EASEMENT & OTHER NEIGHBOR DISPUTES ARTICLES
Swing set shows how neighbor could claim your property
Question: We have lived in our Peoria home seven years. There has never been a fence or even rocks to mark the boundary line for our backyard. When we moved into this home our neighbor’s swing set was at least partially located in our backyard. Our seller said that the swing set was installed by the neighbor for his children to use, but his children are now in high school, and they rarely use it. We want to sell our home, but our real estate agent says we will have to disclose to any buyer that the neighbor may have a…
How can we fix block wall built on neighbor’s property?
Question: Four families, including our family, bought adjoining homes on a street in a new Glendale subdivision two years ago. There are only four homes on the street. When we recently went to refinance our home mortgage, however, our mortgage lender denied our application to refinance because the legal description of our lot was incorrect. Apparently, our west block wall encroaches six feet into our neighbor’s back yard, which includes our swimming pool motor and related equipment. Our mortgage lender said that, unless we get a correct legal description for our lot, we will not be able to refinance. The title…
What are rules for building a fence in an easement area?
Question: We live in a beautiful home near South Mountain Park. The bottom 30 feet of our lot is subject to a utility easement for electrical and telephone lines. Due to increased hiker traffic, and my son recently seeing a mountain lion, we want to install a chain link fence along the bottom of our lot. What will happen to our chain link fence If there is maintenance or repair of the electrical or telephone lines? Answer: Two things will happen, and both are bad! One, the chain link fence will be torn down, and two, you will have to…
Neighbor Mistakenly Made Improvements Over The Property Line
Question: We live in a nice community in Litchfield Park. Yesterday we noticed that our new next-door neighbor is starting to plant peach-colored rose bushes on his side of a row of pavers. The pavers are not the boundary line, however, as we installed the pavers in our backyard for access to our swimming pool. My wife loves roses and does not want me to tell our neighbor that the rose bushes will be on our property. If we say nothing, and let all of the rose bushes be planted, will we have to reimburse our neighbor for the rose…
Payment of Maintenance Costs Due to Increased Use of an Easement
Question: We have owned a home in Casa Grande for 12 years. We have regularly maintained and have a recorded access easement (“Easement”) for a 30’ wide dirt road over our neighbor’s land to the main highway. A Phoenix developer has purchased 40 acres near us for a 20-home subdivision. The best access for these 20 homes to the main highway is probably over our Easement. Will this developer, and the subsequent 20 homeowners, be allowed to use our Easement for access to the main highway? If so, who pays for the increased cost of maintaining the Easement because of…
Ownership of Encroachment by Adverse Possession
Question: Four years ago we purchased Lot 7 in our Mesa subdivision that had been developed more than 30 years ago. In the last 30 years, there have been numerous owners of both Lot 7 and Lot 8. The Lot 8 owner recently had a survey done because he wants to build a gazebo in his backyard. This survey showed that the common wall between our two lots encroaches four feet onto Lot 8. The Lot 8 owner emailed us that he will pay for the cost to move the common wall back to the original property line between Lot…
Neighboring Owner Could be Forced to Treat Home for Termites
Question: We live in a nice Surprise neighborhood. Most of our neighbors are wonderful people who take great pride in their homes. The home next to us, however, is vacant and in poor condition. This home now has termites. The owner of the home, who lives in Chicago most of the year, does not want to pay for the treatment of the termite problem. If there is not any treatment, our pest control company has said that we will eventually have a termite problem in our home. Can we require this Chicago owner to treat his home for termites? Answer:…
A Path is Blocked After 40 Years. What’s Our Legal Right?
Question: We have a cabin in the White Mountains near Heber. My wife’s grandfather built the cabin in the 1980s. Although we go up to the cabin every weekend in the summer, the rest of the year we only occasionally go up to the cabin. There is a footpath to a creek about 50 yards away from our cabin. The kids have always used this footpath to the creek when we stay at our cabin. The last time that we went to our cabin, however, the kids couldn’t get to the creek because there was a fence blocking the footpath.…
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