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squatters rights

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jerseyridge

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

QUESTION- There is a parcel of property attached to the backyard of the existing owned and taxable property on a family house. For approx 50 years this parcel has been maintained as though it were part of the taxable property.
Approximately 20 years ago neighbors started enclosing this property up and down the street and using it as part of their own land. Nobody every raised a concern over this as the land was well kept and maintained. Some of these neighbors were able to gain the legal rights to the property and pay the appropriate taxes. Some have not, my family included. Although we have approached both the County (Suffolk) and the town (Babylon), we still maintain the property, but without a legal deed to it. The county claims the town owns it and the town claims the county owns it, and we would like to own it.
Can we claim squatters rights to this property (it is less than 1/8 acre - only a small plot)?
Please respond. As a side note, my father passed away in May and one of his last requests was that he/we make sure to get that title to this plot.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this question.
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
GO to your county board members and learn from one of them or have them find out what would be involved with buying the property. the logic of it is that if it is county owned land it would make good sense to be able to buy it from them or to see what it would take to have it added to your current parcel as a give away , wich atleast would give them more property tax money. IF they go for it seeing dollar signs for the county (even if little ones ) they may be able to help you especially if no one is paying taxes on whats left of the lot. ( ill bet your town says its county owned land because they do not want to maintain it LOL
 

divgradcurl

Senior Member
Can we claim squatters rights to this property (it is less than 1/8 acre - only a small plot)?
If the property is owned by the town or the country (or the state, or the federal government), no.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

QUESTION- There is a parcel of property attached to the backyard of the existing owned and taxable property on a family house. For approx 50 years this parcel has been maintained as though it were part of the taxable property.
Approximately 20 years ago neighbors started enclosing this property up and down the street and using it as part of their own land. Nobody every raised a concern over this as the land was well kept and maintained. Some of these neighbors were able to gain the legal rights to the property and pay the appropriate taxes. Some have not, my family included. Although we have approached both the County (Suffolk) and the town (Babylon), we still maintain the property, but without a legal deed to it. The county claims the town owns it and the town claims the county owns it, and we would like to own it.
Can we claim squatters rights to this property (it is less than 1/8 acre - only a small plot)?
Please respond. As a side note, my father passed away in May and one of his last requests was that he/we make sure to get that title to this plot.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this question.


**A: who owns this property?
 

jerseyridge

Junior Member
Thank you all for the responses. and..... the question still remains...
Who DOES own the property? Kind of leaves my family here in limbo, because neither county nor town want to acknowledge ownership. I cannot understand why they are passing up the given opportunity to bring in a couple of more dollars in their pockets either. The entire scenario makes little to no sense to me.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
If you are that serious about this, run a thorough title search (done by a title company) to determine exactly who owns it. All the answers vary depending upon private vs. government ownership.
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
If you are that serious about this, run a thorough title search (done by a title company) to determine exactly who owns it. All the answers vary depending upon private vs. government ownership.
And then file a lawsuit to put the property in your name (if it's private ownership).
 

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