Abandoned lot!

[DancingDeb]

We purchased our home on a 1 acre lot almost 11 years ago. There are seven homes on our street that each sit on 1 acre lots. There is a 1/2 acre lot between our home and the home next to us, that was originally left as a rightaway for the farmer who owns the corn field in back of our homes. He never uses it and does not take care of the lot. I have been mowing it for 11 years now since no one else would do it. I was told by a friend that after a certain amount of time of someone not tending to their property, they can loose it to whoever has been taking care of it. This sounded pretty unrealistic to me so I thought I should ask an expert.

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[Tracey]

No, to get the land by adverse possession, you have to exert exclusive control over it -- fence it off so the farmer can't use it, declare to the world it's yours, pay taxes on it, etc. What you've been doing is giving F a gift of free lawn care. You decided that it was worth the time & expense of mowing the grass yourself because you didn't want to live next to a meadow.

If what you really want to accopmlish is to force F to cut his own grass, you'll need to find a zoning law or restrictive covenant on the deeds requiring a certain minimum level of lawn care, then complain to the zoning enforcement board until they start ticketing F & he starts cutting the grass. Alternatively, you could talk to F & see about buying the lot, or about formalizing the mowing arrangement & getting paid.

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This is not legal advice and you are not my client. Double check everything with your own attorney and your state's laws.