How would you handle this ?

I know here the line fence is not considered the legal seperation of property and can move somewhat to either side of the survey without legal entitlement or liability. The right half as you face it is your responcibility to maintain.

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Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup........

I certainly would not quibble over 6" on one end of a 350' fence line. The property line is just that, the property line. If anything that section of the fence is yours as it is on your property.

If they buyers paid for a survey of the property then the surveyor would have made note on the blue line survey that showed the fence to be off the property line. The title examiner and closer should point that out to the buyer when they sign the survey at closing.

6" in a corner of the property is not worth losing a potential new neighbor and friend over in my opinion.

aint much you can do with 6 inches of land except maybe raise a stink that aint worth raising....
on our farm the north side fence is angles away from the legal property line giving our neighbors a dab more land, it starts about 100 yards or so back from the front fence is about 4 feet off at the end, the fence has been there for many many years. the fence row is grown over. when it was surveyed, (thats when we found out). the neighbor dug the marker out of the ground, we just laughed it off, he is an older man that has lived there for 50 years or so. we acted like we never knew what happened, we speak when we go by when he is out, he watches out for us when we aint there...i do not feel "cheated"...and besides id have to redo a good piece or fence and a gate that aint nothing wrong with. ....remember the next one to move in could be your neighbor for many years.....blow it off and start your relationship on a positive note...not a 6 inch land fight

samm

samm

6 inches wouldn't mean much to me. had a neighbor years ago, a creepy other neighbor fenced off a full 8 acres (of good iowa pasture land!) while her husband was dying. by the time that was over, the nice neighbor didn't have much way to reclaim it.

we also have something similar, thanks for the adverse link. we own about 12 foot wide, by 8 acres long, stretch of hay field, that is beyond a tree line that we thought was our property border. DH thinks we should just forget it, i say no way, its enough to hassle over. i put a stake in the ground where the surveys' stick was. at least it is marked, and i talked to the guy leasing it currently. i am also planning to talk to the landowner. if we owned hundreds of acres, as the landowner does, i'd not worry too much even about that, but we only have 16, and could honestly use another 16, so this strip is worth keeping. but 6 inches, that's nothing, it could simply be a survey mistake.

When we bought our farm the property lines were a mess because it was part of an originally much larger farm holding that was divided among family back in the 50s. When we required it be surveyed before we bought it the right boundary resulted in about a 50 foot wide expansion of the property line and we had the old fence removed (the other property owner wasnt all that pleased but ended up gaining almost as much on the other side of his property as all the property lines shifted somewhat) and a new one put in by the sellers on the correct line. On the left property line we ended up with a 5 foot wide expansion of our property which went on for more than a quarter mile but since a brand new fence had just been installed on the old property line we just approached that owner and told him we would quit claim him that strip if he paid the filing fees.

It was a hay pasture and we would rather have the good neighbor and new fence rather than quibble over the 5 foot strip. You might consider that to get your property lines very clear if you ever expect to sell.

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6 inches is not worth mentioning. Find something else to worry about.

As others have stated, 6 inches aint nuthin to raise a stink over. I have never worried about any encroachment less than 2 feet on the 4 property line fence issues I have been involved in and the one encroachment I had issue with was almost 3 feet and prevented my getting my riding mower between the fence and my storage building without getting ripped by the barbed wire.

Also if the fence was in place when you bought the property and the concession was made by the previous owner of your property, the existing peg survey may be long negated and the fence defines your land boundary.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

thanks for the input all.

Like I said it really is no big deal to me so chances are I will not say anything.
I would just say I am looking for things that could turn bad if the new people are a pain.
It sucks buying a place with great people next door and having them move right away. We have had neighbors from hell before and do not want to deal with that again.
We bought a place about 25 years ago that the builder built 2 just alike next to each other. Well as ours was not finished yet we made some upgrades like a screened back porch and other things. Well the people next door started complaining to the builder that we was getting things they did not. We lived there for 6 years and they complained about every thing they could. Our dog barked 1 time I mean 1 single back as I was out side with it, They called the cops. I even seen the lady leaning over the line one time with a ruler to see if my grass was to tall.
One day I looked out the window and seen the lady next door and the lady across the street rolling around on the ground fighting. We found out it was about a piece of paper that blown from one yard to the next.
So you can see how I am scared of anything that could cause a problem with neighbors.

