primitive wants to keep peace with neighbor

[Chris_]

I'm a land surveyor so I get to see land feuds all the time. People don't realize how much money they would save in court costs and attorney fees if they did two simple things. The first is have your property properly surveyed so that you know where YOUR boundaries are. The second, and possibly the most important, is to be willing to POLITELY discuss land line/property matters with your neighbor.

Just yesterday I surveyed a house that is in a subdivision where the lots are priced somewhere between $160000 to $200000. The house was recently build. Almost half of it is on the wrong lot.

Bingo!!

I've lost count of how many loan purchases I've originated where I've informed the people that they really should get their own survey done only to hear "I'm not worried, it's a recorded plat at the courthouse."  Granted, most of the time the recorded plat is correct, but why take the risk just to save $300?

.

Around here, when I started surveying about 22 or so years ago any time a home loan was made a plat less than 90 days old had to be available. About 10 or 15 years ago things started changing. I never could understand how a bank would be willing to loan money on something that may OR MAY not be where it's supposed to be. There is at least one attorney around here that won't handle a home loan closing unless a recent survey showing the house has been done. He says he got bit once and that was enough.

[BlueStateSaint]

Chuck, did you ask her her DU name?

No, but I'll tell you one even more DUmmielike. There's a subdivision near the coast. It has about a 500' stretch of marsh between the land and the river. Naturally people want docks from their lots to the river. Around here the standard practice to do this is to simply project the property lines to the river. In this subdivision, due to the shape of the lots and bank this isn't possible. As a result the DNR established dock corridors for each lot. One landowner who I'll call Fred build a dock. Several months later a landowner who I'll call Bill decided he wanted to build a dock. His lots is TWO lots down from Fred. This is important. Bill hired a dock company who had a layout man. The layout man staked the direction that the dock needed to run to stay within the dock corridor. When they had made it almost to the river Fred, the first dock owner, began raising a fuss. He claimed the Bill's dock was much too close to his. He even went so far as turning Bill into the DNR. The DNR contacted Bill and the dock company. The dock company contacted me and had me survey the Bill's corridor lines through the marsh to the river. The dock company owner happened to be at the site the day I did this. He asked if I'd mind running FRED's corridor lines just to ease his mind. I did and found why Bill's dock was so close to Fred's. Fred had actually build over his corridor line and was almost across the next line.

I still don't know what ended up happening with that one.

What a ****ing idiot.  That would make the job of someone in my profession (appraiser) rather difficult . . .

[DumbAss Tanker]

What happens is kind of complex, it depends a lot on how much time has gone by before the error is detected and how taxes are assessed and paid in the location, as well as boundary clearance laws (in many locations you cannot build to the edge of the property line, in those locations there will be a minimum clearance of 5-15 feet or even more, also depending on whether it's a house or an outbuilding).  Consequences vary from the encroaching builder having to tear it down and get back across the line, to the encroache owner being dispossessed from the encroachment and title of the real estate being conformed via state "adverse possession" law to the de facto boundaries the neighbors and tax authorities have been observing...with many and varied shades of possibilities in between those two extremes.   

I'm Not a Real estate attorney but Doesn't  "adverse possession" deal with complete possesion not just part of. Such as in Prescriptive easement and the like.

A lot of it depends on who has the best attorney. Generally adverse possession has to be open and notorious with a certain period of time, but it doesn't have to complete possession as in possessing an entire tract of land. Say there's a 10 acre tract and Billy Bob runs a fence around the eastern five acres. He takes care of the land. He clears it. He builds on it. He lets everyone know that it's his. After a certain amount of time it could be argued that Billy Bob has an adverse claim to the land BUT only to the five acres that he's fenced and tended. Adverse possession claims are very complex and I wouldn't want to try to acquire a piece of land that way.

Unless it's changed the time requirement for Adverse possessionin Texas is 30yrs.

Wow, 30 years is pretty long.  The English Common Law rule was 21, the statutory versions in the various states I've ever had occasion to look at run from as short as three up to the full 21, I didn't know there were any longer than that.  I have a vague recollection that most of them fall between 7 and 15 years but couldn't say whether that's really accurate. 

[JohnnyReb]

...and I believe I could write a book with similar stories.

Do so!!  Or start a thread or something.

That was a great story -- had me LOL.

Similar story, same developer.

30 years ago a guy here built a PIGGLY-WIGGLY store. Developer called him and told him he was 3'(again with just 3' LOL) over the line with his side wall. Before the developer could draw his attention to a small wedge out front he also owned caused by the road being moved years ago, guy tells developer, "OH HELL NO! I know where my propety lines are. It's been in my family for years." A month are two later, developer calls him and again and tells, "You need to come see me about buying a little bit of the property I own around your new store." Again the fellow starts cussing (a drunk but a successful drunk none the less) and tells him he don't need anymore high priced property blah-blah-blah.

Another month are two later the building is finished, they're stocking the store, putting up signs about the "GRAND OPENING", on such and such a day etc.. Developer calls him up again and informs him, "Before you have your grand opening I think it would be best if you have your lawyer call my lawyer and discuss buying that lot next door. AND ESPECIALLY that little wedge out front that cuts your store off from the main road." 

After being so....so....well, downright ugly, that 3' strip and a little wedge out front was all he could afford..... Cost him more than the whole lot next door had been listed for. ....and what's even funnier is, for the amount he had to pay for that "little bit" he could have had the whole lot originally .....two times over...... It gets better......

Then the developer took that money and filled in the lot nextdoor, with money left over from the grading. He then sold it for 3 times the original asking price to PIGGLY-WIGGLY's cheif competitor for their new grocery store.

It pays to keep your cool until you're certain exactly where you stand.

[Chris_]

It pays to keep your cool until you're certain exactly where you stand.

Words to live by!! (H5)