A dispute between two neighbours over a cement structure has led to a criminal charge. Darrell Vernon - a resident of 9771 Riverside Street in the Lake Independence area was charged with damage to property after his neighbour reported to police that Vernon damaged a few sheets of zinc on his two story building.
But Vernon says he is being wrongfully charged and violated. The two story cement structure is being built on a fence which should be the property line - and the eaves of the zinc roof is hanging a few feet over Vernon's property.
And while that is one concern, they are others such as the safety of the structure and is it even legal to build on a property line - much less on a fence? 7news contacted the Central Building Authority who told us that the law states that a structure should be minimum setback of four feet from the property line.
And so this man who has been living on his property for 20 years - and now faces criminal charges - is speaking out in hopes of getting some kind of justice.
Darrell Vernon
"My neighbor building on the fence and he said that nobody can stop him from doing what he has to do. I went to the people responsible for stopping building."
Monica Bodden
"That's where? Where did you go?"
Darrell Vernon
"I went at 4 1/2 miles at the place where they are in change on buildings. I went there and met a lady and she told me that they were going to send someone to stop it, but he continue building and nothing was happening, so I have to come to the media to let everyone knows. Please send someone over to stop this because he is going to hurt someone, my grandchildren or somebody."
"He didn't ask me permission and I being a good Samaritan I didn't intervene on it because he is a poor man just like me and I said that nothing is wrong of having it at the first floor. But after he builds on the first floor; he is a sneaky guy, he put up one block height in a month and another he puts up another. But the time I get to him he had already done it. I told him that this things will kill or hurt somebody - to please stop, to go to somebody who knows this stuff. Even I wasn't sure that he was doing what he did... we are neighbor and we are supposed to live with each other. But he says that nobody can't stop him. He doesn't even want to sit down and talk and try to reason before he invest all this money. I told him that he will hurt somebody. He provoked me, he chopped down the tree for his convenience, for his to plaster. His roof is about 2 1/2 feet on my land. He is destroying my coconut trees. He puts me through a lot of stress."
"He puts a complain to the police that I damaged his property, so they came and arrest me and charged me for damaging his property."
Monica Bodden
"So he said what? You stoned the building, what did you do?"
Darrell Vernon
"He said that I took a piece of stick and damage 4 sheets of his zinc on my property - that is what he is claiming. It seems to me like the poor man doesn't have any rights. You have to have this money or you have to be in big society..... In Belize we supposed to not be like this. We are supposed to be equal and have equal rights, but it seems that we don't have any. All I am asking for anyone who is listening to please come over and see the problem. That's all I want to do and then after that we go to other levels."
We spoke with the other neighbour involved in the dispute, who told us he has put the matter in the hands of the law and is now awaiting the outcome. He did admit that the roof of the building was a few feet over Vernon's yard but he said it was Vernon who was contracted to build the structure and now that the work has finished, he is left bitter.
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