Who is allowed to post a sign in your front yard?
So this last weekend my family and I are pulling into our drive to find a lady posting a political candidate sign in our front yard. She asked if we were supporters and my husband said no. She politely thanked us and walked away, leaving the posted sign. So my husband took the kids into the house and I asked her to remove her sign since I would just be throwing it away.
I’m going to interrupt my story here for a little background. My house is on the corner of a through street connecting two large neighborhoods. Several times a week someone has posted a sign in my yard. I don’t mean that little strip of land beyond the sidewalk; they post them in my yard. They vary from “we buy houses” to “we’ll fix your roof up good” to “vote for – insert name here”. We have never once been asked if it was ok to put a sign up in our yard, and we always remove them. They just go in the trash, usually the same day they are put up.
So back to the day in question. I asked the lady if she wanted her sign back because we were just going to throw it away. This is the point where her politeness washed away. She says that she is legally allowed to post a sign there, that she is a Realtor, lives in this neighborhood too, and knows for a fact that ten feet in from any public road is public property and anyone can post a sign. When I still would not allow her to leave the sign she walked across the street and said she did her duty in posting the sign. After I removed the sign I again asked her if she wanted it back because I was just going to throw it away. She refused to take it, said because she was a Realtor she could go get a survey of my land in thirty minutes if she wanted to, that would prove I don’t actually own until 10 feet from the road, and then watched me put her sign in the trash.
About ten minutes later she was knocking on my door asking if she could please have her sign back. I got it for her but she would not let up on the whole public space. She even started throwing around (what she hoped were) big words like easement. I never did tell her I was also a Realtor and knew she was just blowing smoke out her, well you know.
I do have easements on my property, utility easements. The electric company has the right to work on their box at the edge of my yard, the cable company as well. She was very big on emphasizing that she lived in the area and knew the laws, our home owners association doesn’t even allow posting of signs.
Needless to say the incident has me riled up. How many people let any old body post signs on their property? How many people did she and others like her bully into letting them leave trash with blatant lies? I hope that I was the only one she tried to convince. I hope there isn’t some poor home owner out there questioning their property lines.
In the end, most people have a plat showing their property lines and what easements are present. If you don’t or have misplaced one you can always call your title company. They should have a copy of what you received at settlement.
Liz B. Real Estate 