About real estate: How to deal with a trespassing pooch
There are alternatives to calling the local dogcatcher when a neighbor's roaming pet keeps coming into your yard.
Q. My neighbor's dog gets out of his backyard a few times a month and always seems to make a beeline for my garden, where he digs up my flowers and shrubs and dumps a you-know-what on my grass. I have talked to my neighbor about the problem a few times, but he laughs and says, “Dogs will be dogs.” What are my legal rights here? Is there an alternative to simply calling the dogcatcher?
A. I love dogs, but I don't like irresponsible dog owners.
You certainly have the right to remove the dog from your property, but you do not have the right to harm it. That means that you can use “reasonable force” to shoo it away, like chasing it with a soft broom. However, hurting or killing the dog — even though it's trespassing — would be illegal unless you were acting in self-defense. It also could trigger a lawsuit by the dog's owner, and maybe even bring criminal charges against you.
Phoning the local dogcatcher might not be a bad idea if the dog wanders into your yard again. Many cities and counties now charge more than $75 to an owner who retrieves a pet that was corralled and then taken to a community's animal shelter. After paying such charges one or two times, your neighbor might build a fence or take other measures to ensure that his pooch won't get out again to ravage your garden and poop on your lawn.
An alternative is to sue your neighbor in small-claims court because he has been unresponsive to your verbal pleas. Start by putting everything in writing. The next time the dog comes onto your property, send the man a certified letter stating the date and time of the unwanted visit, and itemize the damage that the dog caused. Also estimate the cost of the damage and request that he repay you.
This should be enough to make your neighbor begin to take the problem seriously and take measures to secure the wandering pooch. If it isn't, consider suing him in small-claims court.
Receipts for any money you paid to repair the dog's damage, such as the cost of buying new plants, certainly would bolster the case that you present to the judge. Photos or a video of the dog romping or digging in your yard also would help, especially if they have been electronically time-stamped by the camera.
Another option would be to file a claim for the damage the dog causes with the company that provides your homeowners insurance. However, it's doubtful that the destruction would exceed your deductible. And even if the insurance company paid, filing a claim would do little to encourage your neighbor to keep his roaming Rover under control.
Q. My husband and I bought a home a few months ago, and the county's tax assessor charged us $438 in “property transfer taxes.” Can we deduct this cost on the income-tax return that we will file in April?
A. Sorry, but the answer is no. Rules published by the Internal Revenue Service allow you to deduct property taxes that you pay each year, but specifically prohibit write-offs for transfer taxes that are levied by a local assessor or related government agency paid in the original sales transaction.
Most cities and counties now charge transfer taxes when a property is sold. The taxes were originally created to reimburse the local government for the cost of updating its public ownership records, but now are often tapped to fund a variety of public programs.
Though you cannot deduct the transfer taxes on your upcoming return, you can add the expense to the cost basis of the home in order to reduce any taxes that may be owed on the profit when you eventually sell.
Q. I pride myself on my very high credit score. I want to refinance, but I am in the middle of a dispute with an electronics store that sold me a defective plasma TV on a monthly installment plan in August. I have made all the payments until now, but I recently told the retailer that I won't pay any more unless it replaces the lousy TV with a new one. The store won't take it back and says it will turn over the balance of my $1,600 debt to a collection agency and report me to the credit bureaus if I don't resume the payments immediately. If I refuse to pay, how will it affect my credit score and my ability to refinance my home loan?
A. Your credit score certainly will drop if the retailer follows through on its threat to turn over your account to a collection agency. The size of the decline will depend largely on the rest of your credit history, but even a relatively modest decrease could knock your score down to the point at which you'll have to pay a higher rate for your new mortgage.
Most lenders today use the FICO credit-scoring system, which was developed several years ago by California-based Fair Isaac Corp. Under FICO's current formula, collection accounts under $100 won't hurt a consumer's score — but the $1,600 that the retailer claims you owe obviously is far above that amount.
Your best option now would be to resume monthly payments on the loan for the faulty television, but attach a certified letter to each check stating that the payment is being made under protest. This should prevent the account from going to collections, protect your credit rating and thus allow you to obtain the lowest possible interest rate when you apply for a mortgage to refinance.
If you resume payments on the TV but the retailer still won't voluntarily solve the problem, you could sue it in small-claims court and also ask the judge to reimburse any legal expenses that you might incur.
• For the booklets“Straight Talk About Living Trusts,”or “Refinancing the Right Way” send $4 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 2960, Culver City, CA 90231-2960
© 2010, Cowles Syndicate Inc.