Survey Confirms Neighbour’s Fence Is 30 Inches Into Our Yard And Now They’re Moving The Survey Stakes

Location: Surrey BC

Quick background… This originally started because we put a privacy screen on our side of an existing chain link fence. Our neighbour got extremely upset, said the fence belonged to him because he paid for it years ago, and repeatedly removed the screen. Police eventually attended, but it was treated as more of a civil/property dispute. That’s what prompted us to get the property line professionally surveyed.

We had the survey completed on September 8 and it confirmed what we suspected. The neighbour’s fence is encroaching roughly 30 inches onto our property at the worst point.

The surveyors installed property-line stakes and offset stakes throughout our yard.

On the morning of September 11, our neighbour went into the alley and moved one of the exterior survey stakes approximately 14 inches toward our property. We noticed afterward that the stake was no longer where the surveyor had placed it, which prompted us to check our cameras. Sure enough, we have him on video moving it.

They also apparently started going around to other neighbours saying we’re blowing the whole thing out of proportion and that the fence is only a few inches over.
One neighbour, who we had never even met before, came over and basically told us we should drop it and “be neighbourly.” At the time, we hadn’t realized the survey stake had been moved yet.

For some added context, they’re a large Punjabi family with multiple generations and extended family/cousins frequently involved sometimes 10+ people. Most of the neighbours around us are also Punjabi and seem to know each other. I’m mentioning that because I’d appreciate input from anyone familiar with the cultural/family dynamics and how they’d approach this.

We received the formal survey, what is the next logical step a formal demand letter requiring them to remove the fence, concrete footings/posts and restore our property?

Also, what should I be doing about the fact that I have him on camera deliberately moving the survey stake?