Good fences make good neighbours, but bad lawsuits
Back in 1915, poet Robert Frost penned the line "Good
fences make good neighbours." Last year, in a bitter dispute involving
the owners of adjoining cottage properties, Justice Joseph W. Quinn
echoed Robert Frost in the first line of his judgment.
"A good fence may make a good neighbour," he wrote, "but does it make a good lawsuit?"
The answer, of course, requires a reading of three separate court decisions, and depends on whether the reader sides with the plaintiff or defendant.
Anthony and Catherine Suprun own a cottage property at Turkey Point, not far from Long Point on Lake Erie. Several members of the Sloat family own a similar cottage next door.
Back in 1981, Norfolk County passed a zoning bylaw defining a "boundary fence" as "any fence, hedge, free standing wall ... intended to delineate a property boundary." The bylaw limits the height of boundary fences in residential areas to a maximum of two metres (6.6 feet).
A separate bylaw, the fence bylaw, prohibits virtually all fences in Norfolk county from exceeding two metres in height.
The fence bylaw allows the county to remove a nonconforming fence, and provides for a fine of up to $2,000 for any contravention.
In early 2001, the local building inspector advised the Sloat family orally and in writing that they could construct a retaining wall between their property and the Suprun property.
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