Encroachment and divorce

[cricket22]

I am in Kentucky.

Some time back (2-3 years), our neighbor built an addition to his house that ended up being on our property. At the time this occurred, we were unaware that the property line was where it legally is...and did not know about the encroachment until we had our property surveyed about a year later. I would like any advice on what I am legally entitled to given the following options:

1) The neighbors have recently divorced and are undergoing some very ugly property disputes. They have so far not managed to unentangle either of their names from the debt of the property, and are upside-down in their loan. The bank and PVA are unaware that they have built the house on our property, which means their value is higher than it should be.

2) I am not sure, but I don't even know if they had the required permits to build the extension.

3) We have tried to settle this out of court, as in a property swap, but now one of the residents will not agree because it forfeits their right to "gain" the house. They are buying time until the other party gives in and gives them the property.

4) There is a good chance they will go bankrupt and I have no idea how that will affect my chances at getting some sort of compensation.

I am not delighted at the possibility of tangling in a legal battle given there are already so many legal battles over this property in the first place. Also, they are only 10 feet onto our property, and it may be less cost-effective for me to sue them than to somehow get them to agree to a swap. BUT. Given all the factors, I do want some official record in place to let the banks or courts know what is going on, instead of both parties trying to use the higher valuation for their own purposes and then probably bringing the house to bankruptcy.

Any suggestions on the wisest course of action?

 

[FarmerJ]

The first and easiest thing to do is go to your city/county permit desk and give them the address and see if they filed a permit for the work, It is public information that any one can view, and then learn what the setback requirements are. Once you have those two answers you will be able to make a choice , being that if no permits were filed to go to the person in charge of inspections and show them your survey and inform them that this property had a addition done with out permit. Push for tear down orders. It is not unheard of for building inspections to order walls to be removed to view wiring ,framing etc including going to the extreme of ordering full tear down , this way these people may feel that they have no choice but to do the property swap to avoid complete tear down.

 

[latigo]

The issues here have solely to do with the physical location of the structure.

NOT whether the erection of the structure was done in compliance with or in violation of local ordinances. That would be an issue between the owner and the political subdivision. And nor more direct concern of yours were it an addition to a home miles distant from your property.

It’s where the structure sits - not how it was made to sit where it sits. Geez!

But the question remains, does it encroach or not?

And simply saying that a belated survey proves that it does encroach is not quite enough.

There a number of factors that can affect, adjust and fix common property boundary lines.

You need to spend some money with a local attorney.

 

[HuAi]

Latigo - a building permit ensures that a structure is built where it's supposed to be built, not just its build quality. The local municipality has the bite to do something about this situation, and will take this up free of charge. Farmer J gave excellent advice.