I live in Los Angeles and recently had a survey done on my property. In the process, I discovered the neighbors on one side of my house have built some exterior stairs partially on my property. (The stairs are illegal, but that’s another issue altogether and I have no interest in fighting them on it.)
I do not have the best relationship with these neighbors, though it is not terrible, either. However, they love doing illegal construction on their home. I’d like a little “ace in the hole” so to speak… something I can keep in my back pocket to make sure their constant construction doesn’t get out of hand. I honestly hope to never need to use it.
But… I’ve been told that now that I have been made aware that their construction is on my property, I have to act within a limited amount of time (5 years?) or I lose the rights to the land completely, and they basically end up legally owning land I paid for.
Yes, I know I need to go to a lawyer, but I figured I’d throw this out here as well and see if anyone has experience with this. Is there something I can do that will essentially say, “I still own the land, but I’ll let you continue to use it indefinitely”?
I don’t know if a contract with a yearly $1 lease is required, or someone else told me it can be as simple as a posted sign granting right of way to them.
Again, my end goal is simply to let them know that as long as they curtail some of their more obnoxious behavior, we’ll keep their lives simple.**
** If you need a simple example of what they’ve done, they built a large, illegal fence all the way up to the edge of the curb in their front yard. In addition to being an eye sore, they put a door in the middle of it and then blocked off any street parking in front of the door. So when their constant stream of guests came over, instead of parking in front of their house, they’d park in front of ours. This is in a neighborhood with very limited parking.
When I asked them to remove the potted plants in front of their door, they refused. I explained that they were not allowed to build the fence in the first place, and if they had an issue with cars on the street blocking the doorway through their illegal fence – and if that issue meant their guests would constantly park in front of my house – that my obvious recourse was to inform the city of the illegal fence and that they’d have to take it down. I thought simply making them accept parking in front of their door was a very generous offer on my part. As I explained to them, they could not “solve” their problems by relocating them down the street to my house.
Anyway, our relationship obviously hasn’t been great since, and I want a little protection for the future in case they start playing games with us, because they’ve already tried to cause us problems in the past.
Any suggestions?
