property owner rights

[Polly]

  :  (      help i need advice  my neibor is claiming ownership of a tract of land i own arter consulting with my lawyer he arvised i need a legal survey done  i just hired a surveyor for 2500.00  i dont know what the attorney fees will be to take this to court this is a piece of property that i have a clear deed for and all other things considered i know it is mine if the judge rules in my behalf how can i get back the money i have spent proving ownership of the property help 

[beenthere]

Polly
Does your deed have a good description of the land that is clear (understandable) ?

If it does, I'm surprised your lawyer is taking the easy way out by adding a surveyors costs to you (and having his ticker tape running at the same time).

If the deed is not clear as to description (meets and bounds or whatever) and the land has never been surveyed, then it leaves room for someone else to lay claim to what you believe is yours.

Is it a new parcel to you? A divide off another property that wasn't surveyed?

Any thought as to why your neighbor would feel that this property is his?

[whiskers]

Many county tax assessor sites have GIS mapping showing individual parcels with plotting capabilities on line. You'd find some information there, otherwise there would be research and print available through that office. Good luck, anything to do with property disputes can be a real bleeder. Attorneys love um at your expense.

[Tim/South]

I had a guy claim some of our land. I put up a fence on the property line and he sued us.
Dad and I went to court and won the case in opening arguments.

[Polly]

    this is tract 2 of my property  tract 1 lies directly behind the other land owner , tract 2 is a small tract consisting of a half acre of land with a roadway through the other property owner , which woas purchased in 1886 for fifteen dollars , per my deed , it runs from tract 1 to the highway , the reason for this deed to tract 2  was to mantain ownership , originally the other property owners property was divided with one party owning a one side of my tract 2 and another party owning the other side of tract 2 ,the present loan owner owns both sides and also claiming ownership of all of my tract 2  and is implying all i have is a passway through her ,and mantaining she is the rightful owner ofmy tract ,if this was so i could not put a gate across my own driveway to protect my property neither could i put a water line back to a house i own on tract i ,all co all deeds hers and mine support me   

[Magicman]

I was sawing for a customer a couple of years ago that had his property re-surveyed and was re-fencing along the newly surveyed line.  The adjoining landowner carried my customer to court and won.  The judge ruled that because of the length of time that the old fence had been in existence, that it had in fact become the property line.   Didn't matter about my customer's deed or the new survey.   

[Norm]

Every state has it's own rules on this. Get the survey done.

[jeffreythree]

I was sawing for a customer a couple of years ago that had his property re-surveyed and was re-fencing along the newly surveyed line.  The adjoining landowner carried my customer to court and won.  The judge ruled that because of the length of time that the old fence had been in existence, that it had in fact become the property line.   Didn't matter about my customer's deed or the new survey.   

Adverse possession can hurt or help depending on the situation.  Example: my father had some proeprty in Houston that had a lot of title messes from being a failed subdivision from way back and bought most of it.  Some of it had been divided down to 5'x5' plots over time.  He used it all without being told not to and when the time came went to court and claimed adverse possession.  Only one person fought it and had a little 5'x5' piece right in the middle fenced off.  Or how about the guy who sold $2.5mil of land for the Highway 90 expansion between Houston and Beaumont only for the state to find out after the fact squaters had true ownership of a chunk they had lived on for 50 years.  In Texas at least, it can be used to help straighten out ownership issues or by the unscrupulous to take things that are not theirs.  Use it or lose it essentially, and old fence lines are the basis of some of the laws here.

[pappy19]

If there is a county surveyor then I would go to them first and get his opinion. Next, if there isn't a county surveyor, then go to the state surveyor and show him the evidence. If one or both support your position, then I would have an attorney proceed with a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to keep the neighbor from trespass or from you using your own property. Probably alot cheaper than a new survey and probably not needed. The title background should clearly show the transfer from the parent property to you and with that evidence, you should be OK.

Pap

[Polly]

   ARE licenesed land surveyors bonded and carry libality insurance , in case they make a mistake , and if the property is proved in court to be mine which it will could i not sue the other land owner and her surveyor to get back the actual amount i had to spend to prove i owned a piece of property that was already mine it appears the total bill counting land surveyor and attorney is going to be around 6 grand 

[timberfaller390]

You can sue anybody for anything these days. Your situation is worth filing suit if it is costing you money to prove the land is yours.

[Larry]

  ARE licenesed land surveyors bonded and carry libality insurance , in case they make a mistake

I don’t think most surveyors carry what they call errors and omission liability insurance.  It was explained to me years ago that the cost was prohibitive...and the chance of the property owner beating a surveyor in a lawsuit was nil.  Maybe its different in todays world.  Do you have title insurance?

Can you go back to your neighbor and negotiate?  Maybe offer to split the cost of the survey and agree to some kind of arbitration?  Anything to keep away from attorney fees would benefit both parties.

[gunman63]

its a private  road that goes to your property, put the gate up, when and if they decide to take it down , call the sheriff or police , whatever u have in your neck of the woods, and have them cited for destruction of your property, if u have a deed, make them prove in court it isnt your land,

[Polly]

HAPPY ANNIVERSITY RONNIE!!!AUG. 8TH # 23.

[Polly]

    when your wife has to post a message on this forum reminding you of your accesevercy , it kind of shows how rapped up in the above problem i have been , now if i could just rember how meny years we been married 

[Magicman]

Well, Happy Anniversary to Both of you.   

[pigman]

Polly, from past experience, if you are in possesion of the disputed property, make the other person pay to prove it is there's. If the other person has possesion of the property, then you will have to prove the property is yours.

[Gary_C]

Pigman is absolutely right. If you have posession, the other guy can make all the verbal claims he wants and you can just ignore him or just have your attorney send him a cease and desist letter that establishes your deed and posession of the property.

It's only if he takes adverse posession action that HE may have to prove his claim. You have all the proof you need right now. That is as long as your deed is recorded. 

Don't get in a rush to spend money you don't have to spend. In fact if you would fence your property, he does not have automatic rights to use your property to access both parcels of his property. In fact remind him of that and tell him that it may cost him more than it costs you to defend against his claims for crossing rights.

[DanG]

Polly, update your profile and put your location in.   Do I remember that you're in N. Carolina?  There is a member here who is a N.C. surveyor, but I can't remember who he is.  If we can wake him up, he could give you the straight scoop on N.C. law.

[pigman]

DanG, your memory must not be any better than mine. Polly is in northern Kentucky.