MANITOWOC – After a weekend of yard work, your neighbor now has a bright, shiny new fence along their property line. The only problem is — you suspect the fence is on your property. What do you do?
City of Manitowoc offers a handy guide on property lines and surveying for resources available to locate property stakes and using GIS mapping.
However, the city does not offer mediation on boundary line disputes. The document calls for a “private property matter to be settled between neighboring landowners.”
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The document also said one or both property owners may want to hire a land surveyor, a third party who uses established legal documents to locate boundaries on private property.
State of Wisconsin offers more guidance on relocating fences, once you know the actual property line.
The statutes state that the landowner must serve written notice to the owner of the fence in question that the fence is located on the landowner’s property.
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The owner of the fence then has 30 days to move their fence. If they do not, the landowner may then relocate the fence and recover the costs from that relocation from the fence owner.
The only caveat in the statute is that the landowner is not allowed to move the fence during a time when annual crops would be damaged by the relocation.
Have a question about local laws? Send it to Alisa M. Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com and she’ll track down the answer in a future article.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Neighbor’s fence on your property in Manitowoc? What the law says.
property line, private property, property lines, property owners
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