Can I force a sign owner to remove their sign from my property?
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Can I force a sign owner to remove their sign from my property?
I bought a house with an existing advertising, a small billboard sign in my yard. They asked my permission to retain the rights to use the sign and offered me a rental fee for 2017. I accepted. They sold the company. The new owner doesn’t wish to renew the agreement for 2018. I want them to remove their sign from my property. They don’t want the sign anymore and refuse to move it. Do I have any legal recourse to force them to remove it?
Asked on May 8, 2018 under Business Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
You can force them to remove it when the existing agreement is over. If they won't remove it voluntarily, you'd have to sue them for either an order requiring its removal or for the cost to remove it and dispose of it, if you did so yourself. Before removing it yourself, give them written notice, sent some way you can prove delivery, that the agreement has expired, they have no more permission to keep the sign there, must remove it within, say, thirty (30) days, and if not removed by then, you will treat it as abandoned, remove/dispose of it, and will charge them the costs incurred by you in doing so--suing if necessary to recover those costs. You need to be able to prove you gave them notice and a chance to remove the sign after the receipt of notice.
Unfortunately, if they don't voluntarily remove the sign or pay for its removal, a lawsuit is the only way to make them remove it or recover compensation, and it is possible that a lawsuit will be more expense, time, and/or trouble than it is worth.
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