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Old 15-07-2003, 08:52 PM
Alexander Pensky
 
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Default Fences and Lot Lines

wrote:

yeah? tell my mother that after 5,000 bucks in lawyers fees when the neighbors sued
for adverse possession and it went to trial and was not instantly thrown out. they
claimed THEY, AND THE PREVIOUS owners mowed the lawn next to my mothers driveway and
so THEY OWNED IT. This was after they insisted it WAS theirs and my mother had us
put up a fence to establish our ownership over the property. Ingrid

Alexander Pensky wrote:

"The law" you are thinking of is called "adverse possession." There's
always a lot of misinformation floating around about adverse possession
and it's not as easy to lose land that way as people seem to think.


I appreciate what your mother went through... I followed the thread here
last month... but

#1 It cost $5000 and was not instantly thrown out, but did your mother
actually lose the case? Did she have to relinquish the land?

#2 For every landowner who experiences the nightmare your mother did,
there are 100 more who hear about it and are convinced they too will
lose their land simply because their neighbor has a habit of mowing a 2
foot strip on the wrong side of the lot line.

Bottom line: the common law principle of adverse possession is mainly
intended to allow squatters to obtain neglected or abandoned property
simply by treating it as their own without being challenged. It is not
intended to be used with owner-occupied property where there's an active
dispute as to who owns what.

In the case of lot line encroachments... all you have to do to protect
against adverse possession is to grant explicit permission for the
neighbor to encroach. If you've done a survey and neighbor's fence is
on your land, but you don't mind and don't need it removed, then get a
survey copy showing lot lines & encroaching fence, add a statement
granting neighbor permission to have a fence there, sign it and get
neighbor to sign it.

Of course the neighbor can still take you to court if they don't agree
with the survey and think there is no encroachment. But the document
will prevent them from successfully claiming adverse possession.

It's kind of like common-law marriage. The court can't rule that two
people are in a common-law marriage, against their will. Common-law
marriage exists only when the spouses BOTH claim they are married and
nobody disagrees with them. Likewise -- you can only claim land by
adverse possession if you state that you've taken over the land as yours
for 20 years, and *nobody disagrees with you* including the current
owner if the owner can be located.

- Alex