• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

CC&Rs include encroachment easement

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

R

R W White

Guest
What is the name of your state? California

I live in a 30 year old planned development where in buying my house last year I agreed to abide by a Declaration of Restrictions. One of these reads partly as follows: "Each lot within the Properties is hereby declared to have an easement over all adjoining Lots for the purpose of accomodating any encroachment due to engineering errors in original construction, settlement or shifting of the building, roof overhangs, architectural or other appendages, drainage of rainwater from roofs, or any other cause." I have discovered that whereas my frontage on the plat (subdivision map) is 101 feet, the actual frontage is only 90 feet, due apparently to sloppy measuring many years ago -- perhaps more than a quarter of a century. This property lost more than 10 percent of itself! It appears that half of this area is lost along each side of the lot. The only structures in the area in question are fences. There are some plantings. The land is very tight in this neighborhood of Marin County, and extraordinarily valuable. I would like to use an area of "my land" that has nothing on it but some ivy and some very small trees (say, two inches in diameter at the ground) but that extends past the previously assumed property line and come up to the edge of an area my neighbor uses frequently. Presently, he enjoys about ten feet of separation from my activities, but the only present barrier is a lath fence well within the historic area of my lot, unquestionably owned completely by me and subject to my removal at any time. I would like to know if I can take into my use for a ground level deck the space up to the original property line. May I? That is to say, I suppose, what does "or any other cause" mean? Small trees and bushes? Ivy? Simply, the neighbors' desire for continued privacy? Even more basically, their desire to have nothing change? To lose nothing at all? After all, they bought their place assuming that was their land. And, more out of curiosity than anything else, do both neighbors now, for practical purposes, own all of the land on their side of the fences? (The fence on the side I am primarily concerned with begins farther back on the property than the area in question.) My hunch is that the answer to what I can do with the land is whatever the Homeowners Association says it is, as they enforce the CC&Rs, or maybe whatever the City of Novato says it is, as they back up the CC&Rs. Assuming I am out of luck on this, might I have any claim against the Title Company? or to have my taxes reassessed based on a 12 percent or so smaller lot?
 


FarmerJ

Senior Member
You should have a current boundry survey made so you know exactly where your lot lines are . Then it would be easier for you to have a real estate atty review your documents .
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top