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You need an attorney. One who specializes in real estate issues and not just a closing attorney. The attorney your work referred to you is, obviously, not a specialist. You can find a specialist by searching both the web and the yellow pages and then asking for referrals. You can also search Martindale.com (formerly Martindale-Hubbell, a very large tome of lawyers in the country.)
You MAY have a claim against the Sellers. The claim MAY be that you can rescind the sale or you may be entitled to monetary damages. You MAY also have a claim against the title insurance company. I'm not an attorney. Only an attorney can tell you whether the "MAY" in my post is a "DO".
What kind of 'teeth' do they have to force you to reinstate the greenbelt? Can they fine you or take it away if it doesn't meet specs of a greenbelt? Can they fine you $100 day or can they replant trees and charge you for it? Or do they just write letters and suggest it? And what happens if you do nothing and ignore their letters?
About the greenbelt: Find out in legal terms what is considered a greenbelt. Maybe there are some low growing native shurbs or grasses the legally are considered greenbelt. If you were forced, maybe you would only need to plant some of these short plants to meet legal qualification of greenbelt.
Find a land use attorney (sub specialty of real estate attorney) that is used to dealing with your city. They will know these laws about greenbelts and such. They will know the rules and might tell you that nobody can make you do anything...they can simply ask you to do it. Folks hire land use attorneys when they are developing subdivisions and getting properties rezoned and replatted and adding easements, etc.
Odds are the maps are correct to the property description, to the county and all other legal items. What probably is not correct is how the property was presented to the buyer. All the legal descriptions may exclude the greenbelt portion, just that when standing on the property, nobody measured it to see if what they saw matched what was the legal property. It's the old thing of looking at physical items and assuming they are the legal boundaries. Since no survey was done, the boundaries are based only on the visual property lines the seller assumed was the boundaries, not based on the facts.
Yes, you are right. The county has the correct map. The thing is I did not do the due diligence of actually going to the county office and checking the map. and I am not the only one who missed this, the appraiser did (there is no mention of yard being smaller), the agents did...everyone missed it. Its unfortunate that the in this day and age the buyer has to do all the work, as much as going to the county office to check that the seller is selling the right property. Whats the Form 17 for then?
Here is the picture from the county. The map clearly states that 2004 sq.ft is NGPE. Shouldnt form 17 clearly state this?
Does this mean I have no case against the seller
Last edited by thugged; 09-21-2013 at 11:59 PM..
Reason: Posting Image
It depends on your area. In some, maybe most, it would be called misrepresentation by someone - if not agents then surely the seller since I believe you said it was already known in the neighborhood - or bad job by someone such as the suveyor or appraiser. The owner in these areas not expected to go beyond what is presented to him.
I should go back...so much here...and see did you talk about title insurance already.
All the lawyer-up advice here is sound. Somewhere, something bad happened and really a lot of this is unique from one state to another. In the end, someone's gon' get sued and my guess is it'll be nearly everyone who has anything to do with appraising or looking at the actual size of the lot back to the sellers.
The thing to be concerned about is not so much the greenery but the tax status.
Owners of greenbelt property usually enjoy significant property tax breaks, and once the property no longer conforms to the greenbelt regulations, then the owners may be subject to rollback taxes.
In Washington state, I believe they may reach back 7 years.
I think you have a case - against who, I have no idea.
And what is the nonprofit trying to build behind you???
They sent it because they are building something right next to our house which will disturb our privacy and recommended that we reinstate the green belt.
Odds are the maps are correct to the property description, to the county and all other legal items. What probably is not correct is how the property was presented to the buyer. All the legal descriptions may exclude the greenbelt portion, just that when standing on the property, nobody measured it to see if what they saw matched what was the legal property. It's the old thing of looking at physical items and assuming they are the legal boundaries. Since no survey was done, the boundaries are based only on the visual property lines the seller assumed was the boundaries, not based on the facts.
In Oregon, this map would have been given to the buyer as part of the preliminary title report. The greenbelt would have been recorded at the county. I would want to know why that map isn't recorded at the county level. It would impact taxes and the assessor should have had a copy of it, which the title company would have pulled from. This 100% should have shown up on a title report, and the buyer needs to know why it wasn't there.
Yes, you are right. The county has the correct map. The thing is I did not do the due diligence of actually going to the county office and checking the map. and I am not the only one who missed this, the appraiser did (there is no mention of yard being smaller), the agents did...everyone missed it. Its unfortunate that the in this day and age the buyer has to do all the work, as much as going to the county office to check that the seller is selling the right property. Whats the Form 17 for then?
Here is the picture from the county. The map clearly states that 2004 sq.ft is NGPE. Shouldnt form 17 clearly state this?
Does this mean I have no case against the seller
Omission is misrepresentation. You would still potentially have a case against the seller.
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