Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
We live in an area where properties are divided by fences deemed as community property. A few weeks ago, our next door neighbor knocked on our door and told us that he was painting the fence on his side and is going to be replacing 2 posts the following day. When we came home from work that day, the fence had been dismantled and strewn across our front yard along with huge piles of dirt. In addition, cement had been poured in holes more than double the size of the original. The next morning, we spoke to our neighbors and the foreman who agreed to make changes and said he would leave his business card for us. But when we got home, there was no business card and the workers evidently did nothing but put back the fence with the bottom slats missing and several others damaged on our side of the fence. A friend of ours is a landscape architect. He advised us to replace everything which had been dismantled by the contractor and redo the cement. It was then we learned our sprinkler pipe had been busted as well. It cost us $1500 to do these repairs. Even though we explained all the damages that their workers caused and pointed out that we took photos, our neighbors are not reimbursing us for anything. Is there any way we can pursue a legal claim against the company? If so, how would we go about doing that and how do we compel our neighbors to give us the name of the contractor?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Take the neighbor to small claims court and let him sue the contractor.
AH...... Mr. Stone has replied before me again! OK on this one I have a few things to add - you do not mention whether the complex is under the management of a HOA and/or what the CC&Rs;say regarding he fences - or if there are CC&Rs;. What you have basically described is what in law is called a party line fence - meaning it sits directly on the actual boundary between your neighbor and your property lines. Th liability for the fence is basically 50 -50 for maitenance etc... unless one party causes a massive damage not attributable to the other owner. These things may completely affect the way you must proceed in this matter. For example if there is an HOA and there is a procedur for bringing a greivance to the Board of DIrectors and you fail to do that you may be barred from any court action. SO you must research tis carefully and withthis little informatio n it is really impossible to give you any sort of accurate reply as you may end up cutting off your nose despite your face. Recommendation: re-post as a paid question - you can pick attorney you want to reply direclty and then that person can have a discussion with you back and forth unlike the unpaid questions wherein you may not reply to ths. You can pick specific attorneys to reply on the lawguru site when you enter paid question, if you want to pick want to choose a specifc atttorney just note thier name - so far Mr. Stone and Myself are the only ones who have bothered to reply! - so either of us seem to be a good strart.
Best wishes,
Yeah, I agree; the contractor is just the lackey of the property owner who hired him; legally you can sue either or both, but the truly proper person to defend and answer for what's happened here is the neighboring property owner.
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
