Earthquake Laws?

Question

Okay so, here's the scenario.

you're living in California, on the San andreas fault.

literally, right on it.
you have a garage on one side of it and your house is on the other side of it.

well, one day an eathquake comes and it moves your garage past your property line and into your neighbors yard.
(some earthquakes have been known to move things 30+ feet)

now, property lines are surface only, and they are permanent, so who's garage is it now?

This one is particularly difficult for me to understand, so if you have any good evidence for the answer, I'll gladly thank you and give you your points.

:D

Answer 1

You make a good point. As far as I know, no one has prepared in advance for this problem. Like many things in life, it would be decided in the court system. My guess is the judge would restore things to the previous condition as much as possible and within reason.

Answer 2

This is actually a common occurance, structures moving away from the original building site. It's not just earthquakes, we have landslides too, where the garage can end up in the neighbor's yard. All property are defined by land surveying "metes and bounds", which is tied into the national triangulation network, which in turn is fixed in longtitude and latitude. In other words, your property is what your GPS says, not where your garage is. If an earthquake as moved your garage somewhere else, it's your loss. However, courts will generally recognize the right of the owner of the garage to make effort to recover it, or things in it, just as the courts say owners of cars that have been blown into somebody's yard by a tornado have the right to get it back.