How can you tell who owns a fence that separates two properties?
If you are looking at the fence from our building you would see our parking lot, the fence, the swale, the private road, the front yards and the the homes.
Bonus points to anyone who can come up with an answer that doesn't cost money. Thanks!
Answers:
Well, I'll blow the bonus points with this answer, but I'm guessing the fence probably was built by the condo association to keep the noise from the road down, protect children from running into the road, and keep non-condo owners off your property. If this is the case, it would belong to the condo owners and would be your cost to repair.
If it is truly a property division fence, the condo owners and private homeowners theoretically would share the cost of repairs. But you would have to convince them to spend their money on something they do not see as providing any value to them.
A surveyor can tell you.
If the fence posts are on your sise of the property, it's yours.
I had fences put up two years ago. I was told by the fence
company according to code the good side has to face out
and the posts in. So check your city code and I am not to
worried about points.
A survey of the condo property would tell - does your condo association have a copy of the survey from when it was developed?
If not, sorry, you will have to spend the money to find out whose fence it really is.
However, even if it's the homeowner's fence, rather than the condo association's, you usually can't force them to repair it if they don't want to, so the condo owners may need to pay up if they want it repaired.
Well, a survey will cost money, but that's the only way to know for sure.
Sometimes there are pins in the ground (small metal stakes) at the corners of a property, placed there at the time of a survey. You could look to see if there's anything like that.
A surveyor would have no way to tell who originally erected it.And unless it is well onto your property line (which would imply it was erected by the condo assoc.), a surveyor will be of no help. If nobody can remember who originally erected the fence, both properties benefit from the fence, and nobody claims ownership, it is SHARED between the two properties. Which means both properties share, equally, in the repair. Sorry...it will cost you money to fix it, but only half as much. Does that count?
Arrange for a wind storm to blow the fence over and file an insurance claim. The insurance company will determine if it is you fence before they pay to replace it. If it is the association send them a letter pointing out the liability of not having the fence.
Why don't your ask the homeowners if any of them has a survey?
Also, some of the homeowners may remember when the fence was put up. If they paid for the fence, someone remembers it.
You could also contact the builder of the condo building. He surely has a survey of the property.
As someone said sometimes the property corners are marked with a metal bar and have a cap on top of it. Do you have a metal detector?!The next step is to call your title insurance company and see if they have an existing survey. If the condos are new I am sure the survey was recorded and perhaps you can get it from them. The city where you live may also keep a copy of recently recorded items ( check the city/ county records for recorded document). If nothing helps then you need a surveyor to find the property corners.
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