Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

We own a home In San Francisco, located on a standard 25' wide lot. The new owners of the property next door are doing a substantial rehabilitation of their structure and have moved walls, etc. and the new wall abuts against our house. The owner recently had a survey done. The surveyor's marker in the sidewalk indicated that the new structure encroaches on my property and has been constructed about 3-4" over the property line. After I spoke to the owner of the property, the surveyor's marker was moved. In an email, the surveyor said he "made an error" so he moved the marker. He said our house covers all 25' feet of our lot and that here has been no encroachment. We measured the house and it is 24' 8' wide. The neighbor's new wall has eliminated the space between the houses and the contractor damaged our house. What recourse do we have against the neighbors?


Asked on 10/21/09, 6:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

The first thing to do is make sure you are right by having your own survey done. Considering the age of most of the construction in your zipcode (Mission and Bernal Heights), the surveying of the time was not up to anything approaching modern standards of accuracy. So it's possible you will find that your 24' 8" wide house actually is right up against the property line in question and has been encroached by 4" on the OTHER side ever since it was built. It's never a good idea to have a fight with the neighbors until you're sure you're right. Being armed with irrefutable facts also tends to lower the "volume" of any dispute.

If you have, in fact, been encroached on by this construction, then you do have rights and remedies available. You are entitled to compensation for the encroachment, and may have the right to get the construction removed. The sooner you act, however, the more remedies you have. If you let it go, it becomes harder to get a court to order the work stopped and the offending encroachment removed.

Regardless of the lot line location, however, you have a right to compensation for damage done to your own house from both the contractor and the neighbor.

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Answered on 10/21/09, 8:02 pm


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