homeowner adjoined her structure to our perimeter fence

hi.. i'm new at this and i really need some help. i work for a development corporation which its major projects are housing. i'm in in charge with the site operations. now, i'm having trouble with a homeowner. she attached additional CHB or hollowblocks to our perimeter fence so that it will be higher. we have wrote her a letter indicating that she has violated our deeds of restrictions. what's the next step after giving her the letter? she stressed that she has no money to demolish the said structure yet. i was just wondering what more can i do with this problem. they are pointing their fingers at me to make a decision. is it possible that we could demolish the said structure? please help!

robski, to protect yourself, you can refer this matter to your company's legal counsel for advice or send a written offer to the owner to assist her in removing the portion that is within the restriction.

if there is still someone above you, make sure you cover your butt by getting approval especially if there is cost. document all your steps. good luck.

thanks for that advice, atty.. i have written a letter to the homeowner regarding the matter. the customer service department is asking me for the next step. atty, if ever the homeowner disagrees to detach the structure and if she urges us to remove it on our expense, what should i do? i don't think the company will shoulder the expenses. what more can i do? thank you so much. i'm enlightened.

should i ask the homeowner a promisory note that she'll remove the structure. the customer service assistant told me that the homeowner does not have the budget right now... i just wnat to be careful with this move. i was just promoted. so the next boss is the president/ gen manager. which leaves me to decide right now... and if the matters gets worse, i'll have to report it. i'm currently the site- operation manager. for less than a week. hehe i encountered some problems like this before but it was kept hanging. at least, i had my manager take a look into it. but now, i'm on his position. the only question that they wanted me to answer was "what's the next move?" the letter has been sent that she has violated. thank you, atty....

is this something that would require a demolition permit?

a letter from the owner stating that she will desist from building on the perimeter wall and will remove what she built is a good idea. if your company has legal counsel, get him to sign off on it.

robski, just to share some inputs with regard to your problem. try to review carefully on what will be the maximum required heighr of the fence as prescribed by the deed of restrictions, and if the deed of restrictions laydown the rules on the maximum height limit of the perimeter fence you have the right to tell her to removed what she added on the portion of the fence. one thing you should consider also on this things will on what is the intention of the adjoining property. is she has the intention to make that fence higher so that she can extend one side of his building footprint to used it as one part of the wall to add another usable space? if you think that the adjoining property violates your natural light and ventilation as prescribed on the provisions of the Civil code asd will as the provisions prescribed by PB 1096 "The National Building Code of the Philippines" that addition to the existing fence can be removed by asking the help of your Local building official. but of course exhaust first the remedy by asking her to removed it, or inform her thru a letter that she should removed it, other wise if she will not make action to your request, you can now ask the ais of the Local Building official who has jurisdiction on the inspection of all building structure in your locality.


Good Luck


Arch. Alfredo A. Fernandez, UAP, LLB
Practicing Architect
Lecturer-Building Laws
LAW

thank you, arch. fernandez. i'm an architect myself.. i'm glad you responded to my post. i have reviewed the deeds of our restrictions and she definitely violated it. the problem is, i just took over the task and the structure already exists. she never wrote the promisory letter either. if she still refuses to do so, after the second letter that i'm going to give her, what more can i do?

then it is now our remedy to file the complaint to the office of the building official for the removal of the siad addition chb wall the provide.

nice to know na ang mga arkitektong gaya natin e aware na sa legal issues... keep it up guys...