Fiona Forgetful's New Home

Your old high school friend, Fiona Forgetful, bought a house about 9 months ago. It was a house on Typical Ave in the city of Peterborough. The house was built back in the 1960's. It is small but perfect for her. Her real estate agent referred her to a lawyer who closed the deal for her. She needed a mortgage loan to be able to buy the property.

It is a typical house from that era. It was built in a subdivision along straight roads running east and west. Her back yard abuts another back yard for the house on the next street over. That house just like hers.

Her lawyer told her that the rear four feet of the property was subject to an easement in favour of the hydro and cable tv companies. The easement was granted by the company that developed the land years ago. She didn't understand what that meant but she didn't ask because she did not want to look stupid.

There is a garage in the back yard that is all one building but it has two sides. One side sits on the neighbour's property and her side sits on her property. The middle dividing wall of the building sits on the property line between the two. It located at the back of the property and it is accessed from a shared driveway. There is a large area in front of each side of the garage for a car to be parked there.

She has a shared driveway with her next-door neighbour. The driveway runs between the houses. It is about 14 feet wide. Fiona's property goes to the middle of the driveway. The neighbour's property goes to the middle of the driveway. Each contributes about 7 feet. There are gas pipes which come off the side of each house so in some places there is not much room to get a car through.

Fiona moved in at the beginning of March when the snow was just melting. But as soon as March break came the weather had changed, she saw a bunch of little kids playing in her backyard. She knew there was no fence between the properties but didn't know she would have to deal with the noise and toys of these little kids. She was hoping for a quiet back yard where she could lounge in her hammock and drink wine while reading a book.

She immediately called the Fast and Easy Fence Company. She wasn't sure where the property boundary was and couldn't find her survey from the lawyer. So, she put a couple of markers on the lawn and told the Fence Company to put the fence there.

To add to her privacy, she called Quick and Cheap Sheds and Buildings and had them build a shed up against the fence so she would have to look at the neighbours back yard.

The next day her Noisy Neighbours were pounding on her door telling her that the fence was encroaching on their property. They told her that she was violating the easement to the utility companies and she would have to move the shed.

Fiona's Neighbour Dana Driveway is an older lady who lives in Florida for 5 months of the year. Fiona didn't meet her before she moved in because she was away. Fiona got in the habit of parking her car in the driveway because it was convenient, and she didn't think her neighbour had a car.

When Dana got back from Florida and found her new neighbour parking in the shared driveway, she immediately knocked on the door and told her that she could not interfere with her right of way and the car should never be parked there. Fiona moved her car but didn't understand what a right of way was.

When Fiona moved to her new house, she changed banks. She forgot to tell her new bank that she was to have a mortgage payment come out of her account twice each month. Last week she got a registered letter from the old bank telling her that she had defaulted on her mortgage payment for the past three months. She wasn't sure what that meant, but she thought she had scored big when they didn't take her mortgage payments, so she bought a new TV and Stereo.

You have come by to have a drink with your old friend to celebrate her new house.

Fiona drew a bad picture of the situation and now starts explaining all these things. Because she knows you took a law course, she starts asking you questions.

Questions for the Case Study

Do your best to answer her questions by first explaining the law and then applying the law to her situation (the facts.)

1. What is an easement? How does it relate to my property?
2. What is a right of way? How does it relate to my property?
3. What is an encroachment? How does it relate to my property?
4. What could happen if I don't pay the missed mortgage payments? What could the bank do?

OTHER ST. NOISY NEIGHBOUR PROPERTY LINES NEW FENCE EASEMENT GARAGE - - - K - - - NEW SHED DANA'S - - - FIONA'S HOUSE DRIVEWAY TOUSE SHARED TYPICAL Ave