[AK lawyer]

In addition, in WA State a fence can actually encroach two inches over the property line.

Where do you get this?

...
I'm not saying a hedge can't damage a fence, but I am saying a court is not going to take your word that it might cause damage. You need to either have photographic evidence of the damage or an expert's opinion that the potential for damage is there.

A court, even a small claims court, can (if it chooses) take judicial notice of the fact that branches of plants growning through a fence can eventually damage the fence.

[kitty321]

Quoting kitty321:

In addition, in WA State a fence can actually encroach two inches over the property line. Where do you get this?

It's what the professional fence company represented when they built the fence. When putting up the fence, I wanted to make sure that the fence didn't encroach on the neighbors' property along the back of my property. The fencing company measured the boundary lines from the deed. I told them to place the fence about one foot back from the property line. I have more than enough property for my use (about 1/3 acre) so I wasn't concerned about losing a foot on two sides. I live on a corner lot. Ultimately, they talked with the backside neighbors regarding the placement of the fence, but the fence company said that a fence legally could encroach two inces over. I really don't know. I just know that this particular fencing company builds a lot of fences in this county so I think they know what they are doing. I just wish the other neighbors would trim their hedge! I really don't think I have done anything wrong in this instance as far as being the unneighborly one here. I also think it is common sense that if a hedge is growing through a wooden fence, it will damage it. I also read somewhere that if a property owner objects to the placement of the fence along a property line, he has 90 days to do so... I think it was in the WACs. It doesn't really matter anyway because the fence is well within my property lines.

[AK lawyer]

Don't believe everything you are told. I seriously doubt that the 2" rule the fence company told you is the law in Washington, or anywhere else. It may be that they were saying this on the basis of a case in which the judge decided not to do anything about a 2" encroachment because he or she felt that it was de minimus.

... The fencing company measured the boundary lines from the deed. ...

Actually, in order to determine where the boundary lines are, one must measure from something fixed on the ground. It is not possible to tell by referring to the deed alone. This is one reason a survey is recommended in cases like this. Are there survey monuments at the corners of your property?


But, as you say, "It doesn't really matter anyway ...".

[kitty321]

Well, all I know is that if my fence is not within my property boundaries then neither is my asphalt driveway that was put in when the house was built in the early 70s, which is also when the entire development was built. I will check for markers, but if I'm not mistaken this is what the measurements were taken from when the fence people installed the fence. I did see in the WACs that a property owner has 90 days to object to a boundary fence line so if this is the case, and no objection has been made in two years, it would seem to me that the fence is within the property boundary, but as I said before, I think I will contact an attorney. It just seems to me that if I owned a hedge and I could clearly see that it was growing into someone else's fence, the right thing to do would be to maintain my hedge and clean up my mess afterwards.

[kitty321]

RCW 16.60.055
Fence on the land of another by mistake — Removal.

When any person shall unwittingly or by mistake, erect any fence on the land of another, and when by a line legally determined that fact shall be ascertained, such person may enter upon the premises and remove such fence at any time within three months after such line has been run as aforesaid: PROVIDED, That when the fence to be removed forms any part of a fence enclosing a field of the other party having a crop thereon, such first person shall not remove such fence until such crop might, with reasonable diligence, have been gathered and secured, although more than three months may have elapsed since such division line was run.

I guess what it actually is saying is that once you have a survey line run, if the fence is over your property line you have 3 months to remove it?

[kitty321]

Well, being that everyone is so sure that I don't know what I'm doing and I must be wrong here, I actually did go out and locate the survey pins, and as I said previously, the fence company installed the fence two feet back from the pin lines. It also looks like the hedge and all of the other plants running down the property line that belong to the neighbors are at least 4 if not 5 feet over on my property line.

[AK lawyer]

Well, being that everyone is so sure that I don't know what I'm doing and I must be wrong here, ...

Please forgive me. I ddn't mean to suggest that at all. I simply wanted to be sure that you weren't taking something told to you to be gospel.

It does look as though what appeared to be assumptions on your part are in fact correct.

[kitty321]

I actually did contact an attorney today. He says that it's something land/homeowners need to stay on top of because if the neighbors can prove the hedge has grown even 20 feet over the property line and has been that way for 10 years, they actually become owners of the property by adverse possession, no matter where the pins are. I told him that when I bought the house 2 years ago, the hedge was at least 2 feet back from the fence. So in any event, I can require the neighbors to trim the hedge back to that point. If the hedge continues to encroach on my property, I can require that they remove the hedge completely.