Neighbour law: Placing a fence on someone's property?

Questioner

Can a neighbor place a fence on the property boundary without consultation or notification? There has been no fence for 20 years and this makes it difficult for me to reach my garage.

Lawyer

Anyone can always place a property boundary, although the height can be limited by the zoning plan. If the property boundary is placed on the property line, it becomes common property and you are obliged to contribute to the maintenance. (This actually also applies to the construction, but if there has been no consultation, the requirements of reasonableness and fairness oppose this) There may be a right of way that has been established by prescription (you indicate that you have difficulty reaching your garage), but the circumstances of the case determine this.

Questioner

Below is the full situation sketch. Every inch counts... We have a shared driveway of 5 meters wide with the neighbors. It was constructed with the then neighbors in 1999. The current neighbors have lived there since 2011 and are now, without consultation, going to build a fence on the property line on the driveway. I found out because my neighbors drew a line in the middle of the driveway and a square of 10x10cm for the location of the poles. The poles will be on the property line. I then went to inquire about their plans. Now my garage is about 12 meters from the sidewalk and I can only park backwards in it because I can get out. With my car I will have to drive along my side wall of 8 meters long and over a strip of 2.47 meters wide where I have to pass a drainpipe of 15 cm and drive over a rack of a cellar hole that is raised in the driveway, of which 30 cm (rack) to 50 cm (edge ​​of stones) is on the driveway from the facade almost at the front of the house. My car measures, according to the manual, 2 meters over the mirrors. If I were to drive over the stones of the cellar hole, the rack is not made to drive over, then I would have a maximum of 8.5 cm between the fence and the mirror. A steering error can quickly lead to damage. For almost 20 years I have been driving partly over the driveway of the neighbors, around the cellar hole, to drive into the narrow garage. That works just fine but sometimes I have to try a second time. This is now almost impossible, especially if the car is wet/fogged up. The 2nd car has been parked in front of the garage for almost 20 years and is parked backwards with all tires on its own part. The right wing mirror sticks out a bit over the driveway of the neighbors. There is just enough space between the car and the facade to get out. With a fence, parking in this spot is impossible because you can no longer get out. When the new neighbors moved in they converted their garage into a shed and it was no problem. Their car in front and our car in the back of the shared driveway and enough space between the cars for the neighbors to get behind their house. So they use the front part of my driveway. No problem! According to the neighbour law in the Civil Code, neighbours are obliged to take their neighbours into account, but you may/can enforce building on the boundary of a fence. Only, no account was taken of us, there was no consultation, no notification of the plans, etc. There have been no complaints about parking the car in all those years. For a while the neighbors had 2 cars in the driveway and they asked if I could park the car forward and closer to our facade so that they could get through more easily. I did this and I myself damaged my car because I wanted to park the car as close to the wall as possible. Can/may this just happen without consultation and on the property line? Does a form of Right of Way apply here? Can I force (or refuse) my neighbours to build on the property line? We have already called in neighbourhood mediation, but the neighbours are not happy with this and have indicated that the fence will be placed one way or another. My garage is becoming virtually unusable for a car, which is depreciating the value of my house.

Lawyer

I understand your concerns and understand that it is very annoying for you that the neighbours are not prepared to enter into any consultation, because their plans clearly affect you. I hope you understand that this place is primarily intended to provide public advice that is also suitable for others. In your specific case, I would like to take a closer look at the situation before 1999, the zoning plan and current municipal regulations. This means in so many words that this is not a foregone conclusion. In principle, you can do whatever you want with your land, and that also applies to the neighbors. Unless someone else's rights are violated. If you believe that you have indeed built up such rights from the past, you can ask me or one of my colleagues to assist you. The burden of proof generally lies with the claimant, good documentation is of great importance.