Land Plat Dispute - Builder, Surveyor and County Liability After a Sale

[qbert22]

I am in Washington County, MN. Purchased a model home in 2014. As part of closing we received a land plat and we obtained a copy of the neighborhood development land plat from our county surveyor. Fast forward two years, we decide to start trimming trees on the back of our property and our neighbor behind us says that our plat is incorrect even though in was done in 2014 and there's was done prior.

They claim to own 1,500 sqft of our yard. To make matters worse our house was built on top of a demolished school and property lines were redrawn and roads vacated to make way for the new development we now live in 2014.

I recently returned from the county surveyor office and their records show that our plat is correct, but the county surveyor acknowledged that our builder and the builder surveyor along with the county surveyor signed off on an incorrect land plat not only on my property but five other home owners and havent caught the error until now. We are now going to lose 1,500 sqft of property from our 15,000 sqft lot that has a home valued at $850,000 on it. There are issues about taxes I have paid on the property to the county, previous landscape bills completed using city permits and am looking for payment from the builder as well.

We bought the home because it was on the woods and had treehouse and garden plans but those are currently shot. I have contacted my title company since I have title insurance and have contacted the builder. We picked out this model house on this lot because the lot had a ton of trees which now turn out to not be owned by us. We didn't sign any builder agreements because we bought a model. Now we are left wondering what we can do? Any advice. Thanks.

 

[justalayman]

I'm not clear on how you got to where you are. Your lot has defined dimensions, even if it is labeled "lot 113 of Jim Bob's subdivision". You purchased that lot described by those dimensions.


Is there an overlap when you layout your lot and the neighbors lot?

Does your lot not layout where you were told or believed your lot was located?

Something else?

 

[qbert22]

I'm not clear on how you got to where you are. Your lot has defined dimensions, even if it is labeled "lot 113 of Jim Bob's subdivision". You purchased that lot described by those dimensions.


Is there an overlap when you layout your lot and the neighbors lot?

Does your lot not layout where you were told or believed your lot was located?

Something else?

Amazing story right. The county, the builder, the surveyor. Everyone signed off on the plat and five of my neighbors plats. No discrepancies were found at closing either. The issue centered around an elementary school being torn down and turned into a fifteen home development.

At that point several roads were vacated to the neighborhood once the new residential plats were made and approved by the county. Turns out everyone incorrectly assigned the vacated property and the error was just caught be me and my neighbor behind me when I was looking to do some landscaping.

All the plats on file with the county and government officials and the builder show my lot is correct but now the county says these were now incorrect and everyone approved the error. The neighborhood is looking to get a real estate lawyer because we all purchased homes and land that was approved at one price and now the land size has changed. Lots of finger pointing and someone is going to have reimburse someone for land lost.

We have all the paperwork showing the defined lot dimensions with all the signatures. Turns out the surveyor vacated 30 feet x 100 feet per plot when they should have vacated 15 feet x 100 feet per plot. Builder signed off, inspectors signed, off title company, county officials even the master development plan in the local county offices all have it wrong. I was shocked that an error of this magnitude could happen.

 

[justalayman]

Your explanation isn't the clearest but from what I can understand, when one of the roads was vacated instead of half of it going to the neighbor you are dealing with the entire road was added to your lot. Would that be what happened?

For that to make a difference the neighbors lot would have to be preexisting to the vacation of the road. Otherwise if it was simply part of your development the land would have made into one major plat and divided as the division plan designated. Would that be a correct assumption?


Did you purchase title insurance (buyers policy)?

Was there any title insurance purchase on your lot? If so, unless the area in question was excluded from coverage I would be asking the title insurance company what they are going to do about the matter. If the policy includes the land in question, they are obligated to support your claim to the land described in your deed.

 

[qbert22]

Your explanation isn't the clearest but from what I can understand, when one of the roads was vacated instead of half of it going to the neighbor you are dealing with the entire road was added to your lot. Would that be what happened?

For that to make a difference the neighbors lot would have to be preexisting to the vacation of the road. Otherwise if it was simply part of your development the land would have made into one major plat and divided as the division plan designated. Would that be a correct assumption?


Did you purchase title insurance (buyers policy)?

Was there any title insurance purchase on your lot? If so, unless the area in question was excluded from coverage I would be asking the title insurance company what they are going to do about the matter. If the policy includes the land in question, they are obligated to support your claim to the land described in your deed.

You got it correct. My neighbor behind me was from an existing neighborhood that bordered the previous school before it was turned into my neighborhood. They were to get half of the vacated road. No where was it ever recorded that way all the way back to the developer buying the land from the county all the way through home construction and sale of all the homes in the neighborhood. It's crazy to think how many inspectors and officials signed off and no one caught the vacate error. All official documentation shows our neighborhood owns the vacated road not half.

I do have title insurance and have a call in to start the conversation there since I have the documents to back my claim.

 

[qbert22]

You got it correct. My neighbor behind me was from an existing neighborhood that bordered the previous school before it was turned into my neighborhood. They were to get half of the vacated road. No where was it ever recorded that way all the way back to the developer buying the land from the county all the way through home construction and sale of all the homes in the neighborhood. It's crazy to think how many inspectors and officials signed off and no one caught the vacate error. All official documentation shows our neighborhood owns the vacated road not half.

I do have title insurance and have a call in to start the conversation there since I have the documents to back my claim.

A big question is how to determine the damages or fair price for the land in question and who is liable.

 

[justalayman]

I'll bet your title insurance will give you a value they believe is adequate.


Check with some other local appraisers before you accept the title companies offer.

 

[FarmerJ]

Since Washington county has quite a variety of housing stock and lot sizes like how parts of Oakdale and Woodbury have tightly built suburbia style lots to the larger parcels in the southern and eastern areas of the county you may want to use a large number of search results to try to determine what that land is worth ( I would imagine if you HAD to have that kind of information if you at least got it your self you may end up saving some money as well as getting a idea of its value so you know for your self instead of having to go with someone elses numbers)