I would just let things be and not mention it at all. You don't want to have hostility between the new people. They may be nice, but then they may give you problems over it if something is said, it's only 6". Hope this helps. Chris

Thank goodness i have enough land that i dont have new people moving next to me that complain over 6 inches.Here if you move out to the country you have to buy a min. of ten acres.Our property lines are not even marked on line thru the timber we just put some flags up close to were we think the line is going give or take.All corners have a stake put in by survey people.same on our tillable ground no fence between the fields just set your tractor to drive to the end of the field to come out as close to the corner that you can.Neighbor farms along the (Line)LOL and all is good.I would bet you moved from the city to this spot and this is the first time out in the country,Thank goodness for our county laws as we would be in the same mess here from city people.Remember if you dont already have a black top road get right up to the county board and township board and tell them to get rid of that gravel road that makes your car dirty.Never mind that it had been gravel for fifty years before you got there and no one really cared.

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If you are still mowing the grass then the garden needs to be bigger

JUst think...you got a free fence.

Id have a nice talk with the realestate agent and the owners and you and them sign a agreement ,it should say that the other party knows and agrees that the fence in in the wrong place but as a practical mater it is not worth moving AT THIS TIME. However you both aknowlage the survey line as the boundry and If either of you decides to build a new fence it is agreed in advance that the new fence will be with its face at the surveyed line .

Thin if theres ever a problem worth it YOU can build a fence on the line.

Ditto. It's not unheard of for the stake to off that much.

This is a really interesting question because it involves your own personal feeling of self respect. Do you want to blow this off because it is only a matter of 6 inches times 350 feet which you bought and paid for which is now claimable by somebody else because an incompetent fence contractor screwed up? Do you want to pay taxes for the life of your property ownership while somebody else enjoys the use of it?

There is a legal principle (principal?) "When you snooze, you lose." The nice guy who had the fence built had a responsibility to build it on his own property. You have a responsibility to defend your own property. The fence builder had a responsibility. The new buyer will have a responsibility, too.
There are several ways to handle this but you should not have to pay for somebody else to take away from you something that is yours!

If you file a Lis Pendens, you will screw up the sale. Then the seller has to make the fence builder put the fence where it is supposed to be. Or the buyer pays you a Quiet Title fee. Fair is fair.

Even GPS (which most surveyors use today) can be off that much. Don't try to pick the fly specks out of the pepper.

Just adding my voice here... don’t worry about it. The day the new people move in be the ones showing up with a basket of home-made bread and preserves not the guy talking about six inches

if a survey were to be done on your property and one of your fence line was off in your favor, would we have read anything about it??

You mentioned that this had been surveyed. The surveyors would have marked the property lines.

If it were more I would worry about it but 6 inches only part of the way down the property is really no big deal.
I mean even if things did go really bad and you had terrible neighbors what has the 6 inches got to do with it?
What can they possibly do with those 6 inches of land?
I really cannot understand what them being horrible neighbors has anything to do with this.
So if they are jerks you want your 6 inches but if they are nice its okay?

I do not own a ton of land, just a regular backyard.
My next door neighbors have their fence on almost 4 feet of my land.
They ran their fence over to mine so it abutts my property.
Big deal.
They know it, I know it and they offered that when they sell the house they
will move the fence or if I want to put up my own I can remove their's and run mine down the property line at any time I want.
I am happy with that arrangement.
The reason for this was due to the amount of trees in between the properties and how many would have had to be taken down in order to put in the fence at the time I installed mine.
I could not afford the fence and the cost of taking down all those large trees so we ran it inside the property.
There are big granite posts in the ground marking the land.


My back fence is on my neighbor's property by probably 6 inches as well.
I had just moved in and having 3 toddlers I wanted to put a fence in.
The day the owner of the fence company put it in he realized he was over the line when he was part way through the installation.
He stopped and was looking at the boundries when the owner came out and said he was watching and he realized what the problem was and wanted to come out and assure him it was fine.
He said, bah, who cares its just a few inches of what.. dirt, grass? Its just a little land what does it mean, go ahead and finish the fence there are no worries here.
We are still very close with the gentleman and I think the world of him.
I can tell you that we spend alot of time talking over that back fence.

You really should not let this bother you, even for the principle of it.
It is just to minute and honestly if anyone ever came over to me and complained about 6 inches I would not become friendly with them because it says alot about them and I would just assume they would always be trouble.

This is what you said: "Howdy all
We moved into our new place a few months ago and one of the selling points was the wonderful neighbors that would have. They was a very nice older couple that took great care of their place and was very helpful to us newbies."

If you want your new neighbors to have that impression of you, let it go.