whymsy2007
New Member
My mom has lived in the same house for over thirty years. In 2003, she got a new neighbor. My mom keeps to herself, tends to her own business...not an active person in the community. Anyway, for many years my mom wanted a privacy fence in her backyard, long before the new neighbor moved in. The neighbor is also running a business in her home (a hair salon). My mom was able to come up with the funds to pay for the privacy fence and let the neighbor know, who and I quote said, "That'd be nice, maybe when I can get on my feet I can help pay for half the cost." My mom was going to be up the fence regardless of whether she received help from the neighbor. Well, after this short conversation, my mother planned to schedule the fence installer. This neighbor is very nosey, and on many occasions when we were in our backyard, the neighbor/her other family members would stare, or make it very apparant of their presence, so my mom really wanted the fence to go up fairly quickly. The day came when the fence installers came to put up the fence. My uncle called the neighbor (so there would be no problems) to notify her of the fence being built the next day. According to him, the daughter (of the neighbor) answered the phone and very rudely asked, "Well is she going to tear down the white fence?" He asked, "Why?" And she said that our fence was on their property. My mom has a picket fence hooked to the SAME fence the previous owner of the new neighbor's home built. After this we knew she would probably try to stop the building or make the building of the fence an issue so my mom decided to wait to see if the neighbor would take any action, have a survey done. She gave this woman every opportunity to challenge her with the fence/property line, and after not hearing from the neighbor, she decided to go ahead and proceed. The privacy fence was built in 2003. This was four years ago, and in that four years this woman has not had a survey done. However, she's told many people in the community we are on her property. Isn't it against the law to say someone is on your property without proof? Also, the previous owner at this home sold off a vacant tract of land next to his before selling his own property. I believe a survey was done at the time. My question is can this woman just continue with this silly game and be telling people that we are on her property without taking any action? IF there was a survey done why doesn't she just challenge the placement of the picket fence with it? I think it's just her way of being a nasty person and trying to continue a "smear campaign". My mom did talk to a lawyer and he indicated that even if the neighbor had a survey done, she could still challenge it. Would this constitute as a nuisance? Is there anything my mom can do to stop this silly game? It's getting really old. I think everyone in town thinks we are on someone else's property. Bottom line, shouldn't this woman put up (have the survey done) or shut up??
