Over the past 12 years my mothers backyard fence has been replaced/repaired twice. the first time was due to age, and certain sections were repaired. my mother attempted to speak to the neighbor that she shares the fence with as to come to an arrangement to pay for it but the women refused to acknowledged my mother saying that "it was my mothers fence’’, so we just payed for it ourselves. the second time the fence was completely replaced after a hurricane caused massive damage to it. this time the neighbor refused to speak to my mother entirely, pretending she wasn’t home (when you could see her watching tv with the the window open and no shutters).
Now just recently (a month ago) the current fence fell destroying 2 posts and 3 total sections, which has now caused stain on the rest of the standing fence that has now started to tilt and lean. the cause for the fence falling from what i can tell is due to a tree growing up from the neighbors side of the fence and pushing up against the fence causing it to fall into my mothers yard. my mother said that she tried to tell the women many times to cut the tree in order to prevent this entire situation but the women refused to listen. I went to speak to the neighbor about the issue and she claims she didn’t know the tree was there (she also pays people to cut and trim her yard). i let her know that she needs to contribute to the cost of the repairs and take care of the tree, she refused. after this i needed to do yard work for my mothers lawn so i broke down the fence and stacked it neatly on the neighbors side and informed her to have her yard men remove it since she would pay towards the fence cost, she responded by saying to remove “my” fence boards from her yard or she will call the police.
do i need to worry about the threat made, also how do i go about handling this situation.
*** also her brother has apparently been throwing yard waste into my mothers yard under the excuse that they thought no one lived there.
Stacking your mothers fence debris on her neighbors land and expecting the neighbor to take care of the removal was a dick move. It may be considered criminal (Trespassing, mischief, ect) enough to get the police involved, but it will likely end up a civil matter in small claims court.
Neighbor issues can become quite involved and escalate to real problems. I’ve seen first hand how a little issue with a neighbor escalates over the years to threats of violence and vandalism. It’s just not worth letting it grow to those levels.
If it were me, I’d apologize for dumping the fence on her property and promptly clean up the mess. Some damage already exists to the neighbor relationship, but I would try hard to make peace. Life is hard enough without adding petty issues to the mix. The whole concept of co-existing with other people and neighbors is “I put up with some of your crap and you put up with some of mine.”
Don’t let this issue escalate into something it doesn’t need to. The added stress will be hard on your mother.
well the main reason for the stacking was b/c im no there on a regular basis and her trash service wont take the heavy pick up (idk why) unless you toss in in the truck your self, and she doesn’t have extra money to pay for it to be removed. also considering that both she and i have shelled out money time and time again while the neighbor just doesn’t care and then throws their trash into my mothers yard isn’t cool. –
and another reason for needing the fence to be fixed is that people in the neighborhood have a tendency to go into other peoples yards and cause damage.
It’s your mother fence thus her responsibility. You are trying to force some of that responsibility onto your neighbor that wants nothing to do with it. The fence should be set back an appropriate distance from the property line so you can maintain it.
The tree growing into it isn’t usually your neighbors problem either. You can trim the tree on your side of the property to prevent it from hitting the fence.
You are not allowed to throw trash in your neighbors property and expect them to deal with it. Same goes for your neighbor. The fact that they have in the past is a separate issue.
It sounds like this fence is too much of a burden for you and your mother. I wouldn’t bother to put it up on that property line again. If your neighbor wants a fence in the future let her pay for it and put it on her property.
Get your trash off her property and if you see them throwing trash on your property call the police.
You have to figure out whose fence it is. I’m not familiar with Texas laws, but in my experience, most often a fence is on one side of the property line or the other. I’venever heard of a “shared” fence - tho I guess it could exist of the posts were placed right down the property line. As a suggestin of whose it is - is the side with the posts visible facing your mom’s house, or the neighbor’s? The general convention has the post side facing the owner of the fence.
If you have not done so already, order a survey. If it is your mom’s she is solely responsible for the repairs/upkeep. If it is your neighbor’s, she can let it fall down and you can’t do anything about it - unless it qualifies a nuisance or somesuch.
If it is your neighbor’s fence, your mom’s recourse is to build her own fence on her own property.
You have plenty of reasons to expect the neighbor to be unreasonable. I suggest you are adding stress by expecting her to cooperate constructively to any solution, or to respond meekly and positively towards your actions.
