We were in a similar situation a few years ago.
Contractor wanted to put up a cedar fence to replace the chain link fence that both I and my neighbour put up. There was nothing wrong with the chain link fence so I said to leave it alone.
Then the contractor intentionally damaged the fence by placing pallets of lumber against it. The weight bent the posts and railings as a result.
We took the contractor to small claims court to get it resolved.
It was damn hard to serve the papers as the contractor was dodgy with his business address and ownership. Did a lot of footwork and finally tracked his address down.
The contractor was an a**hole as I couldn't be present for the hearing and he caught up to my wife outside of the courtroom and tried to bully her.
The judge basically told the contractor that you cannot damage another person's property and that he had to pay us. The many supporting photos we showed the judge helped our case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reamemiya
FYI, I don't recall anything about the owner approaching me about taking down the fence (it might be my fault that I forgot about it). Either way, nothing's been written down, and I have no recollection of the owner asking if it's ok to take the fence down.
There was nothing wrong with the fence prior to being taken down. Reading from the posts, it seems that the responsibility should fall on the person taken it down.
The only problem right now is I started off asking IF a fence would be put back, and he suggested that if I wanted one we could split the cost. I'm not very good with words, and I don't want to sound offensive to him and say, "hey you took it down, so why should I pay for it?" kind of thing.
edit:
On the other hand though, if the original owner of his house was the one who paid for 100% of the original fence, technically, would the new owner be entitled do whatever he wants with the fence (since in that case, it would be his)?
Of course, it's also hard to prove how the original fence was paid for.
|