Cities don’t do it to protect contractors, rather, they do it to try and prevent the wars between neighbors that frequently (and viciously) break out over such things. Beyond that, it’s a matter of common sense - if you don’t know where your property line is, then how do you know that fence you want to build is actually on your property?
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My grandfather once built a house on the wrong lot. “Got confused” as to which lot was which. We suspect he really knew it wasn’t his lot but he liked the lot where he built the house better than the lot he bought.
I did not know this. Thank you for letting me know. I have some paperwork that I need to do now
Be careful, you could lose that strip of land thru “adverse possession”.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/adverse-possession-trespassers-become-owners-46934.html
I will agree that there are valid scenarios for requiring permits, plans, inspections. It’s disappointing that property corner monuments aren’t more prominent thus for lack of apparent delineation I can appreciate some sort of survey for construction along or very close to property lines, although the costs of having this done by a surveyor may well meet or exceed the materials cost of doing the project yourself.
However there’s also plenty of overreach where permitting fees represent a naked cash grab and the process for submitting plans is sufficiently byzantine to amount to de facto protection for contractors - or you simply can’t legally do it yourself.
Not to hijack my own thread, but talking about “doing it yourself”, recently I had to probate my mother-in-law’s will. She lived in Harris county so I had to do this there. The process was so different and so much more complicated that when I probated my father’s will in Brazoria county that I had to hire an attorney. Harris county doesn’t make it easy for someone to “do it yourself”.
There were multiple filings, affidavits to collect, and even a visit to the judge to actually testify in probate court in Harris county. In Brazoria county I filed online and the clerk probated the will. (Maybe under a judge’s supervision but probated none-the-less) It was simple and pretty quick, too. I still had to post notice in the paper for anyone who might have a claim against the estate, but this was the most complex part of the probate process.
The Harris county experience cost $3500 and the Brazoria county experience cost $50.
When I asked the attorney why this was so in Harris county he said we’ll they have too many people in the county to “help” people through the probate process, besides he said, there are a lot of probate attorneys in Houston. Then he just smiled real big and said, “And I know all of the probate judges so I can get the best one for your case”. And BTW, he said the probate filing would be an estimated $2500, but then found another three hours work to make it $3500.
Thankfully, both people had a will and both had clear title to all of their property in the estate, further much had already been jointly owned with my wife or myself, so it wasn’t more costly.
If you don’t have a will I highly recommend you get one otherwise you risk dying intestate. Then the courts decide who gets what based upon the laws of the state.
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