We had only been home a few minutes Friday when a call came from the realtor who owns the property on one side of us. She informed me a building I had placed in the corner of our lot several months ago was encroaching on her property. A fence I had built was doing the same. I went out to look at the survey stakes and she was right! She said these items had to be removed so she could sell the property. I told her I would proceed to correct the problems. Seems the old fence on that property was built well inside her property line. I assumed (big mistake) it was on the property line, so I built the fence on the posts already there. It was not a very good fence. It is coming down pretty easily. The building is a different matter. I will have to get some expert advice on how to slide it a few inches.
We can encroach on others and their property through ignorance. We can do it through evil intent. Makes little difference. Encroachment is encroachment.
I have wondered how often I might have encroached on someone else's time? Have I encroached on a study, or quiet, or nap time by calling at the wrong hour? Probably. Most all of us do it, usually from ignorance. Sometime with evil intent.
A man told me in Fort Worth he had a neighbor with a barking dog. It barked most of the night. Another neighbor thought it was this man's dog. About three one morning the neighbor called the man and told him to shut his dog down, then slammed the receiver. The man who had been called set his clock for 3:00 AM the next morning. He called the neighbor who had called him the night before, for he had figured out who it was. When the man answered he said, "I just wanted to tell you I don't have a dog!", and he hung up. Some times animals and cars and loud music and late parties and yelling kids and barking dogs and meowing cats and boom boxes in cars and.......... can encroach. Say a prayer for the folks, and dogs,and find some cotton for your ears!
