H. B. 2270
(By Delegates Vest, Faircloth, Huffman and Compton)
[Introduced February 24, 1993; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reeanct sections seven and nine, article
seventeen, chapter nineteen of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all
relating to building or repairing partition fences;
enforcing the liability of the owners of adjoining lands for
the costs of such fences; and providing for a lien against
the real estate.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections seven and nine, article seventeen, chapter
nineteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 17. FENCES.
§19-17-7. Notice of intention to build or repair partition
fence; answer.
Any person desiring to build or to repair a partition fence
may give notice in writing to the owner of any adjoining lands,or to his agent, of his intention to build or repair such fence
and requiring him to build or repair his just portion thereof,
which notice shall state the description and kind of the fence
proposed to be built or such repairs as are proposed to be made.
The person so served with such notice shall, within ten days
thereafter make answer in writing and serve the same upon the
person desiring to build or repair such fence, which answer shall
state any objections to such notice, and upon failure to do so he
shall be liable to the person building or repairing such
partition fence for his just proportion of the cost thereof if he
shall fail to build or repair his proportion of the same. The
person building or repairing the fence may enforce the liability
of the adjoining landowner by appropriate civil action in the
circuit court of the county in which the property, or any part of
it, is located. Any judgment obtained may be filed with the
clerk of the county commission in the manner provided in article
three, chapter thirty-eight of this code and shall be a lien on
the adjoining property.
§19-17-9. Arbitration; recovery of amount ascertained by
arbitrators.
The arbitrators so selected shall examine the premises and
hear the allegations and proofs of the parties, and the decision
of any two of them shall be final and bind the parties to such
dispute and all parties holding or claiming under them. The
decision of the arbitrators shall be reduced to writing and shall
contain a description of the fence to be built or kept in repair,or both, and of the proportion to be maintained by each party,
which decision shall forthwith be filed in the office of the
clerk of the county court commission, and recorded in a book kept
by the clerk for that purpose. Any amount ascertained by the
arbitrators to be paid by one party to the other may be recovered
in any court having jurisdiction of the case. Any judgment
obtained may be filed with the clerk of the county commission in
the manner provided in article three, chapter thirty-eight of
this code and shall be a lien on the adjoining property.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to enhance the procedure
for the enforcement of the liability of adjoining landowners for
the costs of building, repairing or maintaining a partition fence
between adjoining landowners by stating specifically that a
judgment for the costs is a lien on the real estate of the
landowner who refuses to pay for his fair share.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.