leza wang wrote:
Hi
I just would love to hear your opinion about this. There is a fence
between our house and neighbor. None of us build the fence. We bought
the houses and the fence was/is there. The neighbor are now doing
waterproof the basement. So they are digging the area close to fence.
They asked me if I will allow them to move the dirt to my place (just
easier than moving to the front of their house). I said no (I do not
want to get all the mess, they are hiring unprofessional workers and
this has been going for 4 weeks. These workers do not have even the
right tools to do the job). Anyway, yesterday we were away when we
came back we saw the fence boards are removed except the frame and
the dirt moved to our backyard! (see pictures below please).

I expressed my disapproval strongly to the workers because the
owner/neighbor was not there. The workers said you are neighbor and
you should help etc and they promise to removed it today and said
they put blue tar underneath so my backyard will be clean after. I
was angry with them because they did not take my permission but then
I said OK fine because I want to keep good term between us. Today
they said they can not remove the dirt and need another day. They
asked kindly so I said that is ok but I want it to be removed
tomorrow.

I have the back of the fence (if you can see from the picture). It
seems the person who lived before my current neighbor built the fence
but not sure. Who really own the fence now? can each of us do
anything with the fence without telling the other if they can do this
or that?

Thanks a lot.

http://tinypic.com/r/25t7wy8/5 (my house is to the Left)
http://tinypic.com/r/25g9bol/5 (my house is to the Right)
http://tinypic.com/r/2432smq/5 (my house is to the Right)

Hi Leza,

Welcome back.

Frankly, I don't think you have any real problem here. It looks like they
are just digging down next to their house to probably parge and/or replace
their basement wall on that side, and maybe do some other things there to
try to waterproof their basement. They probably had to do the digging by
hand (meaning shovels) because there is so little room there. And, they are
right that it would have been much more difficult to try to move the dirt
out front as they dig. And, it looks like when they are done, they are
going to have to put the dirt back in the hole anyway. So, why make them
dig the dirt, move it out front, then move it back again to put it back in
the whole. And, as someone else wrote, it doesn't appear that you had any
real landscaping going on there anyway.

If it were me in your situation, I would have just let them do what they are
doing and put the dirt on my property, and then move the dirt back off of my
property afterward when they re-fill the hole. And, I'm sure their plan is
to put the fence back together.

They probably covered the dirt with the blue tarp so if it rains the dirt
doesn't wash all over the place and maybe even back into the hole that they
are digging.

My vote is to just let them do what they and leave them alone about it.

Good luck.