Property Line

[ziphash]

In Ohio, my in-laws bought a house for us to rent from them & eventually buy. We have not had the land surveyed, but according to our estimates the neighbor has a large dog pen that extends about 10 feet into our back yard. Because that part of the yard is down over an embankment & we have no real intentions of using it, we really don't have a problem with the dog pen being there. However, someone told us that if we allow him to keep it there for a certain period of time he could eventually claim it as part of his property & we would lose that land. Does anyone know if that is true & if it is what the time limit is on it because he told us he put it there last April.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

Originally posted by ziphash
In Ohio, my in-laws bought a house for us to rent from them & eventually buy. We have not had the land surveyed, but according to our estimates the neighbor has a large dog pen that extends about 10 feet into our back yard. Because that part of the yard is down over an embankment & we have no real intentions of using it, we really don't have a problem with the dog pen being there. However, someone told us that if we allow him to keep it there for a certain period of time he could eventually claim it as part of his property & we would lose that land. Does anyone know if that is true & if it is what the time limit is on it because he told us he put it there last April.

My response:

Hey Zippy! Long time no hear! How's the troll?

Anyway, with your newest situation, what you're trying to talk about is "Adverse Possession" (AP). This is an action whereby someone, who is not an owner of your land, is trying to take your land for his own by his "open and conspicuous" usage of your land.

Never let this happen.

While AP take years to accomplish and perfect, time has a way of slipping by all of us when we're not paying too much attention. A prime example of this is your child. Remember when your child was born, and how small he was? And now, without you realizing it, your child is ready for grammar school. Time flies.

The same thing can happen with AP. Before you know it, your neighbor is making a lawful claim to your land.

So, here's how to avoid it AFTER YOU OBTAIN A SURVEY - -

1. Tell him to remove his property from your land, or

2. Write him a Certified Return Receipt letter stating that your survey shows that he is on your land, and that for the short term of, say, one year, you'll allow him to keep his property on your land. Also, you'll need to say that you are not relinquishing your property rights or ownership to that area of land, and that you are only affording him a terminable license to use your land, terminable on written notice by you.

You must then, each year, write this same CRR letter to him if you want to maintain your ownership interests in that portion of your land.

But, as you can already see, this is going to be your burden, and you may forget to do all of this. The simple thing to do would be to get your survey, and tell him, politely, to remove his property from your land. That way, your land will always be yours, and you won't have to keep remembering to do the above.

Good luck to you.

IAAL

[ziphash]

Hey IAAL! Thanks for your advice. I'm in the process of finding a surveyor. If the neighbor's property is on ours, I'll just ask them to move it. It'll just be the easiest thing to do.

The troll's been pretty quiet lately which makes me a little uneasy. This past winter, she told me she was getting divorced; but I haven't heard anything about it since then. She has agreed to let me keep my son for the entire summer every year if I don't come get him at Christmas. It really sucks to see him only once a year, but I end up getting him for a lot longer this way.

Thanks again for your help!