The Hoboken Cafe 

Hi folks,
I really need some advice/help with a problem I'm having with my neighbor. He continues to do things which affect my property adversely without asking me or even warning me.
Last month he took it upon himself to chop down some gigantic (35 feet + long) branches from his tree. They landed mostly in my yard and crushed most of my plants and almost killed my cat.
I yelled at him then (I really like my cat) but a few days later I talked with his wife and gently asked her to please make sure they talked to me before they did projects like that.
Well, today I come home and he has started building a new fence. He has dismantled my mulch pile which I had built out of brick, to make room for his fence. My brick mulch pile ended about 6" from his old fence, and I can see this new fence is over 6 inches farther to my side. He never asked me permission to do this, and has not presented any survey to claim a new property line.
I am beyond angry right now with this person who continues to act like a child and will call city hall tomorrow.
I could really use advice on where to call, what are good steps to take. The gloves are off now until this guy gets a clue.
He also built the fence with the posts facing me, which is not the legal way to orient a wooden fence as far as I know. That was the regulations in my old town. But I'm not sure about Jersey City. Does any one know the rules/regulations regarding property fences here?
thanks!

Well, I have a funny story to tell you but first maybe you should check to see (town hall) if he recv'd a building permit, thats all the advice that I can offer at this moment.

Now onto my funny story, when I was a kid and living in a 3 family house in Newark NJ my Aunt Isabella who lived on the 2nd floor had a Peach Tree and an Apple tree in our yard.

Well-one day she caught the new neighbor next door peeing on the trunk of her Peach tree! So what was my Aunts answer to the situation (being a Newark native) it was to go inside and get my Dad's shotgun! She then went back outside pointed\aimed the riffle at the guy peeing on her tree and told him, "the next time he pisses on one of her trees she was going to blow his "mingia" (pecker) clear off" but she also told him "not to worry cause his pecker was sooo small that she wasn't that good of a shot and she'd most likely miss and just blow a massive hole in his chest".

He put his house on the market and 3 months later he moved .......

well, I called the Zoning office and got some information on fence building codes in JC.
My neighbor is in violation of two major codes:

1. fence height.
2. fence orientation.

The zoning office says I must hire a lawyer and deal with this myself. I think that they're just being lazy, and that the city should enforce they're own codes when violated.
Who is right?

So, that's great........you are right. Too bad this is going to make things even more tense.

Why don't you just start small.........Have a Lawyer draft a letter that states all of the above info. See if they correct it on their own. Although it sounds like he's an uneducated jerk.

I agree with Christine. You should have a lawyer draft a letter on your behalf outlining the ways in which your neighbor is in violation of the codes, etc. and that you intend to pursue your claims against your neighbor vigorously. Hopefully a letter from an attorney will give you some negotiating leverage in setting this thing straight. Sounds awful though - it is totally obnoxious and ridiculous.

if all this fails, i can collect my dog's "droppings" and you can set them on fire on your neighbors front steps. i know that it won't solve your problem, but maybe it can give you some laughs to ease the tension.

cori

That was funny, Cori :) I know that you were joking, but just in case he thought you were serious........ I think we know that doing immature things back will just make it worse.

I decided to go without a lawyer for now, since the two violations are so clear. I went to the planning dept. and looked up the actual codes he violated, and then faxed off a letter to the zoning office.
The zoning officer got the fax and said they would be there tomorrow to look at this.
So far so good.
Unfortunately, I looked at my survey and it's horrible. (just lame quality, not accurate lines) But at least is says the OLD fence was right on the property line so I've got him on that one too it seems.
But I may just let that slide since its only a matter of a few inches.
I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

All right! Good job! :)

well, things ended in complete victory.
Going to the planning dept. and actually looking up the ordinances involved helped a lot. City employees like it when you do their homework for them.
The neighbor had to move the fence back to the property line after a visit from a zoning inspector. It was an interesting scenario. The zoning inspector told him that the fence would need to be re-done because it was built wrong, but he couldn't really say anything about it's location regarding the property line because that is considered a civil issue. But the neighbor asked the guy point blank if the fence was over the line and the inspector responded honestly that it obviously was, and then showed him how to get the property line position by looking at where the (inside)wall was between the buildings.
I didn't even need a lawyer.

Congratulations! Good for you!