BrooklynQs
Junior Member
I live in Brooklyn, NY. I purchased a house recently and was planning to redo my backyard including the fence and realized that one of my neighbors had built their 8 ft cinderblock wall curving into my property line at the far end by over a foot. Now, I'm aware, in the rest of the country this isn't a lot but in Brooklyn, where space is at a premium and each lot size is about 20ft X 100ft, this actually adds up to a lot. I know that the reason they must've done this is to avoid cutting into a tree in their yard. In either case, I wanted to tear down this 8 ft wall and put up a proper fence that correctly sections off my property (I would keep my fence on my side of the property line so that they could re-erect their wall at their choosing). I haven't confronted them with wanting to do this yet because I want to have all the knowledge I need in regards to what I can and can't do about this wall. The wall starts off on their property and ends up into ours. I so far really like my neighbor and want to have a good rapport with him. But I know that this is something that would need to get addressed at some point. I believe that it also probably decreases the property value having their wall come into my property like this. I also know that this property was left vacant for quite some time so they probably did it when no one was living here. A few questions:
1. Is an eight foot cinderblock wall too illegally high? I was told by a contractor that the fences can be no more than 6 feet due to fire hazard.
2. Do I have a legal right to take down the wall even if my neighbor doesn't want me to? (I'd prefer that he'd be okay with it, however, I want to know what my rights are)
3. If this wall is illegally too high am I liable for any fines etc because it's on my property line for a good portion of the wall?
4. I was also told by another contractor that a neighbor's wall could be okay if it was in my property line within 3 inches (this is clearly way more than 3 inches for about 80% of the wall). Is this true and if so would this have any baring legally on my ability to take down the wall and put another one up correctly?
Thank you for your time everyone!
1. Is an eight foot cinderblock wall too illegally high? I was told by a contractor that the fences can be no more than 6 feet due to fire hazard.
2. Do I have a legal right to take down the wall even if my neighbor doesn't want me to? (I'd prefer that he'd be okay with it, however, I want to know what my rights are)
3. If this wall is illegally too high am I liable for any fines etc because it's on my property line for a good portion of the wall?
4. I was also told by another contractor that a neighbor's wall could be okay if it was in my property line within 3 inches (this is clearly way more than 3 inches for about 80% of the wall). Is this true and if so would this have any baring legally on my ability to take down the wall and put another one up correctly?
Thank you for your time everyone!
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