Easement and Privacy Fence Placement

[williamg]

Hello, I could really use some advice and ideas! We live in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.

Our property line butts up against the 15' long exterior wall of our neighbor's home. His small 800 sq ft. house was originally part of our property before he or we bought, originally used as an in-law suite while ours was the main house. Then the original owners split the properties, and I suppose they created the line as such because of the unusual layout of the houses. His house essentially appears to be in our back yard.

He has an easement with our us with allows him access to up to 10' of our property, measured from the base of his house, for maintenance or repair purposes.

The neighbor unfortunately freely leaves his junk strewn onto our property and let's his dog run wild. He's not a bad person, just eccentric and not respectful of privacy. We also would like a secure yard for our dog. So we want to install a 6' privacy fence a few feet from our property line (the property line essentially being the wall of his house).

But the question is, can we install the fence within the 10' easement, as long as we make it so it is removable when he needs to repair/maintain his house? I.e. he can give us 24 hours notice and we can unscrew the fence panels allowing him free access?

Here is how the easement is worded:

"Grantor hereby grants and conveys to Grantee....a perpetual easement and right of way for the purpose of inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the southwest corner and south side of the adjacent residence"

"The Easement are shall be limited to.....a total of ten feet of access area around the southwest corner and south side of the adjacent residence"

"The Easement ...shall include the right to access, ingress and egress in, upon, across, over....for the sole purpose of inspecting, maintaining, and repairing the southwest corner and south side of the Adjacent Residence.

"Grantor reserves the right to use and enjoy the Easement....except as may interfere with, impede, or obstruct Grantee's right to inspect, maintain, and repair the southwest corner and south side of the Adjacent Residence..."

Thank you for any advice! I am concerned that we may have issues getting a permit for our fence.

Sincerely,
Bill

[jk]

so, what happens if he wants to inspect that area of his house everyday?

[williamg]

there is an existing paved walkway along his wall that leads from our house to his. We would leave the walkway. So he would have unobstrocted access to the 3 feet between his house and the proposed fence that he can easily use to inspect his house, or do things like painting, cleaning, etc.

Also, the fence would not prevent him from using a ladder to get onto his roof. I could only imaging the fence being an issue if he needed to bring in big machinery for major repairs.

Thanks for reading.

[jk]

In reality it is going to be up to the neighbor. If the fence obstructs his use of the easement, he can argue it cannot be installed.

and setting a ladder with only 3 feet of space? That would limit the height of the ladder, if the base is full against the fence, to 12 feet in height. (a ladder needs to be set so the height of the support is 4 times the distance of the base from the vertical) So, figure 2 feet away from the fence to be able to safely mount the ladder. That leaves 1 foot. That would limit an extension ladder to 4 feet in height.

Not a realistic situation.

If the neighbor argues, most likely he will win.