BRIAN'S BLOG
When good fences don’t make good neighbours
July 24, 2014
In a city like Toronto, where condo dwellers need to live with people on every possible side of them and homeowners are packed in, even with a detached home, we have to learn to get along with our neighbours.
Over the past few months, there have been a number of articles published detailing neighbours not getting along, from one family suing another over dog feces and home photos to an anonymous neighbour filing a complaint about a hedge that had been in the same place for 52 years.
And in a city where property lines were drawn over a century ago and include odd right of ways, trees that straddle property lines and more (how do they do this in Europe?),
There are two things to keep in mind when it comes to a dispute with your neighbour.
First, if it’s an issue that can be settled by figuring out where the property line is, calm down and get your survey from the city. If it’s something that is black and white, this may solve the problem.
If not, remember that you both want an amicable settlement, right? Unless you’re willing to pack up and move, you have to live with them. Before is escalates into a small claims case (or worse) consider mediation. An impartial third party may be able to negotiate for the best result.
Click here to read about one more case where one woman’s dispute with a neighbour led her to move