Fences

Parent Cafe
1

<p>A windstorm blew down part of the fence around our backyard over the weekend. Its the fence that separates my yard from the one house on the block that is a foreclosure. Since its a shared fence, I would think its half my responsibility to repair and half the other owner’s responsibility. But how do I go about finding the owner? I called the real estate agent whose sign is in front of the house, but so far no response. Will I have any luck getting the bank that owns the house to pay for half the fence repair? What would happen if the house is in escrow? </p>

<p>Its only a few sections of the fence that are down and don’t want to contact my insurance company unless I need to since I had a big claim for water damage at the end of the year. </p>

<p>As always, thanks for the advice in advance. CCer’s know everything! (or at least have an opinion on everything :wink: )</p>

2

<p>You can usually look the owner of record up on Zillow or your county web site by address- which will give you the parcel #.</p>

3

<p>If the house is in foreclosure, you are not going to get anyone to help pay for it. If the bank already owns it, they will not spend a nickel they don’t have to, if the bank doesn’t own it yet the owner will not have the means or desire, or else they wouldn’t be getting foreclosed on.</p>

<p>You could sue, I suppose, but that could take years.</p>

<p>I never heard of a shared fence before. How does that work? What happens if one person wants to take it down or refuses to help maintain or repair it?</p>

4

<p>I’d contact your city hall. Here, fences need a permit and must be on one property, not shared. Did you build this fence, or was it there when you purchased the house?</p>

5

<p>Rules on fences that are shared, are usually split down the middle and each side is responsible for the right half…does that apply to you or the neighbor? </p>

<p>If the bank owns it, it probably doesn’t matter, which is unfortunate for you…sorry. They won’t want to sock any $ into a property that is loosing them $ in the first place. Your best bet is to tak ecare of it yourself.</p>

<p>Never hurts to contact your agent and ask if you premiums will be affected before you file a claim. However, this also depends on you deductable.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

6

<p>A person going through foreclosure is not going to pay for half of a fence they’ll never use. The bank will not either. The only party that wants the fence repaired is you, so go from there. </p>

<p>I would move the fence so that it is solely on my property. That way I can have the fence I want without worrying about what a future neighbor is willing or not willing to do with future repairs.</p>

7

<p>“Good fences make good neighbors”</p>

<p>Truer words were never said, especially if you have neighbors like mine. When we bought this house nine years ago, we decided to have a 6’ privacy fence installed and began the process immediately by getting quotes and submitting our plans to the HOA architectural committee for approval. We were told the approval process usually takes 30 days. During this time, I received a call from a neighbor who lives on the next street over (her back yard meets the side of my back yard). She called to say they were having a fence installed and had gone about the process wrong in that they had not submitted plans to, nor received approval from, the architectural committee. She asked if I was okay with them installing a fence. I told her that was, of course, fine with me and then I said we were in the midst of the approval process ourselves and suggested we split the cost of the common fence. She then dropped the bombshell … the fence company was at her house installing the fence at that very minute … a three foot picket fence. I told her we had planned to install a privacy fence. I don’t recall her response, if she had one at all, and I had three sick students in my school clinic at the time so I really couldn’t pursue it further at that time.</p>

