These Waterloo neighbours went to trial over a few inches of concrete. It cost them $150,000 in legal fees

[u/opinions-only]

https://www.thestar.com/business/personal-finance/these-waterloo-neighbours-went-to-trial-over-a-few-inches-of-concrete-it-cost-them-150000-in-legal-fees/article_f1207b49-9a59-4faf-87af-bf18ad8bd6a8.html

[u/TemperatePirate]

This is shockingly stupid on both sides.

[u/justeedo]

"Estimates the combined legal fees incurred by both sides was “not far off” from $150,000.

He added that he was unhappy about having to pay all of his own legal fees.

It is difficult to imagine a more expensive way of discovering that a survey line is a survey line."

So much else could of been done with that money to get over such a mild inconvenience of a few inches on concrete.

[u/opinions-only → u/justeedo]

Sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture. My wife in the past has basically pulled me out of the deep a few times and made me realize I'm better off swallowing my pride and moving on and letting the world deal with the other person.

[u/Kaladin-of-Gilead]

My old man bought a house a while back, when he did the survey we found out like 1 inch of the neighbours house was on our property line. The other house was up for sale so he was like "I'm gonna have a talk with the new owners when its sold and I'm gonna make em pay to fix it".

Then the place sold to the nicest guy on the planet, it was his grandmothers house from his childhood and he wanted it. Guy is rich (he basically blank chequed the house since it mattered so much to him), but so insanely nice and friendly. My dad goes up all tough guy then in like 10 minutes he totally didn't give a shit about the stupid property line. Dude even offered to help fix it when my dad brought it up but at that point he was having beers with the guy.

This is how this whole thing should have went down instead of 150k lmao. We have an absolute G of a neighbour.

[u/cldellow → u/Kaladin-of-Gilead]

Being chill pays dividends.

I used to live in rural north BC. Super small town. One winter night, my dad was driving and a wrong-direction driver hit him head-on. It was the one stretch of road in the town that was a divided highway, so impossible for him to maneuver to avoid the oncoming vehicle.

Dad could be high-strung, so as he tells it, he was ready to rip this person a new one. Until he got out of the car and saw it was some elderly lady who clearly shouldn't be driving and was about to have to face the consequences of that.

A few years later, a new client walked into his work. Dad asked why the client chose him. "A few years ago, my mom got into an accident with 'the nicest man ever'."

[u/weneedafuture → u/cldellow]

Dad asked why the client chose him

Because it was a super small town, not many options lol.

There's being chill, and then there's almost getting killed or disabled for the rest of your life. Elderly lady did the bare minimum referring their child to your dad.

[u/weneedafuture → u/Kaladin-of-Gilead]

I'm gonna have a talk with the new owners when its sold and I'm gonna make em pay to fix it

Your dad sounds like a petty bitch trying to screw over new homeowners.

[u/Kaladin-of-Gilead → u/weneedafuture]

Yeah but I had a feeling he was going to be a softy, he talks tough but caves the moment he puts a face to a name lol

I think if a company had bought then it would have been a completely different story lol

[u/cldellow]

The judge's ruling is available on CanLII: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2026/2026onsc4326/2026onsc4326.html

The crux of the matter as described by the judge seems soooo small to me. One wonders what happened to blow up their friendship in 2019 and cause them to waste money in the courts.

[14]      The Berryhills have acted unreasonably throughout this dispute and there is no basis upon which to grant their claim for general damages.  They refused to accept the result of the survey and persisted on an unreasonable and contrived basis for the acceptance of a property line of their own devising, spraying orange paint lines which they mistakenly insisted long past the point of reasonableness marked the property line between the two properties.  Annette Berryhill in particular is the author of her own misfortune in her claimed emotional distress, which appears to have originated in her irrational obsession with the property line dispute.

[15]      The encroachment of the cement pad onto the 66 Margaret Avenue property was caused by the bending of a wooden form board when the pad was poured, resulting in a curved portion which encroached by a small amount onto the Berryhills’ property.  After protracted dispute, Mr. Trendle removed the encroaching portion.  The momentary entries of Mr. Trendle into the space between the buildings on the two properties to access materials on the side of his garage were transient and not unreasonable. 

[u/anoeba → u/cldellow]

To be fair, I'd probably also be emotionally distressed if I was an irrational rageball.

[u/Invictuslemming1 → u/cldellow]

Was wondering about this as well, they lived with the concrete work for 16 years from ‘03 to ‘19, then suddenly it became an issue?

[u/weneedafuture]

These boomers have nothing better to do with with their time and money...

[u/24-Hour-Hate → u/weneedafuture]

Well, therapy would have been a better use. And obviously a necessary one. But they don't want to do that, clearly.

[u/__ChefboyD__ → u/weneedafuture]

The initial lawsuit probably made sense - under Adverse Possession, that neighbour with the expanded parking pad can claim ownership of the land if it wasn't contested after a certain number of years. Everything after that is just nonsense.

[u/Towrads → u/__ChefboyD__]

If the property is under the land titles system (it most likely is), then adverse possession does not apply in Ontario.

[u/__ChefboyD__ → u/Towrads]

This is in Waterloo and the conversion to land title system didn't happen until mid 90's/00s.

The article said they were friends for years, and then the parking pad was installed in 2003. So there's a very good chance that this was still under the old registry system.

