Boundary disputes are very common with homeowners and property owners. There are numerous ways for a dispute to become a real legal issue.

 

Some of the most common disputes arise from a neighbor having a survey done to sell their property or to put in a fence or building structure. Often times, a new neighbor will have a current survey and will question the boundaries. There may also have been several, unrecorded deeds for the same property. 

 

Spread out over time, and many exchanges of owners, often the boundaries have been lost. Even a fence that has been in the same place for the past twenty years may be encroaching on your neighbor’s property or vice-versa.

 

If you are encroaching on a neighbor’s property, or vice versa, make sure you have all the facts before pursuing any further action. An encroachment is when another person has a structure (or fence) that intrudes on another’s land.  Understanding exactly what the cause of the dispute is crucial. Find out how long the encroachment has gone on and whether there were any agreements giving permission to the encroachment between the original owners.

 

Lastly, how much land is involved? If the land in question is a very small area of land, it may not be worth pursuing. However, you may want to rethink pursuing the matter if you are going to sell your property anytime in the future. You would have to disclose the encroachment to a potential buyer, and that could ruin a sale.

 

You may want to give your neighbor written permission to use the property for a specified time to avoid the neighbor filing adverse possession.  Adverse possession is the situation when a person who doesn’t have legal title to land or property, occupies the land for a certain amount of time (determined by each state) and can later file the land as theirs.

 

Every property will have a legal description recorded. The legal description will always note the county and state the property is located in, the exact location and the boundaries of the land.

 

If you are in a dispute, you will most likely have to obtain a survey, an appraisal and have a full title search performed. The survey has to be completed by a licensed surveyor who will help locate the boundaries in order to determine the amount of property being encroached upon. The appraisal will let you know the amount of worth of the encroached property. The title search will find all recorded documents regarding the property in question and will show any past easements that may have been deeded or given to the property owner.  Easements are usually found when the buyer of the property received a quitclaim deed to the property.

 

Once the survey, appraisal and title search is completed, this is the time to consult with a qualified and experienced real estate attorney who will determine whether you have a case or not. Your attorney can analyze the situation and offer options to resolve in the most cost effective manner possible.  Some of the options may include mediation, a monetary settlement or your real estate attorney filing a complaint to ‘quiet title’ the property in question.