Neighbor's garage is leaning against our house wall

Our house and our neighbor's share a property line where the walls are separate, but the lot behind us belongs entirely to him. Now, he’s gone and put up this eyesore—some kind of makeshift garage or wood shed made out of rebar and a roof. It’s hideous. It sits literally two centimeters from our exterior wall, even if I can't physically see them touching right now. My question is: is this even legal? Even if this monstrosity is technically sitting on his own land, it’s practically glued to our wall. By doing this, hasn't he effectively blocked any way for us to access that section of our own wall or roofline?

I think so. Building codes generally require you to maintain the same setback from the property line as the existing structure. If your house sits right on the line, then they can too. But if your place is set back even just a few inches, they’d be forced to move their building to match your distance.

thanks for the reply

dustywolf142 said:Our house and our neighbor's share a property line where the walls are separate, but the lot behind us belongs entirely to him. Now, he’s gone and put up this eyesore—some kind of makeshift garage or wood shed made out of rebar and a roof. It’s hideous. It sits literally two centimeters from our exterior wall, even if I can't physically see them touching right now. My question is: is this even legal? Even if this monstrosity is technically sitting on his own land, it’s practically glued to our wall. By doing this, hasn't he effectively blocked any way for us to access that section of our own wall or roofline?

I'd say you should probably report him to the local building inspector for illegal construction; I'm almost certain there isn't a single permit on file for a structure like that.

If your house sits right on the property line and is fully permitted, there’s a good chance your neighbor holds the same rights regarding building on the boundary. From my perspective, everything seems legally sound. To be absolutely certain, however, you should consult the local zoning ordinances to see what the specific regulations dictate.
Reporting this to the local building inspector is likely a waste of time; depending on the scale, a structure like that might not even require a permit or a full set of blueprints. The real issue isn't whether they are using your wall to enclose their space, but rather whether they actually constructed the wall themselves on the line. Try addressing that distinction with them directly. For instance, if they are leaning firewood or tools against your wall, that is a clear violation of property boundaries that you can call out.
As for the fact that the addition is an eyesore—that is a secondary concern. If it’s tucked away in the back of the lot, just try to ignore it.

It doesn't necessarily need them. If the structure is under 100 square feet and lacks actual walls, windows, or doors, it’s basically just a canopy or a lean-to. You could technically put up some walls, but without windows, the city would likely just classify it as a tool shed—a simple structure that doesn't trigger the need for a building permit. I don't have the exact specs memorized, so you'd have to dig through the local building codes, but I think the threshold is somewhere between 100 and 150 square feet.

@Steven Young23, if I'm reading this right, he didn't even build real walls. It's just some makeshift setup made out of rebar mesh.

We touched on this here recently, but under the current building code, there is actually no cap on the square footage for a canopy. Technically speaking, that category could expand to any size imaginable without hitting a legal ceiling.