Fence And Boundary Line Dispute

[napacat]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: California.

We bought our house in 2001 and it has a fence that backed up to an open field. The fence appears to be 10-15 years old. The field has been sold and is being developed. The developer of the subdivision came to our door yesterday and said our fence is a foot over the property line. They want to tear down and replace our existing fence, but shift it one foot on to what they state is the property line. We will potentially loose 100 square feet of our backyard if they do this.

Can they do this? Or does this situation qualify as a prescriptive easement?

Thank you for any advice you can give me.

[LawResearcherMissy]

Don't take their word for it.

Hire a surveyor and have a proper survey done.

If they're correct, you're out of luck.

[aaron]

California has a short statute of limitations for creating prescriptive easements, but developers have lots of money for lawyers. If you want to press the issue, I suggest consulting a real estate lawyer of your own.

[LandSurveyor]

Ask the developer politely for a copy of the survey plat.

See if it shows the fence as an encroachment on his property.



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