Jeff Wisnia wrote:
stay da course? wrote:

finally they are going to tell us where the property line is.
we bought this place with the understanding that there was an
encroachment.
a fence and chicken coup supposedly on our land.
Now , when we get the correct boundary , how to delicately get the
stuborn
old guy to move it?
he even tilted the roof of the coop to dump rain into our yard. Hasn't
helped the septic drain field.
HELP!
I Remember Another Quagmire = IRAQ


You will probably be better off "putting it away" and applying your
energies to other things. The time to do something about it was when you
were considering and negtiating for the purchase of the place.


If he justs ignores it, besides having the coop and fence on his
property, he could wind up losing the land under the coop too. Right
now, if the coop is indeed on his property, the neighbor is meeting
many of the requirements for adverse possession. However, he may not
have met the time reqt which can be 20 years. If the owner just waits
and does nothing, it could result in the neighbor having a valid
adverse possession claim to the land under the coop.

Which is why he needs a lawyer familiar with the state laws.




Since you referred to the encroacher as a "stubborn old guy" I have to
assume you've already discussed the matter with him and he's essentially
said, "So what? Sue me if you don't like it." to you.

Chances are the lawyer's fees needed to pursue the matter to where you
have an absolute right to tear down his stuff will be enough to make you
think twice about it.

"Ah feel your pain", though.....

Three years ago some folks bought the house and land next door to us and
before I knew what was happening the backhoes were enlarging their back
yard it and the masons were building stone retaining walls on part of
our property which lay beyond the hedges I'd put in to create a boundary
on what we wanted to use as our back yard.

I'd forgotten exactly where the property line was , so I hired a
surveyor to stake it out again, which cost a bit over $1,000. The survey
showed that the new neighbor had beautified about 700 square feet of our
property and was using it as though he owned it. He'd also plopped a
prefab shed down, right against the property line, without regard to the
town zoning requirement for a six foot setback.

I approached the neighbor about it and told him I'd feel OK about
letting him use our land if he'd just reimburse me the proportional
property taxes on it, about $100.00, once a year.

He stalled giving me an answer for weeks and when it became apparant he
wasn't going to do that willingly, I asked a real estate lawyer in my
Rotary Club about it. He said, "Fughedit, you aren't using that land
anyway, and you'd spend a fortune in legal fees to end up having to live
next to a neighbor who hates you."

I took his advice, life is too short to get my shorts twisted up for
long over things like that.

FWIW our lot is "Registered Land" here in Massachussetts, which means
adverse possession can't give the neighbor any rights, plus the statute
time for adverse possession here is 20 years anyway.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.