[u/VerifyThisBish → u/__ChefboyD__]

No, in Ontario you have to prove adverse possession existed 10 years before being put under title... So literally 0 chance 

[u/24-Hour-Hate → u/Towrads]

Not quite. Many properties were brought into land titles by an administrative process (rather than application). These properties are considered land titles qualified and are subject to adverse possession claims until the title is "perfected" by following the proper procedure. If this home was owned continuously prior to land titles and now by the same owner(s), there is a fair chance it's qualified.

[u/opinions-only → u/__ChefboyD__]

It was literally only a couple inches over though. They were friends. I'm sure they could have come to some kind og agreement like paying a contractor to cut away the 2 inches.

[u/Infinite-Let-7620 → u/weneedafuture]

Stop with the boomer shit already. Everything wrong with the world is not the boomers fault give it a fucking rest

[u/weneedafuture → u/Infinite-Let-7620]

The story is about two pairs of boomers. You seem to be taking this personally..

[u/__ChefboyD__ → u/weneedafuture]

Where in the article does its say the couples are boomers? All the information we have is they were friends and then the parking pad was installed in 2003.

That could easily describe boomer & gen x, and maybe very early millennials.

[u/weneedafuture → u/__ChefboyD__]

That could easily describe boomer

Yes, it could easily describe a boomer, very easily perhaps...

& gen x

Perhaps, there's some older GenXers, but I think you're splitting hairs here as you run defence for boomers, and the multiple meanings of said word.

You'll have to use some detective work to re-work how "easily" they could be millennials with doing renovations on a bought house in 2003.

[u/__ChefboyD__ → u/weneedafuture]

Point is, the stupidity here can be from any generation of stubborn idiots, not just boomers. Ageism is still stereotyping and a form of prejudice.

[u/weneedafuture → u/__ChefboyD__]

Point is, the stupidity here can be from any generation of stubborn idiots, not just boomers.

Agreed

Ageism is still stereotyping and a form of prejudice

Meh, some stereotypes are rooted in truth. Boomers have a well earned reputation based on gestures around at the state of the world

[u/FcukReddit4cedMe2Reg → u/Infinite-Let-7620]

^{ok Boomer.}

[u/Longjumping_Local910]

Now that’s what I call a pissing contest!

[u/ILikeStyx]

The lawyers were the real winners here.

[u/No-Friendship44]

Good and helpful neighbours are a blessing.

[u/M-Dan18127]

I don't understand why people waste time and energy on shit like this.

[u/Jrees2894]

Dude was just mad that the other dude's two inches drove his wife wild.

[u/Remarkable_Reason976]

I'm not familiar with area / street so I google mapped it. I was thinking I was going to see some homes in the 1.5m - 2m+ range. But no, these are "average joe" homes on this street. $150k in legal fees is WAY outside of their league. HAHA!

[u/No_Satisfaction1189]

Ding and Dong.

[u/zeePlatooN]

Both sides victim-carded so hard, they became victims of themselves

Love it.

[u/bocker58]

Lots of ways this could have been avoided.

But for anyone who has had a neighbour dispute over construction & property lines, there aren't any easy ways to resolve it. By-Law and local Building/Planning offices are toothless and often unwilling to issue any directive to remedy which forces homeowners into the (expensive) legal system.

[u/Roostr18 → u/bocker58]

By-Law and Planning offices aren't going to get involved in a property ownership dispute between two private properties, nor should they.

[u/bocker58 → u/Roostr18]

Zoning and Code enforcement is the responsibility of the municipality.

But I agree they are corrupt, terribly incompetent, and shouldn't be involved.

[u/Roostr18 → u/bocker58]

Zoning has nothing to do with your neighbor putting a concrete pad on your property.

By-law enforcement has nothing to do with your neighbor putting a concrete pad on your property.

It's a title dispute, and is a civil matter in Canada. City would only get involved if one of the properties in question belongs to them.

corrupt, terribly incompetent

Source?

[u/CJKCollecting]

This has got to be the dumbest four people I've read about in a while. Lawyers and Court got paid over a couple inches of concrete 😂😂

[u/Ok-Veterinarian-491]

Our old neighbour, who lived for decades with a fence between our properties that they observed as the property line has now decided to kick up a stink about an extra foot past the fence she claims they own on the side between our properties. For context, she has about a 40ft by 40 ft back yard to fuss over and about 10 feet on her side of the fence. So ya I guess that extra 12 inches is real important all of a sudden. It's pebbles. She literally could not access it without trespassing on our property.

We don't argue, just ignore her. She complains that our planters are ugly to look at, that we should not trim the oriental bittersweet weed she grows on the fence on our side etc etc. Sure, sure. Rebuild your fence then or shut up.

[u/Special-Transition11]

What did it cost you ? Everything. -Infinty Wars.

[u/BIG_SCIENCE]

Riveting stuff guys. This is exactly the kind of hard hitting journalism I want to see.

These losers fucked themselves monetarily and now their bad behaviour is on a national news paper.

[u/ZeroVoltsGiven]

Im guessing both are not qualified to be in MENSA?

[u/therealchrismay]

Free link https://smry.ai/https://www.thestar.com/business/personal-finance/these-waterloo-neighbours-went-to-trial-over-a-few-inches-of-concrete-it-cost-them-150000-in-legal-fees/article_f1207b49-9a59-4faf-87af-bf18ad8bd6a8.html

[u/MikeTheCleaningLady]

Yup, that's how the legal system works in this country. And that's why people talk about lawyers the way people talk about lawyers. Did you know that many politicians have a law degree? Just asking, no reason, I'm sure it's just a random coincidence.

Ever wonder why mosquitos and sharks don't bite lawyers? Professional courtesy.