Now the neighbor amped the passive-aggressive

[depechemodefan]

I mentioned this neighbor here: sucky neighbor

I paid the neighbor to clean my property, though she said she won't burn/remove the debris. About 4 months latter my mom dies and a month latter (dec. 2011) I'm looking over my property and I see she is putting a barb-wired fence. She is outside watching them put up the fence and said she was going to ask but coudln't find anyone home. Fine, whatever.

Around Nov. (or even Dec) of 2012 she puts up a building flush to the property line. Now I don't really notice this building, but yesterday I went around making sure no one is encrouching my property and I see that the building she put up has a roof overhang that hangs over my property. I have a tree (I have hundred of trees) that is about a foot from the property line. I see someone (and I'm leaning toward the idea of elves) cut my tree down, and left the upper part of the tree leaning against another of my trees. It was cut down since it interferred with the neighbor's (bitch's) roof that is over hanging into my property.

I really hate to get a lawyer. I paid on $3000 (as a retainer) just to take care of presenting in front of a judge when my mom owed property taxes to the county (long story, which involved a lot of noticed comin to the house, but when I called the county about the money mom owed they said, "oh she doens't owe money, don't worry about it) and then she died then he just put some paper work about her being dead before the court date. And I have been trying to communicate with the lawyer but gotten no response.

So looks like I will have to get a lawyer about this. There are City Codes but I don't live in the city and I do't know anything about County codes, but I'm thinking this is bullshit.

Of course I talked to one of my aunts about it. I don't know why I expected sympathy from her, she never gives it (ie, I was telling her the cousin who was helping me clean threw away stuff, and she said don't tell cousin this, it would offend her. I tell aunt, "and she threw away a new pack of batteries," and aunt said, "well, she might have thought they were old." Geez). Aunt was telling me about neighbors and trees and she told me my neighbor could have billed me for cutting down my tree. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm going to a University library and look up the Vernon's Texas Code on Property. Maybe I will get a clue about what my rights are (though the last time I looked a Vernon's, I just could not understand it). I'm getting a surveyor to look at the property lines, just to back me up.

[Andara Bledin]

No. Not just no. You neighbor could not have billed you for cutting down a tree when they did so without permission and were trespassing in order to do it, and then left the crown up there to be a potential fire hazard.

Honestly, when it comes to property, you have to have zero tolerance or actual written contracts regarding rights.

If you allow something to go for too long, the other person may gain rights due to your lack of protecting your own.

So, definitely at least consult with a lawyer, and you will probably have to go after the neighbor regarding their invasion of your air space and make them fix it, or create a special contract that allows that one single building to do so only for so long as it exists in its current state.

^-.-^

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

My father was a lawyer that dealt with a lot of property disputes, having seen some of the crap he dealt with, I definitely advise contacting a lawyer. Heck, do it today, especially with the tree of yours that's been cut down and the encroaching roof. The lawyer might even have you contact the police to start establishing a paper trail. Another thing that the lawyer will probably suggest is to have the property surveyed.

You've definitely got a situation where you have two legal methods of redress, either taking corrective action via the legal system or selling out to SN.

My personal preference would be to start the legal proceedings and then use that as leverage to get a better price from SN, but that'll really depend on if you want to sell the property or not.

Well, that's my handful o cents(i'm windy enough I don't think 2 covers it, lol). Definitely contact a lawyer, it's better to take action about property disputes early, rather than letting them lay.

[csquared]

Possibly a cheaper way to get this rolling, contact the county zoning board to report an "building offset" violation. I do not know of any zoning that will allow a building on the property line. It would make it impossible to do maintenance without trespassing. If the county find issue with it, then contact the lawyer about recourse.

My google-fu is pretty good with this kind of stuff (did some research recently myself). If you want to PM me with your county, I;ll see what I can find.

[sms001]

If you allow something to go for too long, the other person may gain rights due to your lack of protecting your own.

This this this. It's a headache, especially on top of everything else you've been going through, but you really should get going on this ASAP.

And what? You have a lawyer on retainer but they don't call you back?

[taxguykarl]

Possibly a cheaper way to get this rolling, contact the county zoning board to report an "building offset" violation. I do not know of any zoning that will allow a building on the property line.

Ever building code I've perused calls for a setback (10 feet being the smallest). Do bring this to the attention of a building inspector before your sucky neighbor can claim an easement based on adverse possession and conspicuous occupation.

[gremcint]

someone cut one of you trees? sounds like vandalism, call the police.

[Gizmo]

someone cut one of you trees? sounds like vandalism, call the police.

Depending on the tree it might even be protected and therefore more of a crime...

[MoonCat]

I would check out the state laws first. Where I live, if a tree is encroaching on a neighbor's property, the neighbor has the right to trim it. They also have to dispose of the cut branches, though.

[42_42_42]

Yeah, but cutting down a tree is a hell of a lot different than trimming a few branches!

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Also if I'm reading this right, the tree wasn't encroaching on the neighbor's property; the tree was interfering with the roof of the neighbor's shed that was encroaching on OP's property.

Huge difference.

[BroSCFischer]

My mom recently had a similar problem with a new neighbor.

They had placed a dumpster on her property, and she wanted to be a good neighbor, and didn't say anything.

