If ever you fence your property, remember the Czech proverb: "If you want to know the truth about yourself, offend your neighbor."
Fence disputes used to be the prerogative of rural areas. In an increasingly restrictive world with the growing density of urban population and the need for tranquility required by city dwellers, this phenomenon is now spreading to urban areas.
Two neighbors with a hedge of cedars on the boundaries of their properties address the Superior Court* to settle their "conflict that will take disproportionate proportions."
After being refused by his neighbor, "the apathetic one," to share the costs of replacing certain dead cedars, the other neighbor, "the bellicose one," reacts forcefully. Faced with the apathetic one's lack of enthusiasm for maintaining the hedge, the bellicose one moves the cedar hedge onto his own property and installs a wooden fence on the apathetic one's side. The situation escalates and the retaliations intensify on both sides. Judge Normand Gosselin rules that since the hedge was originally located on the property line, its maintenance is the responsibility of both neighbors. Faced with the apathetic one's inertia, the bellicose one would have benefited from "...obtaining from the Court the authorization to carry out the maintenance work, with the apathetic one having to pay half of the costs."
Whether a city dweller or a farmer, any property owner can enclose their land by erecting a fence on the dividing line and force their neighbor to contribute half of the common costs. If you ever fence your property, remember the Czech proverb: "If you want to know the truth about yourself, insult your neighbor."
*Supreme Court 415-05-000425-974
