Deeds and other property records should be reliable proof of where your property starts and another company’s property ends. When there are issues with these records, boundary disputes become inevitable.
Resolving a boundary dispute starts with collecting all of the relevant information. Once we know where the boundaries are supposed to be, we can negotiate from a position of strength. If the issue can be resolved with a simple agreement, we may be able to resolve the issue quickly. If it cannot be resolved, we may be able to go to court for a quiet title action.
Talk to the commercial real estate lawyers at Heyman Law Firm today at (410) 305-9287 to get started on your potential case.
Identifying Boundary Issues
Boundary issues commonly arise when you go to do something else, then find an issue with your current deed or title.
Purchase and Sale
Sometimes problems are discovered very early, when purchasing the property in the first place. Sometimes you can stop the purchase and go elsewhere, leaving the boundary issues for the original property owner. Sometimes you need the property, meaning you might need to resolve the issue first.
If you are the seller, you may need to resolve these issues before the sale can go through.
New Construction
Boundary disputes most commonly arise when you’re putting up a fence, a new parking lot/garage, or new buildings. For example, if you try to put a security fence around an apartment building you own, you might find that what you thought was the property line is actually 20 feet closer to your building than you expected it to be.
Zoning Applications
Applications with the zoning board often require close details about setbacks, locations, and other zoning requirements. These may reveal mismatches with your parcel compared to the city/county records.
Building Plans
When creating new buildings or renovating old ones, building plans often need to be submitted to the local municipality. This might similarly reveal problems with your parcel.
Complaints from Neighbors
Even commercial properties have neighbors, and they might be the ones to notice the issue first. If they start complaining or start formal litigation against you, you should have a real estate lawyer on your side immediately.
Evidence and Records to Examine
When you do come across potential boundary issues, there are three major sources of evidence as to where the property line actually should be:
County Records
Check your local city, municipal, or county records for where the parcel that is purportedly owned is actually located. This may allow you to do some quick math or measurements on your own to see if the issue is as bad as it seems.
If you were likely mistaken, there is likely no need to move forward with legal action.
Deeds
The deed will include a description of the property, including its boundaries. Depending on where the property is, the original deed may be quite old, and the description may be outrageous to modern readers.
In any case, mistakes may have been made that become apparent once a surveyor checks the deed.
Surveying
The only way you can know for sure whether the parcel matches the deed – and whether the boundaries are off – is to hire a surveyor. They will perform a survey to locate the boundary markers and follow the deed’s description of the property to find the precise location of the boundary lines.
Sometimes multiple surveyors disagree, creating additional problems for property owners.
Resolving Boundary Disputes
Boundary disputes often end in these ways:
Agreement
Property owners can simply agree where the line is and end any conflict. This will essentially change where the line is in formal records, leaving every future owner subject to the agreement.
This may involve an exchange. Sometimes, when the line ends up in the “wrong” place, you may need further agreements with your neighbors, such as an easement or an agreement to rent back the use of a facility on their side of the line, such as a portion of a parking lot.
Adverse Possession
People often hear and misunderstand the term “adverse possession.” Typically, adverse possession means using property that someone else owns for long enough that it becomes yours. This requires the use be
- Continuous, i.e., without a break
- Hostile, i.e., not necessarily “rude,” but rather without the true owner’s permission
- Open and notorious, i.e., not done in secret
- Actual, i.e., using the land, not just saying it’s yours
- Exclusive, i.e., without sharing actual control/use.
State law says how long you have to adversely possess the land before it becomes yours, and it usually requires payment of property taxes. Small strips of land may be adversely possessed at a time, but the intricate requirements are not often met, and this may not be the best way to “get” property you thought you owned all along.
Deed Correction
Sometimes the issue is not as bad as originally thought, and the line is in the place the property owners thought it should be. The only problem is that the deed is obviously wrong. E.g., a deed may say 10 instead of 100 feet, which could result in an absurd or impossible parcel.
To make sure that no future issues result, you can get the deed amended to clarify the issue or proceed with a sale.
Quiet Title Action
A quiet title action is essentially a lawsuit against anyone who thinks they might own a piece of land to establish, once and for all, through the courts, who the owner is.
The court will review records and surveys and each party’s claim to the property to decide who owns it. Then the court will update all of the records to state once and for all, now and going forward, where the line is.
Some of the other issues, such as adverse possession, need to ultimately be vindicated through quiet title actions.
Ejectment
Where quiet title is a lawsuit to get land you do not currently have the right to possess, ejectment is used to kick someone off land you do have the right to possess, but do not currently possess. These claims do not overlap, and you need to work with a lawyer to file the correct one for your situation.
Ejectment is often the solution when someone is encroaching on your property, such as when their fence or building hangs over the property line.
Call Our Real Estate and Boundary Dispute Attorneys
Call (410) 305-9287 today to talk to our commercial real estate lawyers at Heyman Law Firm about your boundary dispute.