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Hi! - Three of us in my neighborhood are being threatened by a developer who bought up some empty land in back of us and now claims that part of our backyards are on his property. (He showed up pounding on my next-door neighbor's door on Thanksgiving AND Christmas Even mornings demanding that my neighbor, who is a recent immigrant, sign a paper agreeing with this.)
We doubt that the developer is right, one reason being that fifteen years ago, the company that used to own the developer's property offered to put up chain link fences for free along our back property lines, expressly in order to separate our properties from the company's. Now this new developer is saying that three feet on our side of the fence is his.
So now my two neighbors and I want to establish exactly where our property lines lie. Our houses are three in a row, the yards are plain rectangles with the same back and front property lines. We figured that having our places surveyed by one surveyor would save money, since he would essentially be establishing only six boundary lines instead of the twelve that would be necessary if the three houses were located in different neighborhoods.
I contacted a surveyor from the yellow pages who said that, since I had a formal survey of my property done seventeen years ago, with pins put in ot mark the corners, he could proabably locate the pins with a metal detector and use them to establish my boundary lines.
When i had the previous survey done, it cost less than $700, including the metal corner pins and a survey map filed with the town clerk. The surveyor I contacted this time has given me and my neighbors an estimate of between $660 - $910 each to establish our boundary lines and set corner pins where needed. (Also he already wrote a brief letter to the developer on behalf of my next-door neighbor, who the developer is putting the most pressure on.)
I know prices have gone up since I had the original survey done, but still I was thinking that having all three houses done at once, plus the fact that my corner pins are probably still in place, would bring the price down for each of us to the same or lower than what I paid last time.
I didn't exactly perform due diligence in selecting this new surveyor (the one I had last time is retired), just picked at random from the phone book and thought he sounded honest, and he does seem to be a decent guy.
But since I picked him out on behalf of my neighbors as well as myself, I'd like to have more to go on than intuition. Does anybody know whether this sounds like a fair price? We're in Connecticut. Any advice or opinions will be very much appreciated! - Carol
Sounds to me that you are on the verge of the lawsuit situation. The best course action is to start interviewing attorneys that have experience with this kind of thing. If the attorney recommends that you need a surveyor I would go with the firm that the attorney recommends. You don't want to be in situation where you go to court and the surveyor you hired says something that makes it sound like you told him where "draw the line" -- that would be a huge mistake.
I would guess that most surveyors realize the potential for a court fight over a "boundary dispute" but should the guy harassing your neighbor go to court the LAST thing you want is to appear to be "master minding " the whole thing...
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
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First of all, have you consulted a real estate attorney?
If you've had your fence (an improvement) on that land for fifteen years and you've paid property tax on that extra bit of land, then in GA (at least it used to be) you may have some rights to that property.
I would consult an attorney first and see what they suggest do.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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I'd offer the developer a chance to participate in the cost of the survey. If there is an existing survey on the property, you might be able to take the measurements to the back of your property from a reference point in front.
The developer is going to have to have a survey of the property if he's going to do any subdivision of the land anyway. In my state any survey done is usually filed with the county surveyor's office, you might check there to see if the developer has already had a survey done or to even get a copy of the original survey that the surveyor suggested had been done long ago.
"We doubt that the developer is right, one reason being that fifteen years ago, the company that used to own the developer's property offered to put up chain link fences for free along our back property lines, expressly in order to separate our properties from the company's. Now this new developer is saying that three feet on our side of the fence is his."
I wouldn't be surprised if the former property owner/company that built the fence put it entirely on their own property rather than on yours or on the line.
Unless you had a legal agreement rather than a handshake, and a survey done to indicate where the fence is located, they may well have done that purposely just to avoid any entanglement about the fence's location.
The cost seems reasonable compared to the price you paid 17 years ago, considering inflation over that period of time.
Even the $700 is higher than I would expect to pay in North Carolina today to have pins set at the corners of a lot.
And I like the idea, a lot, of talking to a RE attorney and considering using a surveyor that the attorney has experience with.
I agree with DM. In order to subdivide the property has to be surveyed anyway. If you are disputing his surveyor, then you would need to pay for your own.
Sounds to me that you are on the verge of the lawsuit situation. The best course action is to start interviewing attorneys that have experience with this kind of thing. If the attorney recommends that you need a surveyor I would go with the firm that the attorney recommends. You don't want to be in situation where you go to court and the surveyor you hired says something that makes it sound like you told him where "draw the line" -- that would be a huge mistake.
I would guess that most surveyors realize the potential for a court fight over a "boundary dispute" but should the guy harassing your neighbor go to court the LAST thing you want is to appear to be "master minding " the whole thing...
That is what title insurance is for..Owner's Policies specifically.
A survey should have been done at closing for each of the three homes (sounds like that was done from OP's post).
If you have the original survey and it shows the pins then they are easy enough to find yourself.
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
1,516 posts, read 4,589,470 times
Reputation: 677
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2bindenver
Does Adverse Possession pop up in anyone else's mind?
I think that's what I meant. I couldn't remember the RE term for it...
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