crazy old Tom and my fence

so when I purchased this property, there is a easement going along the west side for the neighbor, which is fine with me, but it was fenced off making it a lane, I had no access to get to the fence on the other side, so my son and I removed a section so I could mow the lane and later when I had it logged it worked great for the loggers,

so tonight I take a golfcart ride and discover someone is in the middle of removing the rest of the fence, and the tracks lead to the crazy old man neighbor. I called him up about it and the conversation goes kinda like this

Me/ Tom there's a bunch of fencing missing from this easement do you know anything about it?

Tom/ ya i'm taking it out, I've just got started and have a bunch more to go

me/ well tom, how is this fence your property?
tom/ WHAT?
me/ well I own the property and it was here when I purchased it,
Tom/ well I put the fence in
Me/ whatever agreement you had with Montgomery (sellers) ended when I purchased this place, I own this place now

Tom/ (in a very irate voice)well just keep the xxxx fence, I don't want the xxx fence anyhow, ive never seen such a crazy
xxxx out fit, just keep the xxxx thing
phone call ended with him hanging up on me

now here's my deal, if Tom had just called and asked me to if he could remove the fence, I would have gladly have let him do it,and tried to split the fence posts with him, but to just go on someone's property and start removing a fence because you say you put it in? what the heck???

I had a similar experience about 20 years ago. We bought ten acres that had been in cotton. On the papers it showed possible future roads and access with easements and so forth. On the back side we were to allow 15 feet and the adjoining owner would do the same, making a 30 foot alleyway between the properties. So, we put a fence up 15 feet inside our line and called it good. The problem started when the neighbor decided that was the property line and began planting on our part of the easement. By this time it was pretty certain there would never be a road there anyway.

Move along a year or so, I decided enough was enough. While nothing was growing there I moved my fence to the actual property line. The neighbor took it up and neatly stacked my posts and fencing on "my" side of the line.

Long story short, I ended up having it surveyed again. I knew the guy doing that and he agreed to bill half the cost to the neighbor if it turned out the way I knew it would. With that in hand and a quiet discussion with the local sheriff, my fence is now on my line, about six inches inside it just to be sure.

i'm not denying him permission to cross my place, other than just verbal permission from the other neighbor ,they are land locked . the 80 acres they have was sold off my place long ago.

the old codger is a pain, they live in town and he spends his day calling up his grandson who is a P.O. complaning about the cars "flying by" wanting him to go "pick them up"

how do I know who put the fence there? it was there when I got the place, and it's on MY property, running north to south, their place runs east to west on one end, I would like it out, but to just come over and start removing it without permission like he owns the place will not be tolerated.

toadady,
You did the right thing, asserting your rights as did js305. When I bought my property, some of it was fenced and some wasn't. Had a terrible time with people (hunters mostly) trespassing for a year or two. Neighbors said the old owner would let them hunt/fish/4 wheel on it and, in return, they (neighbors) "looked after it". Well, I politely told them that it was MY property now and I'd appreciate it if they'd respect my property rights. It's gotten better, although last Fall, I removed a portable tree stand that a neighbor's nephew put up. I returned it to them instead of throwing it in the trash.

Now, it gets even more interesting. I bought one of the neighbor's homes (on 3.5 acres) out of foreclosure. In the process of fencing in the rear yard (so my dogs don't bother the neighbors), I tried to determine the property line off a survey that was done a few years back when the property was split. Can't get the measurements that determine the line to add up. There's a 6' discrepancy. Now this was just done in the last 10 years by a registered surveying company! I ended up putting the fence in a position that favored the neighbor regarding the 6'. However, I did tell him that if I ever put up a pole barn there (which I probably will) that I'd get it re-surveyed to resolve the question on the 6'. For sure, I'll be using a different surveyor. :lol: