So, this happened.

[Big Frank]

I mowed my grass Wednesday, and that's when I saw that 80 feet of my privacy fence, that's made of dog-eared white cedar boards a full 6 inches wide and nearly an inch thick, and is entirely on MY property, was painted solid black. And it's a lot worse than it looks in the pictures. My fence is old and a little rough at the top edges, but had a nice light gray patina, with some dark spots. The part behind the rose bushes was the very worst looking part because it was damp a lot of the time, and in the shade most of the day, while nothing else was. There weren't any big dark spots like that on the side.

I had a guy come out and he's giving me an estimate to replace the fence, and another guy is supposed to come out this weekend to do the same. I think it's stain that's soaked into the wood, and the only thing that isn't black is the nail heads. So far, everyone agrees that it can't be cleaned up. The only suggestion was to use a pressure washer on it, which would remove the soft wood of the growth rings, but not necessarily all the paint or stain, which is coming through on the other side in spots, too.

It's pretty plain to see by the way it comes right up to the side of my house that it's my fence. I talked to my new neighbor who hasn't even been there a week yet, and he said that his landlord painted my fence. I told him I need to talk to his landlord, but so far that guy's ignoring me. To get everything to match, I need to have 11 8' long sections of fence and 12 4x4 posts all replaced with new ones. Add to that the cost of getting a building permit and having my yard surveyed again. If I have to go through all that expense, I'm getting my new fence moved over to the property line, or just barely inside it. Apparently, if it's right on the line half of it becomes my neighbor's property. I'm going to talk to my insurance company and see what they say about this.

I don't know if this constitutes vandalism, or it's just an extreme act of stupidity. I think I'm going to have to sue the jerk, whoever he is. It won't do me any good to call the police because no one has been murdered. They don't show up for every crime that's reported to them, and when they do show up sometimes they say to talk to someone else about whatever problem you're having.

Idiots. You can't live with them, and you can't kill them and feed their remains to hogs to make them disappear without a trace. That's really a shame, because the world would be a better place without oxygen thieves like this in it. They have no reason to exist. 

[Rastus]

Sue them.  Cost to replace the fence as it was but in a new condition.  So, tear down, haul off and disposal of the old fence, new materials with costs of installation.  Consider costs to return yard, flower beds, etc. to useable condition after damages from construction.  Plus your time to find someone to do the job, time to evaluate their performance, bid creation, cost evaluation, and the burden of new and higher property tax because of the replacement.  Add 5 years maintenance.  Mental anguish and disrespect of a veteran.

Oops, cannot find 1" boards any longer...2X the cost of the replacement above to assuage your ongoing mental loss.

[Big Frank]

Oh, great! Now everyone's going to know about my mental loss. 

[PegLeg45]

Sad they painted it. It could've been cleaned with a 50/50 mix of water and pool chlorine in a pump sprayer and rinsed with a regular hose.

[alfsauve]

So sorry that happened.  In the ATL we’ve had people demolish houses that weren’t their’s.

A month after Miss Kitty and I bought our first house we got a letter for our neighbor’s attorney threatening to sue because our fence was on his property.   Checked the survey and sure enough the south end of the fence was one foot on his property.  BUT the north end was one foot over the line on my property.  All houses, btw, had the very same chain link fence between them.  So I responded that I thought the fence was HIS since it’s not in my property description and my question was why was HIS fence on my property.  Never heard back.

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

Get 3 estimates for replacement.  Privide them to the guy in a certified letter.

He either pays, or you have more ammo to sue him.

[Big Frank]

I already got a written estimate to replace all 88' of fence, 11 6' high panels, and 2 broken posts for $4,894. Someone ran a car into a post and broke it, and I think the very last post broke when someone climbed over the fence in the corner of my yard. If I get all the posts replaced to match the new fence panels, that's 10 more 4x4s. I got a text today from another place for $5,000 to replace 90' of cedar fence. No other details in the text. I was going to call my insurance company today, but got the text too late to do so.