Hi all! Thanks for the replies... I have some responses for certain replies.
Some Amish folk are jerks too, all religions have them. Most of my Amish neighbors (the ladies) are very kind, helpful, and thoughtful. I have found that the men are a much different story. My male neighbor will not deal with women that are "English". He runs a business, but if you want to make a purchase from him, you must be a man. I waited at his business for nearly 1/2 hour, and he refused to take care of me, but when my husband went over he was helped as soon as he got there. The same thing happened to my mother-in-law. Around here they operate machinery, have cell phones, use indoor plumbing. The trick is that they aren't allowed to
own these things, so they ask "English" people to take out cell phone contracts in their own names and then the Amish pay for them. Some can use machinery if it does not have tires filled with air, or if it has steel wheels. There are different degrees of being Amish, so depending on what Ordnung they are in, the rules can vary. I have heard some horrific stories about the Amish in our area.
Since my original post, my husband has contacted two surveyors to come in and check the measurements. One of the men he spoke with was very nice, and was pretty surprised by how the surveyor acted and what he said to my husband. He is coming for a reasonable amount of money, and will take care of moving the pin back to where it was should it be wrong. If it is wrong, I am going to contact our lawyer and find out what rights we have. It would be so nice to just be able to talk in a rational, neighborly way to the new land owners, but it appears that this isn't going to happen. I have no intention of suing, as I am not a sue happy kind of person, but I think anyone who disagrees with their property lines and does nothing about it is crazy. If we are wrong, then that's fine and I will drop it, but I certainly want to know exactly where my property line is. As the building that has since been leveled, it belonged to the previous property owners, and I don't really care that it was leveled as we didn't use it, but it's just the thought of not being kind enough to approach us about it. I suppose they did us a favor... now it's gone and it should be easier to survey the back part of our land now to see if the previous surveyor really did move the pin to go around the building.
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There is a stream running through the property that always floods with heavy rains and causes the parcel next to us to become a swamp until drier weather comes. He has stated that he had plans of pushing things into the stream to change the way it rises when it rains... pushing all of the water onto the other side of the stream. (His father owns the land on the other side, and he laughed when he said that his dad could deal with it then.) I am going to make lots of phone calls next week, and one will be to the EPA.
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Hi!
We are in Spring Mills. Nice to "meet" someone so close!
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The thing that needs to be known is that this well is literally 15 yards from our property line. The parcel is not huge, it's 5 acres, but very narrow. This well was covered at one point, but my old neighbors had to move because the land was repossessed, and after they moved the flimsy piece of chipboard that was covering it warped and fell in. My kids are 4 and 8mos., and they are never outside without supervision. My son knows very well where our property lines are and not to leave our yard, but let's face it... kids are curious and despite what they know, if they find something interesting they will check it out.
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I want you to know that I am not the kind of mother who lets her kids run around wherever they please. But my son is 4 and kids are curious. I am fully responsible for my children and they never are outside without supervision. However, if I had a danger on my property with small children as neighbors, you bet I'd do everything I could to keep them safe whether the law required it or not. If your kids would get seriously hurt and you chose to sue, I certainly would not consider that a frivolous lawsuit. Burning yourself with hot coffee while you're driving? Now that's frivolous.
My sister is in law school in NC and she just learned that IT IS ILLEGAL to have an uncovered well on your property. Here in PA, if you have a pool it must have a fence around it. If you have a trampoline, it must have a fence around it. If you have these structures and someone ventures onto your property and is injured (even because of your own stupidity), you have the right to sue. Many farmers and land owners will post their properties so that no one can tresspass because if someone as much as sprained an ankle on your property, whether they had permission to be there or not, you would be liable. I think that is craziness, but I can't change the law.
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Easier said than done, considering that they day it was posted for sale we called the realtor and it already had an offer on it. We tried to offer more than listing price, but this neighbor offered cash and it was pending approval. I find it curious that this property already had an offer on it before it was posted.
And as for surveyors... they do illegal things just like people in other professions. I know for a fact that a property line was moved on the field behind us because of convenience.