Mostly it's just to separate our yard from his "visually". The house is vacant right now, as it has been for sale for the past couple of months. Prior to that, it was being rented out for a year or so. The yard is not very well maintained, even though they're trying to sale it. I'm really gonna try to get some pics up. It may not be perimeter plantings I'm looking for as maybe something, anything in our backyard. The only thing back there are flower boxes I have hung on the deck. Other than that, it's really plain. And being on the corner, you can see it from every angle. It's actually more visible than our front yard from more angles.

You need to study up the "adverse possession" laws in your jurisdiction. Basically, if your neighbor uses a portion of your property as if it were his own for a specified period of time (which varies by jurisdiction) and you don't do anything to assert your rights to the property, your neighbor CAN gain ownership of that property. However much you may want to be on good terms with your neighbor, you have no choice but to bring up the matter of the fence. Even under the best conditions, there are going to be some costs involved so your neighbor is probably NOT going to be happy but, if he is reasonable, you can work with him to mitigate his expenses and, hopefully, that will go far towards establishing good neighbor relationships. First off, ask your neighbor if he had the property line surveyed before putting up the fence. It sound as if one end of the fence is properly located (the point closest to the road) but that the fence then angles off so that it runs across part of your property. If so, it should only be necessary to have a surveyor locate the marker at the other end of the fence line (farthest from the road) to define where the fence should have been placed. Locating and marking that single point should not be too expensive. A few hundred dollars at most. Show your neighbor the neighborhood plat maps and point out that the property lines don't run perpendicular with the road. Assuming they did would certainly be a rational mistake to make so let him know you're certain that, if there is a mistake, it wasn't done intentionally. Tell the neighbor you want to get a surveyor out to find where the property line between your two properties actually is and ask if he is willing to split the cost of the survey. If he was not willing to split the cost, I would ask whether he would be willing to agree that whoever is in the wrong will pay the entire cost of the survey. I.e., if the fence is on your property, he pays the cost and if the fences in not on your property, you will pay for the survey. Your neighbor's reaction will tell you rather quickly whether it will be possible to maintain good relations with him. If he is not willing to split the cost of the survey OR pay for the survey if his fence turns out to be on your property, you can forget about trying to be neighborly. Have the survey done then immediately tear down any portion of the fence that is on your property and do whatever you want with the fencing materials. They're on your property. You don't have to give them back to him. IF your neighbor is reasonable about sharing the cost of the survey (or paying for it if it shows his fence is on your property), then, once you know where the fence line should be, you can give him time to have the fence moved. You don't need to take the fence down immediately. So long as the neighbor is using the area with your "permission", he cannot gain adverse possession of your property. I would give him a reasonable amount of time to move the fence and would be as neighborly as possible about helping him get it done. You COULD even agree to allow your neighbor to keep the fence where it is until such time as it needs to be repaired or replaced. But, since even a wood fence is likely to last 15 years or longer before needing to be replaced, IF you agree to let him keep the fence where it is (for now), it should be by written agreement that requires him to pay a monthly rent (it can be a nominal amount), specifies the maximum period of time the fence can remain in its current location, and has provisions specifying what happens if either of you decides to sell your property or passes away. The point of the "rent" is to make it clear to all the world that you and he recognize that you are the rightful owner of the property and that he is using it under an agreement with you. The rest of the provisions are so you don't someday find yourself disputing where the proper fence line is with one of his heirs or having a fight over moving the fence so you can sell your property without the encumbrance. I hope it all works out as amicably as possible for you.

I probably would have had a similar emotional reaction to being asked to share expenses of yet another project. Your outrage / irritation is understandable. But when I re-read what you said was in the letter, I can see a different side. He has an odd property on a hillside where you also share a section (the bottom of the hill?). You don't live there yet so he probably doesn't know how to reach you other than by mail. Maybe he was inspired by all of the work on your property so far and he has decided to landscape his hillside. Judging by your drawing it looks like your strange sliver directly relates to his property and your landscaping focus has been on the square section not the sliver. He is asking if you would like to go in together on a cohesive landscape that would make his odd lot and your sliver work well together. And if you are not interested in that option, he is wondering if you would consider selling him the sliver to make the lot more cohesive. All of that said, I would reach out to him and have a conversation. Be honest about not wanting to sell your property sliver. (That's ok! You don't have to sell. No one is going to make you.) Listen to his proposal on the landscape. Maybe what he's asking is not an expensive hard-scape but maybe just planting consistent plants across the hillside to make it all work together. Come to the conversation with your budget limitations. Be honest and let him know that you appreciate the idea of a cohesive landscape but that your budget is already stretched with the landscaping you have already done to your lot. Stand firm, but be polite. You will be stuck living next to this guy. See if you can come to some kind of middle ground where you keep ownership of your lot and you work together to make the properties look good without breaking your budget. My own story: My last home shared a property line with a really nice family. We both had rather boring mailboxes right next to each other. The neighborhood had a rash of basic mailboxes getting knocked over and so our neighbor proposed that we go in together on some kind of masonry style mailbox. We said we thought it was a good idea. Well one day we came home and there was a new double mailbox being built without us having any input on the design or materials. As soon as the mailbox was done, the neighbor let us know how much we owed them for the mailbox. Initially we were really irritated. They should have consulted us about the design and cost up front, but unfortunately they didn't. Honestly I don't think they even considered the possibility that we might not share the same style. Oh well. We gave them the money and enjoyed having a nice mailbox that wasn't quite our style. It was a frustrating situation and I wish we could have worked on a design together, but keeping the relationship friendly was important.

We bought a house where our neighbours deck and fence were over the lot line fully encroaching on our property. It has had headaches to deal with but it was absolutely not a deal breaker for us in the purchase. Yes it’s something to be aware of but we’ve never regretted buying the lot and building on it. Many things happen over time and can be adjusted and corrected. Yes your neighbour shouldn’t have done that but even if you had known it was an issue or did know I bet you still would buy the house just like we did. In our case we had a survey done, for proof we were correct, approached neighbour and came to an agreement. We built a new fence and took back a portion of the lot and now happily ignore said neighbours encroachment issue and love the house. Duplexes are complex. You live so close to them. Have a good chat about what’s going on as a start.