Everybody hopes for the perfect situation when they move into their new home. They hope they will live there happily and peacefully for many years. Some purchase a home to raise children, others just to enjoy the fruits of their work for so many years.
People buying a home often investigate who the neighbors are both next door and behind in anticipation of this being a big commitment. Our Brentwood Real Estate Agents will always tell you that it is important to ask the people you are purchasing from if they have ever had any problems with neighbors.
Most people will be pretty straightforward and tell you, but sometimes they won’t, in which case they could be potentially liable under “failure to disclose,” if you can prove a history of fighting.
A majority of Brentwood Realtors will say that the things neighbors fight about most are boundary lines and fences. The biggest issues that seems to come up are trees, tree branches, driveways, walls, fences, and roots. There are articles on the internet about many of these things so we don’t have to go into a lot of detail.
The fights usually center around people infringing or encroaching on someone else’s property. Most of the time, our Brentwood Real Estate Agents discover that it might be a neighbor saying that you are encroaching on their property or you may feel your neighbor is encroaching on yours. They might be encroaching with a fence or a wall or it might be a tree root that is infringing onto your property.
Another issue neighbors fight about is drainage. A neighbor would not want your property draining onto their property, nor would they want you to take advantage with improper drainage by the way you pour your driveway or install landscaping.
Some of the biggest fights when it comes to neighbors usually stems from noise. Noisy children, noisy pets/dogs can be a real problem particularly when they are barking incisively. In addition, our Brentwood Listing Agents say other issues that can come up are people working on their car, or leaf blowers or people blasting their radio or television either too early in the morning or too late at night.
The final thing that our Brentwood Realtors hear about often is parking. When people are parking either an RV, or a boat, or a camper or even their car in front of your house it can become annoying, particularly when they do it all the time.
True, the street is city property and there may not be posted restrictions, but one would think they would be able to park in front of their own house, and that neighbors would be more respectful, keeping their cars in front of their own home, and not your home. If you use your garage, you are still entitled to have those parking spaces in front of your house, free for your guests.
Although it’s difficult to enforce, the city imposes certain parking restrictions which will require one to move their car every 72 hours in most cases. If your neighbor moves his car around the block, but then re parks it in the very same place for another 72 hours, most Brentwood Realtors will tell you that they are basically taking full advantage of not only the parking spaces in front of his house but the ones in front of your house as well. That can be annoying and can cause a lot of animosity.
Try to be a good neighbor whenever possible. If you have neighbors who are not considerate, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Do not threaten them or go to the police. Speak with them in person and see if they are receptive. Perhaps they are not aware this is an irritating issue for you.
Perhaps your neighbors are not aware that by building a fence on the property line (down the driveway), they are keeping you from opening your car door when you park in your driveway.
Perhaps they are not aware the wall they just took down had a beautiful vine growing on it on your side and now you are faced looking at an ugly block wall. They may have been entitled to take that wall down if it was on their property, but they probably should have discussed it with you first. These are things that lead to bad neighbor relations.
Our Brentwood Listing Agents would suggest that you speak with your neighbors if you are planning to do a remodel or you’re planning to build a new fence or wall. Give them some advance notice before the jackhammers start at 8am the next morning.
Discuss it and hopefully you can come to a mutual agreement about how to deal with the inconveniences. If you are building near a property line, be sure to have a survey to know exactly where you are building. You wouldn’t want run the risk of building a wall on your neighbor’s property and later need to negotiate with them over the error. It is best to take precautions in advance.
Speak with your neighbor in advance. If things get out of hand, our Brentwood Listing Agents highly suggest you take it one step at a time always staying friendly and positive. Try your very best to avoid threats or litigation. Keep that on the back burner, as a very last resort.
For comments, questions, or information, call Ron Wynn at (310) 963-9944 or email: Ron@RonWynn.com