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.

Dbrad- This child, Jaxson, has a mother and great grandmother he lives with. He visits his father on the weekends. He has a wonderful grandmother Kim and her husband who does everything for this kid. He doesn't go without. He has plenty of adults in his life but it seems none teach his respect or manners. I've been friends with Kim for years and trust me, this bothered me a lot to have to say we don't want him coming over to our home anymore. They think he does no wrong. It's not my or my husband's responsibility to parent this child when he has parents and grandparents. We were very kind to this child in the beginning and were taken advantage of like we were a free babysitter or something. Without warning, he would come through our door and no one would come to check on him for hours. He was included when my children played, ate, drank and swam. We had family visiting from 12 hours away. My kids wanted to play with their cousins they see like three times a year and this kid still hung around after I asked him to go home because he was being mean. He stood at the end of my deck and watched us. So please take that guilt trip elsewhere. And the little boy still talks to us all. He's oblivious that he's even done anything wrong. We are nice to him as well. We are not mean to kids but we had had enough. It's our home and we would like to enjoy it with our children.

Hi everyone, sorry life got away from me. There's no real update per se. The "neighbor" has not returned that we're aware of. I had some friends look at the house and no neighbor appeared either. My agent has made it very clear that she's notified other agents about this person as well. Our contract is up with her tomorrow. Sophie Wheeler - to answer your questions, I've lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, so yes I know my neighbors however we live near the largest Navy base in the whole world so "turnover" is high. Yes there have been substantial upgrades to the house but we are not asking for "substantially more money". We purchased the house for $215k and the current asking price is $200 - that's right in line with comps in the neighborhood. So no, this house is NOT a flip. I hope this clears things up 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.