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3 Responses to 'Does anyone know about real estate property lines?'

1. wombat_13 - January 30th, 2010 at 6:49 pm

   consult a real estate attorney, this situation is very complex

2. Rosemary A - January 31st, 2010 at 5:52 am

   Depends on where the error was made. I am going to assume on the builder’s part because the surveyor didn’t lay out the garage, but only sighted in the property lines. In addition the “survey” you had commissioned may have only been a mortgage report and no actual field work was done. Look at your survey, it is a mortage report if there is no signature, or posted error of closure or no measurement or no stakes laid out. Of course, laws vary by state.

   Second point, either you are going to have to have the garage moved which means suing the builder for that expense or you’ll have to try to get title to the land the building is encroaching upon which is suing your neighbor. Before you do any of this, I would pull the building permit on the garage and see what sketch they provided to your local authorities, just for morbid curiousity.

   If you have a “freindly” neighbor you might be able to execute a land swap with the help of an attorney without suing anyone. That’s the best case scenario. Also perhaps an affidavit from the neighbor acknowledging the encroachment may buy you time to work things out with the builder without angering your neighbor.

3. Surveyor Extraordinaire :-) - January 31st, 2010 at 11:20 pm

   Good answer by Rosemary. You do need to consult a lawyer, and you also need to verify the survey, by having a different licensed professional land surveyor check the survey that shows the problem, since that first survey could be incorrect. If it turns out that the garage really is over the property line, you will probably be able to recover damages from the developer. The developer may accept responsibility, or they may seek to recover damages from the surveyor who made the mistake that created the problem, depending upon what happened at the time of construction.

   However, you do not need to do any of this until your neighbor raises the issue. If your neighbor does not insist that you either tear down the garage, or pay them for occupying a piece of their property, then you do not need to do anything. It is your neighbors responsibility to act to defend their property rights. If they fail to act, you may not have a problem at all, even if the garage is over the line. There are thousands of situations like this all over the country. Land surveyors discover these situations every day. In many cases, the neighbors have simply agreed to accept the situation as it is, especially if they are friends, and the situation has existed for years with no problem. So do not panic, try to get your neighbor to agree to accept the garage location, and if they do, document the agreement for your future protection.

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