in this market, what could we do but submit to the idiocy.

The problem is, last week Monday she got a survey done on the land and we discovered by the end of last week (Friday) that the fence in our backyard is 3.17 feet into our yard. So, the neighbor directly behind us has her fence on our land ... or our fence is pushed into our yard by 3 feet and change. Either way ... the fence was there loooooonnnnngggg before we moved there.

So, our lawyer told us to get the neighbor behind us to sign the affidavit you guys mentioned above, asking her politely that we are pressed for time (we asked her this on Monday) .... she starts to wig out and gets the info to her lawyer who claims to need a few days to look it over.

That was Monday. Tuesday night, our lawyer is getting worried and wants to talk to the neighbors lawyer ... but the neighbor isn't being forthcoming with the name or number of her lawyer. In fact, she's becoming annoyed that we're asking her of this whole thing.

So my question to you is ... where can we catch a break? The buyer is an idiot for rushing this deal through after months of dragging. The neighbor is heartless and acts as if she doesn't want to sign this thing. We're stupid for not getting a survey done in the first place ... but it is what it is.

Any advice on what our next steps should be? How do we know if the Survey recently done is actually correct or not? What recourse do we have about the neighbor in the back?

The way the fence looks is actually two fences ... a long tall wooden fence on our side ... and a chain link fence on her side that we never knew existed until this came up.

Please help ... Today is wednesday...I already know we may miss our deadline to close tomorrow ... but if she was to sign this today, we might get there. I just want to know if I'm wrong for being angry.

Corey

[Mr. Knowitall]

Talk to your lawyer about simply taking down the existing fence and putting up a new fence in the proper location.

[seniorjudge]

So, the neighbor directly behind us has her fence on our land ...

It's not her fence. It's your fence. Tear it down. Move it. Leave it alone.

It's up to you.