<p>Fast forward two hours. I got home from work and saw from my kitchen window that their fence was nearly complete in the installation process. I then noticed what appeared to be a space for a gate in their back fence area. Because a gate in that location would lead no place other than our back yard, I immediately called her. I told her they appeared to be plugging right along and then I asked if the space in the back fence was, indeed, for a gate. She confirmed that it was and said they thought it would be a good idea in case a ball or other toys came over the fence. They have three very active boys. She then asked if that was okay with me. I told her no, it was not okay. I commented that we didn’t want just anyone having access to our back yard. I reminded her that we had a new puppy and, though she is a house dog, she does go outside occasionally to play and go potty. We didn’t want to take a chance on a gate being left open nor did we want to chance kids coming on to our property and possibly being bitten since dogs can be protective. She said she would call her husband at work and ask him about it. WTH? It didn’t matter what he said. Had they installed the gate (fortunately, they didn’t), I would have planted the thorniest rose bush I could find and block that entrance. Our correct approach (submitting and waiting for approval) caused us to lose out on privacy. DH and I enjoy sitting on our nice new deck with an adult beverage and listening to music but, instead, we are often driven indoors because, besides being excessively loud, the kids are frequently asking us to retrieve balls and other toys that easily come over a three foot fence. Additionally, these kids attend my school and constantly want me to “watch this, Ms. Splashmom”, as several of them jump on the trampoline at once. One day, as eight children (DH and I counted) jumped on the trampoline together, we came indoors. It made me a nervous wreck thinking one of them would surely jump too high, bounce off the trampoline and impale him/her self on the picket fence. We asked our fence company if we could still install the privacy fence and just butt it right up against the picket fence, but there is some nonsense rule that there must be three feet between the fences, meaning we would lose three feet of our yard. We are having arborvitae installed to provide privacy on that side. We did have the privacy fence installed on all other sides. Two weeks after our installation was complete, we had a huge windstorm that felled a tree in the yard next door, bringing down a large portion of our new fence and damaging one of the downspouts on our house. That house was in foreclosure. Not only was the bank not interested in our damage, they wouldn’t send anyone out to take care of the tree, either. DH and I bought a chainsaw and took care of the portion of the tree that affected our fence and house. We called the fence company to repair the fence and paid the bill ourselves.</p>

<p>All that to say I don’t believe anyone (other than you) will step up and be responsible for your fence, especially since the house that shares the fence is in foreclosure. Good luck.</p>

8

<p>Here, new fences must be on one or the other, but “old” fences are grandfathered in.
Land ownership is public record. Your county auditor’s office- in person or online should have the answer. I do agree with post 3 and 5 , on the part that due to the legal troubles there, as a practical matter it will likely be your cost.</p>

9

<p>Thank you all for the info. I think the fence is shared since the rails and posts face the other yard every 8 feet. This is true of all the fences in the subdivision. In my old neighborhood, one knew who the fence belonged to based on which yard the posts and rails faced. I will call the city to find out about permits etc and see if I can get some info on who owns the house. I think the house might be in escrow since it is no longer on the mls. For now my dogs are enjoying the freedom of having a double size yard while I continue to research. I have some contractors coming to give me estimates and if the cost is close to my deductible I won’t bother the insurance company. My water damage claim in December was well over $15,000 so I hate to add another claim.</p>

10

<p>Put up the fence and then put a contractor’s lien on that house. I’d betcha that you’d get a response fairly soon. </p>

<p>Seek legal advice. If the legal advice says that the property owner is to maintain the fence, … be sure to add legal costs to the lien. </p>

<p>WHAT Was/Is your Secret.?</p>

11

<p>There are lots of shared fences around here. </p>

<p>I’m not a lawyer but I too think you’re out of luck if the house is currently bank owned but it’s worth a shot to see if the bank will be willing to pitch in for the fix (have a quote ready first). Don’t hold your breath on that one though. You probably only have a couple of choices other than trying the lawyer path - </p>

<ul>
<li>Live with the broken fence and wait until the house sells and then split the fix of the fence with the new owners. This could take a long time though depending on how quickly (slowly) houses are selling in your neighborhood.</li>
<li>Just fix the fence realizing you’ll need to cover the whole cost and move on.</li>
</ul>

<p>If it’s just a couple of sections it doesn’t seem that it’d be terribly expensive to repair. Perhaps you could have a handyman person fix it instead of having a fencing company replace part of it or do their fix. The handyman route s/b less expensive and it may be doable depending on the damage.</p>

<p>splashmom - That’s quite a story. I wouldn’t be any happier than you about that situation.</p>

12

<p>In our town old fences are sometimes on the line, but new fences have to be on one property or the other. Just so you don’t get into arguments about paying for repairs. :)</p>

<p>I think it’s moot. If the property is in foreclosure, you’re unlikely get them to help pay for the fence, but good luck!</p>