Current Events > Am I screwed?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Alright, so this is a bit of a long story. No tl'dr.

We bought our house back in June. It was an estate sale, so we unfortunately did not know exactly where the property lines were, until a day before we bought the house.

As it turns out, a large portion of my yard, technically belongs to a local railroad. I would not have bought the house, had I known that 40% of our yard, wasn't really ours.

There's an area behind our garage that I mow and maintain, and it goes back to a woodline. There's about 40 ft of woodline before the actual railroad track. Plenty of buffer. Here are pics before we built the fence, you can see how much yard we would lose. Our property line is at the end of the garage. https://imgur.com/a/Lpj8t

One of the biggest reasons we bought a house, is so we would have a nice fenced in yard for our dog to run around in. (And possibly kids in the future.)

We contacted the railroad about getting a lease/permission to fence in this area behind my garage, along with the rest of our yard.

They say it's $500 just to apply, and that's no guarantee that it'll go through. In fact, one of the fencing contractors I was talking to, has never once seen them approve one of these applications. But he thinks they leave you alone if you just go for it.

$500 for an application, plus an additional permit through the city, would put me at $650. That's over a third of what I paid for materials and labor combined. I'm not made of money by any means, and could not afford this.

So I went ahead and built it. 3 months go by, and no one says anything.

Saturday, I wake up to a tree coming through my fence. Here's a topic with pics for that.
https://imgur.com/a/5ZFK0

Now I have to contact the railroad to get the other dead trees back there removed.

The guy that is coming out, is the same one who dropped off the application originally... he said my name looks familiar. Hopefully he doesn't realize I never submitted the application. But he does know he dropped one off.

I did tell them that I'm not looking to be compensated for the repair, I just want any other dead/hazardous trees removed. There are some long enough that would absolutely come through our house.

Karma's a bitch. I'm really hoping they don't try to hit me for the $500 retroactively, or fine me or something. There is absolutely nothing they need that section of yard for, so here's to hoping.

Part of me wishes I never called, but I don't want to worry about a tree crashing down, every time the wind picks up.
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bump
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Copy pasta? Yes I have the other topic, but this is kind of a different subject.
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Like a nut.
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Wait.... you built a structure on someone elses property...and you are worried about $500? Id be a whole lot more worried about getting a bill for a few thousand to remove your fence, and then depending on how spiteful the areas director is. You could very well wake up one morning to a 6 foot chain link fence with barb wire on your property line.

Fun story. I had just got my license and it was the first time I had driven in snow. I came to a corner and went right off the road, into a ditch, up out of the ditch, and into a tree that was on the RRs property. Not only did the police officer who responded issue me a ticket for "driving too fast for conditions" but he notified the RR. TL:DR, I got a bill 6 months later for almost $5,000 for damage to the RRs tree (it was missing some bark and lost a dead branch), a bill from an arborist, surveying crew, "area conservation"... it went on and on
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Oh good.

I mean the guy that dropped off the application.. When he came out last time, he literally thought it was my property. He thought I called him because I wanted to fence INTO the woods. He thought all of the grass area was mine.

The back wall of the fence is actually done with pea gravel, and not cemented in like the other sides. I did that just in case this ever blew back on us, and we had to move the fence up.
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Now I'm nervous. Ugh.
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And that 30-40 feet is going to stop an oncoming crashing train?
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If you need to ask then yes.
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JustMyOpinion posted...

If you can't afford an extra $1k, you can't afford to be a homeowner. Unexpected repairs/expenses come up all the time when owning a house and you're supposed to budget for it. And it's not even your land. Completely your fault for not doing your own due diligence and now you're being lazy/cheap. I'd probably turn your application down either way since I'd have quite the liability if the train went off the tracks into what's now your yard and destroyed your property and/or dog.

To be fair, the dog is considered property under law, and no matter what, can not recover any more money than its fair market replacement value, which for most common dogs is less than $1,000. OP would have no leg to stand on recovering money for his fence which was built on someone elses property.

This is however why one of the first things you do during a home purchase, after inspection, is to survey the property and establish firm property lines. You would be amazed at how many homes are sold with very shaky property lines. The house I live in now was fenced in for a long time (bushes and growth would suggest 50+ years) Turned out my neighbors entire driveway, fence, garage, and part of their shed was on my property.

It gets way way worse in rural areas
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BuzzyTheCat posted...

JustMyOpinion posted...

If you can't afford an extra $1k, you can't afford to be a homeowner. Unexpected repairs/expenses come up all the time when owning a house and you're supposed to budget for it. And it's not even your land. Completely your fault for not doing your own due diligence and now you're being lazy/cheap. I'd probably turn your application down either way since I'd have quite the liability if the train went off the tracks into what's now your yard and destroyed your property and/or dog.

To be fair, the dog is considered property under law, and no matter what, can not recover any more money than its fair market replacement value, which for most common dogs is less than $1,000. OP would have no leg to stand on recovering money for his fence which was built on someone elses property.

This is however why one of the first things you do during a home purchase, after inspection, is to survey the property and establish firm property lines. You would be amazed at how many homes are sold with very shaky property lines. The house I live in now was fenced in for a long time (bushes and growth would suggest 50+ years) Turned out my neighbors entire driveway, fence, garage, and part of their shed was on my property.

It gets way way worse in rural areas

how did you bring that up to the neighbor lol? howd they take it?
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Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

BuzzyTheCat posted...

JustMyOpinion posted...

If you can't afford an extra $1k, you can't afford to be a homeowner. Unexpected repairs/expenses come up all the time when owning a house and you're supposed to budget for it. And it's not even your land. Completely your fault for not doing your own due diligence and now you're being lazy/cheap. I'd probably turn your application down either way since I'd have quite the liability if the train went off the tracks into what's now your yard and destroyed your property and/or dog.

To be fair, the dog is considered property under law, and no matter what, can not recover any more money than its fair market replacement value, which for most common dogs is less than $1,000. OP would have no leg to stand on recovering money for his fence which was built on someone elses property.

This is however why one of the first things you do during a home purchase, after inspection, is to survey the property and establish firm property lines. You would be amazed at how many homes are sold with very shaky property lines. The house I live in now was fenced in for a long time (bushes and growth would suggest 50+ years) Turned out my neighbors entire driveway, fence, garage, and part of their shed was on my property.

It gets way way worse in rural areas

how did you bring that up to the neighbor lol? howd they take it?

We had a BBQ and I brought it up during drinks. Thankfully the neighbor was gracious about it instead of instantly litigious. We made a deal for them to lease the land until their home sold for a sum of money. When they sell, the land reverts to me. As long as they or their descendants live in the home, they get to keep it. The deal is void if I sell the property before they sell theirs. After it was all looked over by our lawyers they have been the best most accommodating neighbors one could ever hope for.
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lww99 posted...

So I went ahead and built it.

........ That was stupid.
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