However, one day (a few months later) she found that HER dumpster (that costs her $80+ dollars to empty) was completely filled with branches from one of her trees. She was . She called around and found out who was responsible, and the person's excuse was that the tree branches were touching the garage (impossible due to distance/variety of tree). He claimed that it needed to be done, and that he put it in her dumpster because it was her tree.

The REAL issue was that the branches were overhanging THEIR dumpster (on my mom's property). My mom made it clear that she didn't want to pursue legal action against him, but would unless he cleaned the tree refuse out of her dumpster. Because my mom has a tendency to live and let live over minor things, he thought she was a pushover, and was dismayed to find that she was not.

She also made them move their dumpster.

So, depechemodefan, DEFINITELY get on this ASAP.

SC

[depechemodefan]

If you allow something to go for too long, the other person may gain rights due to your lack of protecting your own.

So, definitely at least consult with a lawyer, and you will probably have to go after the neighbor regarding their invasion of your air space and make them fix it, or create a special contract that allows that one single building to do so only for so long as it exists in its current state.

Yeah, that was what I was thinking; next thing I know she will have more building encrouching more on my property.

You've definitely got a situation where you have two legal methods of redress, either taking corrective action via the legal system or selling out to SN.

Yeah, I'm afraid my quality of life will suck with her as a neighbor since she's building up her business (of I don't know what, but it seems to deal with trucks and making cement or something like that). I like my property, I lived on it all my life but I'm not doing anything with and it's rather big. I have another neighbor (but he lives several houses down) who says he will buy my property, so Iwould go to him first to cock-block the current neighbor. I'm starting to worry about things might burn down in her lot and will spread and burn down my house. NOt that I can tell that there is anything dangerous on her property, but with all this expansion, someone there might do something stupid which will lead to catastrophe.

Possibly a cheaper way to get this rolling, contact the county zoning board to report an "building offset" violation.

Good idea, I'll look into it but I'll pm you too.

And what? You have a lawyer on retainer but they don't call you back?

He's always in meetings and doesn't contact me. Though I should had gotten on the ball and written him a certified letter to know where we stand.

About the tree: I could call the police but then I would have to put up with her being more passive aggressive. Though if I do nothing no doubt she will steam roll me. It looks like a regular oak tree. In fact, it was rather young-it's width is about thigh-width of a regular size guy. The tree definately wasn't on her land or straddeling our land. branches might have been in her property, but the trunk of the tree was in my property but since the roof of her shed goes into my property, that's why it was cut. Only thing I could say is she didn't know that who ever made the shed was going to cut my tree but since she paid for the shed she should own up to damage on my property.

So I'm going to call a surveyor just to see where my line is and I guess I'll do research and call the proper authorities (ie, county zoning board) before I get to a lawyer. edit: I know my area doesn't have zoning. Going online, I see that we don't have a zoning dept., though it does have a regulation dept. concerning flood-plains, on-site sewage treatment, signs and driveways.

[PepperElf]

i agree - get the surveyor. if you can get the ORIGINAL one that's another bonus.

(Dad hired a surveyor because of a bitch neighbor back at an old house... turned out to be the original one and ohhh was the neighbor MAD cos dad was right - the property line was NOT where the neighbor claimed it was).


and yeah .. they built FLUSH against your property? That sounds all sorts of fucked up. county building codes probably state stuff against that. especially since you say...she's running a business?

Actually that may be another point against her in the county's eyes. if she's running a business in a residential area that may have issues too. granted it's outside the city limits as you say, but it can't hurt to look it up. there may still be some zoning rules against it depending on what kind of business she's running.



as for the tree - she will actually owe you a lot of money for that. We had a drunk chick destroy 3 small blue spruce (15 feet tall at the most), a full grown dougas fir, and 25% damage on a full grown locus tree back in the 90s. IIRC the damage came to almost $2000. So... accoriding to this inflation site that 2K would be worth $3388.89 in 2011.

You should talk to your local plant nursery about estimating the damages. if you have photos of the tree it will help. you may be able to fine her for the loss of your property. And you may be due a lot more money than you realize. EVEN if you have spare trees.

In our case... the man from the nursery doing the insurance inspection asked Dad what he'd do to replace the 4 trees that were dead (the locus survived). Dad said "I'll just grab some blue spruce from the back yard," and the man asked to see ... he kinda went when he saw that we had a "fenceline" of blue spruce on both sides of the yard, some of them well over 30 feet tall.

[depechemodefan]

I called the general info. line and I got sent to permits. The people at permits told me to fill out a complaint form online. God knows how long that will take to be answered.

The County expects people to ask permission to build a driveway. Since she is building a driveway, I also sent a heads up about that (in case she did not get permission ).

Looking at the Appraisel district website, I noticed her two properties are listed as Residential, even though there are definately Commercial stuff going. And she didn't report that she has more than one house on the properties. Maybe I should let the Appraisel District know about this But I don't see any form or an email address where I can send my observation. I'll dig more.

One thing about the area I live in. We have very little zoning. The only zoning we have involves the children, ie, can't have bars, places that sell booze or a titty bar x amount of feet from a school. I remember years ago the whole titty bar thing went out of control since there was no laws about where a titty bar can be, so I guess by now a restriction went up.