Not to belittle the situation, but your mom has a shitty neighbor. I suspect her best solutions are to either build a new, tall fence herself, or move. You’ve commented on money being tight, but dealing with issues such as this are part of the cost of owning and maintaining property. If she can’t afford the upkeep, perhaps she would be better off in an apartment.
i will be moving the boards off of the neighbors yard today, but as for the fence it is a shared fence that is in every yard in the neighborhood, it splits the property line.
Generally fences can not be shared legally. They belong to one property or another. People often agree to share a fence in violation of the building codes, this usually creates a legal mess if someone changes their mind or the property changes hands. Clearly your neighbor doesn’t want to share a fence, stop insisting she has too.
In my State, fences definitely belong to one party or the other, and the neighbor has no particular obligation to pay for repairs if they don’t own the fence. Reading between the lines of your story, it may be that your mother’s neighbor doesn’t even like/want a fence there and that is why they “refuse” to help. But at the same time, you haven’t made it clear that they have any obligation to help.
So the first thing to do is to 100% establish who owns the fence. If you own it, you should had the right to cut the tree branch to save it from being damaged (since the branch would have been on your property.) If she owns it, then you need to build a new fence that you’re sure is on your property and that you yourself own, because there’s no way to force someone to repair their own property.
And placing trash in your neighbor’s yard is seriously a dick move. You’re not helping the situation by doing petty crimes, and you ensuring that, if this does eventually go to court, the judge won’t look kindly on your case. So clean up your fence debris post-haste and find a couple buddies with a pickup truck to haul it away if you have to.
EDIT: That all said, it also sounds like she has terrible neighbors. You can’t do anything about that but move.
I don’t know if you having fixed it two or three times yourself will affect this, but it sounds like a situation tailor made for small claims court if it is truly a shared fence. Fix it, present the bill, and off to small claims when you don’t get paid.
If there is something in the deed or home owners association agreement (if there is an HOA) specifying the fence is a shared responsibility, that would be good to bring to show the judge.
well presuming that the fence is on our side and our property, and the tree grew a foot from the fence line, and pushed it over, shouldn’t they be responsible for the damage, the branches were not tall enough to cut, it grew right onto the side and cant be cut w/o literally going into the other yard and checking on a regular basis to see if there is a tree coming up, and if there is, cutting it down.
Man, when you’ve got one neighbor who claims to be cash strapped, and another who is a jerk, it’s a little - what ought to have been done when may not make everything all better.
Trees growing on/near property lines are a legal mess. I predict there is NO WAY you will be able to describe the situation adequately here to obtain anything close to a definitive answer. Moreover, it would take a heck of a lot more effort and expense to try to figure out exactly what the respective legal duties are, and to enforce tham, than it would have been for the fence owner to deal with this situation when it arose. When it became apparent that they tree would cause a problem, the fence owner could have simply cut the fence on either side of the tree, sinking a post on either side. Or jogged the fence further into the fence owner’s property.
But both property owners acted like children for many years, allowing an easily remedied situation to escalate and deteriorate, simply because they didn’t want to pay what it cost, and thought the other person should correct it.
As a general rule, I suspect if your mom owns the fence, then she was solely liable to maintain it in light of any trees growing nearby on either property. And I strongly suspect the neighbor is not liable for any damage caused by the natural growth of a tree near the property line. If it was potentially causing a huge structural problem to your mom’s house, that might have been something different. But, of course, I’m not your mom’s lawyer.
You should be able to look up the property on HCAD and see where property and fence line is.
Just fix the fence, you will be better off. My step dad fought with two different neighbors for years over fence issues. It is never IMO worth the trouble, just fix it and move on.
Here’s a recent ('08) article in the Houston Chronicle by an attorney talking about tree and fence liabilities between neighbors that discusses several somewhat similar scenarios. And another.
Note that lieu’s first link includes the following:
Which basically means that if the neighbor doesn’t want to pay for repairs or a new fence, it will be very difficult (almost certainly beyond what’s practical) to force her to. And stacking fence bits in her yard has zero chance of improving the situation.
In view of the problems and cost associated with a fence, you might want to take a serious look at doing without one. Is it really worth the troublesome issues it generates?
The neighbor may be responsible for the damage caused by her tree. Any part of that tree that grows onto or over your property probably belongs to you. But your best bet is to take care of the fence yourself and stay away from the neighbor.