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I just bought a house a month ago, and just had it surveyed. Come to find out that the corner of the neighbors house is on my land. It normally wouldn't be a big deal to me, but the neighbor came over and said that we mowed part of his grass and that we cut it to short. First of all it was literally 2 inches of grass, so I was like WHO CARES. Then the neighbors accused us of throwing trash in the middle of his yard-not just small trash, but he accused us of dragging logs and brush over to his property-which we totally did not do. So he's already made me mad. What can I do about the corner of their home being on my land? Can I put up a fence right next to his house since I own that land?
Simple advice here, and you should take it--talk to a good real estate lawyer about this! This could be a real simple fix, or it could be a real mess depending on a lot of factors. Generally, since you own the land, you are in the driver's seat. What should happen is that the neighbor's title company will require your neighbor to fix this before clear title can be conveyed (i.e., if he ever tries to sell or transfer the property). In the easy case, friendly neighbors agree to a fair market price, a few documents are filed with the register of deeds to officially change the boundary line, and it's done. In more messy cases where the parties can't agree (which sounds likely here), you'll need good legal advice to protect your rights and to understand your negotiating position.
Good luck with this, and keep us posted on what happens--I'm curious to know how it turns out for you.
So how in the world did you manage to buy a house without getting a proper survey first? No lender would approve a loan like that--did you pay cash? Lesson to all, make sure you know what you're buying and insist ona preclosing survey. This is what a good real estate agent and closing attorney should ahve caught.
Okay. Adverse possession. If the house has been there a long time - and I am not sure how many years it takes to claim adverse possession in NC - you may have a big problem and little recourse.
How old is your neighbor's house? That's the first question.
And how the heck did you buy a house w/o having it surveyed FIRST?
I hope you bought title insurance, it'll help in this situation. But in any case, Arby got it right, you'll need to bring in a good real estate attorney to sort this out for you. He should do some research down at the courthouse to find out if somewhere way back a variance or setback was given to YOUR property by that property, or vice-versa, or whatever might be the original problem. I mean, could be some of your land isn't yours! If so, you'll then know where you can legally build your fence, and then build it ASAP.
But if this attorney discovers the mean man's house is indeed on your property, you can choose to ignore the problem of him being on your land, and instead have a company build your fence (to keep you physically out of the picture), and GIVE the fellow's house a good setback, so he can at least comfortably get the size of a riding mower around his house. If he has a problem with what's going on, simply tell him to contact your attorney.
And I do indeed think you should build a fence for sure, since the mean man apparently bothers other people, and perhaps the previous owners, the same way he's doing you. This needs to end as quickly as it started. And you don't even have to talk to that guy again, just refer him to your attorney, and make sure your attorney will be willing to respond to anything that fellow throws at you.
I would believe by this time you have rectified the situation. If not there are a few different avenues to approaching this problem.
The first (and the one I suggest) is a land swap were you convey to him a large enough piece of property to meet zoning around his house and he in return gives you a similiar sized piece of land else where along the boundary. The issue with this of course being the zoning issues as it may be hard to configure the swap parcels adequately to meet local zoning rules.
The second issue is more on your neighbors part in that he can claim adverse possession of the property his house occupies. In North Carolina he would have to openly and hostilely occupy the land in question for 20 years. They would then have to prove some other items, etc......so it can be done, but is very costly and an amicable solution is usually less expensive and faster.
I would talk with the neighbor and show him the survey to present the issue. Present the land swap idea and hopefully he is open to rectifying the situation. If he is not open to that course of action, then definitely consult a good land lawyer. Ask specifically about their experience in land law. Finding an attorney with land law experience is hard (not a very lucrative part of that profession, so there are few lawyers specializing in the land portion of law) but worth the time.
More importantly...don't ignore the situation, be amicable, and realize this is not a problem either of you caused. It is just yours to fix and protect your investment.
To Tkhk....I am sorry about the lousy impression you have of North Carolina land surveyors. As in every business, people occasionally make mistakes. Hopefully the next time you have to work with a surveyor he will meet your criteria.
I was amazed to find out what surveyors in NC charge for a simple subdivision plat survey. In NVa you can get one for $250-500 but here I think I was quoted more in the range of $1000-1500. Just to get your property line flagged was $500. Fortunately I was able to download a copy of the plat from the Buncombe County website and then verify that the boundary markers set in concrete were still there. Our settling attorney advised us that in our case with a cash purchase and a house in a subdivision and no encroachments we really didn't need one--hope he was right, and yes we did get title insurance--Larry
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