SamJ6 (Wisconsin )
Posts: 23
Posts: 23
Posted:
At my property, I have a 6ft vinyl fence, and behind that, I have a 10ft hedge. I didn't get the fence approved by HOA but I had that set up for 10 years now which makes it fall under the statue of limitation. For the past year, I've been having problems with my HOA about my hedge height being too high because in the bylaws it states that hedges and fences cannot be higher than 4 ft if it's on a retention pond. I've contacted the river management district that maintains that pond and they've told me that the pond my house is on is a DETENTION (not retention) pond and the permits also state that too. When I found out about that, I've refused to trim the shrubs. The HOA decided to survey the pond to claim I'm off the boundary line just to continue to target my house. They've found that I'm off-line and also 10 other houses on that same pond are off-line with trees or hedges. I've attended their meeting and they basically want to ignore the houses that have a small gap in the middle of their hedge (which some of them are actually 6 ft hedges on the same pond that they also ignored) and they want to ignore regular trees that are off line but they want to go after only the houses that have a complete hedge with no gap and houses with fences. Me and only one other homeowner out of the ten have a complete fence or a hedge. Also, according to the board members, the builders of the community didn't respect the boundary lines because they have documents contradicting where the actual boundary line is. They mentioned something about them wanting to change the documents or make them align which I'm not exactly sure what documents they're referring to. When the survey was done every house have the original sprinkler lines beyond the survey flags. My fence is also right beside my sprinkler line, if I move the fence where the survey flags was placed, my sprinklers would be outside the fence.
Today I've received a pre-suit mediation from their lawyer to settle the hedge height and also the vinyl fence being erected on a common area. I don't know how legal is this, but they have literally never sent me any violation about the boundary line before the pre-suit mediation letter and they have not given me any documentation to review the survey they've done and give me a chance to get my own survey. So basically, I've never disputed the boundary line situation. They are not going after the houses with tress or the ones that have a gap in their hedge like I've mentioned and in my opinion if they want to go after boundary lines they have to hold every house accountable regardless of what structures the homeowners have that's enroaching. There's nothing in the bylaws that allows certain types of enroaching and not others. What do you guys think about this? Do you think they're doing the right thing? Also, Do you think they have a fight or they are just trying to use scare tactics?
Today I've received a pre-suit mediation from their lawyer to settle the hedge height and also the vinyl fence being erected on a common area. I don't know how legal is this, but they have literally never sent me any violation about the boundary line before the pre-suit mediation letter and they have not given me any documentation to review the survey they've done and give me a chance to get my own survey. So basically, I've never disputed the boundary line situation. They are not going after the houses with tress or the ones that have a gap in their hedge like I've mentioned and in my opinion if they want to go after boundary lines they have to hold every house accountable regardless of what structures the homeowners have that's enroaching. There's nothing in the bylaws that allows certain types of enroaching and not others. What do you guys think about this? Do you think they're doing the right thing? Also, Do you think they have a fight or they are just trying to use scare tactics?