I have a question about a fence and gate?

Question

This is my question does a person have the right to block a driveway that has existed and been used for over 40 years, and the neighbors don't know where the property line is and refuses to have a survey? Also, they have begun constructing a fence on what I believe to be on my property. The boundary steaks have been removed from the ground by the neighbors. What can be done?

Answer 1

In MOST states, removal of surveyor stakes is a criminal offense. Second, you can get the property surveyed (your property). If its going to get messy, you wll need it done anyway.

Third, the writers are talking about adverse possession. This requires exclusive dominion, possession, and control of property by someone who does not have record title to the propery. It is usually asserted specifically in your situation (where the owners really do not know where the boundaries are, and somone puts part of a house or improvement on what turns out to be someone else's property.

Your problem, of course, will be showing that you exercised exclusive dominion and control over the property. Was the drive was an easement (a right to the property, conveyed), or merely a license granted by the other owner (big difference in the law). Or, do you actually own that property?

As you can see, this can be a very complicated area, and legal adviice is required.

The first step, however, is for you to determine where your property lines are. So get your property surveyed.

Then, go to an attorney to discuss your options.

Note -- these disputes often get personal and nasty, which means -- the parties want to fight -- which means, VERY VERY EXPENSIVE.

I was in a case once where the dispute of property lines involved a mere few feet of land. If the case had settled early, the value of the disputed property was only a few thousand dollars. Then there was an offer to move a driveway (at other side's expense), PLUS a few thousand dollars.

Instead, for ONE SIDE of the litigation, attorney fees exceeded $100,000 because it became personal. No parties were interested in a reasonable resolution. (COmplicated, because title companies were footing the bill).

In the case to which I refer, there were a total of four parties involved. Assuming that all four parties had similar attorney fees, they spent almost 1/2 million dollars on attorneys fees over, at most, a $5,000 strip of property. Indeed, they could have bought a brand new house for that price -- instead, each attorney gets a boat!

Good luck

Answer 2

First every state is different. After 12 yrs. in my state your neighbor wouldn't have a leg to stand on. After 40 yrs. you may. Some states use a law of abandonment to decide property lines. Best bet is to ask an attorney. Usually a consult is free. I would ask about an injunction to stop the fence building until the matter is settled. That might takes years....

Good Luck
Been there........

Answer 3

This is going to be a very expensive legal fight.

First, if you have title insurance (and you probably do, if you bought your property with a mortgage, at any time in the last twenty or thirty years), make a claim and ask them to get you a lawyer. That's what the insurance is for.

This is not just about adverse possession, as someone else said, but about prescriptive easement and easement by necessity. These are complicated legal concepts that vary from state to state.

You desperately need a real estate lawyer in your state.

Answer 4

This does not happen any where in the world except in Israel.They created long high fences on Palestinian property.