Homeowners building fences beyond lot lines & taking HOA common area land

Help. This has happened in my neighborhood & there are probably a good 10-15 offenders.
The land they have basically taken is HOA common areas that we are responsible to maintain.
Any experience in this area - as to what steps to address the situation, get the land back, etc.
w/o getting into too much legal mumbo jumbo. By rights we can tell them to move their fence or
we take it down - but then what??? Would we pay a fence company to come out & move it & send them
the bill? Then they don't pay & then what - lien? Any advice is appreciated.

Might sound harsh, but can't the HOA send notice, etc; give them time to comply, then if they don't comply simply remove the fence that sits on HOA land? You can't really move the fence because I don't think you want to go on their property to do work.

Of course you also need a survey first to be sure you know where the line is.

I would think the threat of having the back section of fence removed and hauled away would motivate people to act. It's a lot cheaper to have the fence company move fence than to install a new back section.

Also, ask your lawyer, but this approach should also allow you to act without court order because you are only entering and working on your land.

We are in the process of dealing with that right now.

We did not find out until a survey was done that this had happened.

We then sent notice to the offender (her fence extends 8 feet into the common area and runs the entire width of her property, about 70-feet across).

She then sent a note back that she was shocked because her fence company told her the property lines were yada-yada yada-yada. Then she said she would have them fix it.

A month goes by and we hear nothing from her.

We send another letter.

She sends a letter back stating she was just diagnosed with M.S. and that she was losing her job and trying to get disability, and since it was going to cost her would we give her a little more time.

We gave her 3 months.

The next 3 letters went ignored, so we then had our attorney send a letter.

This has dragged on now for almost a year-and-a-half.

Her son contacts us (in December) and says he will take care of it but the weather is too bad.

Our attorney sent her a letter giving her til March 30.

We have just filed a lawsuit and she and her son (who is now on the deed) are being served notice from the sheriff as we speak.

We will get a court order that the fence be moved/removed and then if it is not, we will be able to do it (at 8 feet into common area, it's not likely that we'll have to get on her property to remove the portion on our land anyway!) and then bill her and lien her if she doesn't pay.

Good luck to you.