Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
My neighbor recently remodeled his house. There was some damage to the fence between our houses, due to the dirt from the construction. The neighbor is planning to put in a new fence and has asked me to pay for a portion of the cost of the fence that runs between our two houses. Am I legally obligated to pay for any of this?
1 Answer from Attorneys
The statutory law on the duty of neighbors to share the cost of boundary fences is so outdated that it seems irrelevant in the 21st Century. See Civil Code section 841(2), dating without amendment to 1872, when the Code was first adopted.
It says, in effect, that if your property is completely enclosed by fences, you must share in the cost of building and maintaining the boundary fence with any neighbor. If you choose not to enclose your land with fence, you do not have to participate in the fence cost.
This made sence in a 19th Century agrarian economy. It is not sensible in a 21st Century urban setting. I have asked the Law Review Commission to agenda it for modernization, but apparently they think it is fine.
So, tell your neighbor the law, based on whether you have fenced your front yard.
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