Misrepresentation by realtor

[pmp0929]

Maryland

We recently purchased a house in Baltimore County, MD. The seller and the sellers agent walked me around the property to show me the property lines on 3 separate occasions. 1month after closing, we installed a fence on the property line. The day after install, the owner of the lots adjacent to ours indicated that the fence was on their property.
A survey was conducted and concluded that the property line is about 35 feet less than was was indicated on one side of the house and 15 feet on another.
We are moving the fence to the true property line.
When all is said and done, I will have paid for $11,000 for the fence, $3,000 for the survey, $2000 to move the fence...a total of $17,000.
Had the property lines been indicated correctly initially, it is doubtful that we would have purchase the home. If we would have gone through with the purchase, we would not have paid what we did for the house. I probably would have offered at least $50,000 - $75,000 less.

What is my recourse, if any?

 

[xylene]

Maryland

We recently purchased a house in Baltimore County, MD. The seller and the sellers agent walked me around the property to show me the property lines on 3 separate occasions. 1month after closing, we installed a fence on the property line. The day after install, the owner of the lots adjacent to ours indicated that the fence was on their property.
A survey was conducted and concluded that the property line is about 35 feet less than was was indicated on one side of the house and 15 feet on another.
We are moving the fence to the true property line.
When all is said and done, I will have paid for $11,000 for the fence, $3,000 for the survey, $2000 to move the fence...a total of $17,000.
Had the property lines been indicated correctly initially, it is doubtful that we would have purchase the home. If we would have gone through with the purchase, we would not have paid what we did for the house. I probably would have offered at least $50,000 - $75,000 less.

What is my recourse, if any?

Get a lawyer and attack this problem...

Your weak spot is not getting a survey.

 

[jimmler]

Maryland

We recently purchased a house in Baltimore County, MD. The seller and the sellers agent walked me around the property to show me the property lines on 3 separate occasions. 1month after closing, we installed a fence on the property line. The day after install, the owner of the lots adjacent to ours indicated that the fence was on their property.
A survey was conducted and concluded that the property line is about 35 feet less than was was indicated on one side of the house and 15 feet on another.
We are moving the fence to the true property line.
When all is said and done, I will have paid for $11,000 for the fence, $3,000 for the survey, $2000 to move the fence...a total of $17,000.
Had the property lines been indicated correctly initially, it is doubtful that we would have purchase the home. If we would have gone through with the purchase, we would not have paid what we did for the house. I probably would have offered at least $50,000 - $75,000 less.

What is my recourse, if any?

It was your responsibility to have a boundary survey performed before you closed on the property. When making what could possibly be the biggest investment of your life, it is important and valuable to know the limits of what you are buying. A land owner and a real estate agent are not registered land surveyors.

jimmler
I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying since 1989.

 

[lizjimbo]

Cut your losses

A lawyer will just cost you a lot more money and may get nowhere. The defense I would use is "Your honor we were just telling the buyer where we thought the approximate locations of the lines were. I am not a land surveyor and I am sorry the buyer relied on my non professional judgement. I may have even suggested the buyer hire a land surveyor to be certain about the lines. If the buyer was so certain they would not have bought the house if the lines were not exactly where I thought they were, it was encumbent upon the buyer to have the lines surveyed and marked. The buyer never mentioned to us that the determining factor for the sale was where the exact location of the lines were."