Or this can happen:
The Detroit Free Press: Courts order demolition of $1.1 million Macomb County mansion built too close to property line
The Michigan Court of Appeals has told a couple they have to tear down all or part of their $1.1 million mansion because they built it too close to their property lines.The Palushajs messed this one up quite nicely. Not only did they thumb their nose at the restriction, but they began building after the lawsuit seeking to prevent the house from being built in violation of the restrictions was filed against them.
The order came in a lawsuit a neighboring couple filed in 2004 against Simon and Saca Palushaj over their 9,000-square-foot house in Macomb County’s Washington Township, 25 miles north of Detroit.
Tuesday’s unanimous ruling acknowledged the extreme nature of the resolution and encouraged a compromise, according to The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens.
It's rather hard to have a lot of sympathy when they were clearly on notice that they were in violation of the deed restriction before they proceeded with construction. Had their neighbor waited until after it was built to file or complaint there might be a bit more sympathy for them, but not with this chronology.
Now it looks like their house is going to undergo some radical restructuring or they're going to have to buy off their neighbor with some considerable compensation in order to keep the house as-is.
