• 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.

Please take a look at my encroachment case

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

rayking

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My house had a piece of patio and a garden on neighbor's land. They were like that since the house was built in 1970(parents and son at that time). The two houses were sold to different people after parents passed away in 90's. The neighbor now wanted to remove the patio and the garden and he wanted us to pay for it because he said the patio and the garden were built by the previous owner of my house. We actually don't really need the patio and the garden but we don't want to pay for the money to remove them since they were not mine. Could the neighbor force us to do that?

Thanks.
 


gryndor

Member
rayking said:
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My house had a piece of patio and a garden on neighbor's land. They were like that since the house was built in 1970(parents and son at that time). The two houses were sold to different people after parents passed away in 90's. The neighbor now wanted to remove the patio and the garden and he wanted us to pay for it because he said the patio and the garden were built by the previous owner of my house. We actually don't really need the patio and the garden but we don't want to pay for the money to remove them since they were not mine. Could the neighbor force us to do that?

Thanks.
This question has been asked several times before in several different ways. Try a search in the Neighbors and Boundaries forum.

Gryn
 
Last edited:

HomeGuru

Senior Member
rayking said:
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

My house had a piece of patio and a garden on neighbor's land. They were like that since the house was built in 1970(parents and son at that time). The two houses were sold to different people after parents passed away in 90's. The neighbor now wanted to remove the patio and the garden and he wanted us to pay for it because he said the patio and the garden were built by the previous owner of my house. We actually don't really need the patio and the garden but we don't want to pay for the money to remove them since they were not mine. Could the neighbor force us to do that?

Thanks.
**A: yes, because you are on the neighbors private property.
 

rayking

Junior Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: yes, because you are on the neighbors private property.
Why could the neighbor hold us responsible for what the previous owner did? Did he need to prove that? If we don't want to remove that, what can he do? Thanks
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
rayking said:
Why could the neighbor hold us responsible for what the previous owner did?

**A: because that is how the real property law works.
********
Did he need to prove that?

**A: only via a survey.
******
If we don't want to remove that, what can he do? Thanks

**A: take you to court to remove it or remove it himself and them take you to court to pay for the cost.
 

rayking

Junior Member
We do want to buy the land from the neighbor but he asked for too much. He asked for $50,000 for the land that is assessed for $2100. It doesn't make sense for me to accept his price. I could offer him more than what is assessed but definitly won't be about 25 times what is assessed for. Can I apply for a prescriptive easement or an implied easement? The areas have been open, permanent and visible for at least 12 years. The encroachment has been recorded in town as well as the registry of deeds. The neighbor actually bought the house with the knowledge of one encroachment and witnessed the building of another one without saying a word until now which is 12 years later. During this period of time, my house has been sold to my previous owner then to me. Besides that he even allowed the previous owner of my house paying the tax for the land for more than 6 years after he bought the house(this is recorded in previous owner's MLC). There were no changes made to both encroachment by me either. I kept them exactly the same way when I bought the house. We really have no intention to seize his land. Both we and our previous owner initialized the talk with him for buying the land. This guy is just too too greedy. We think it is for our best interest to legalize this. Does anyone have an idea how much it will cost to have this done? What kind of attorney we should hire and what court we should file the case to? Do we need to send him a letter to notify that before we start the process? Thanks.

HomeGuru said:
rayking said:
Why could the neighbor hold us responsible for what the previous owner did?

**A: because that is how the real property law works.
********
Did he need to prove that?

**A: only via a survey.
******
If we don't want to remove that, what can he do? Thanks

**A: take you to court to remove it or remove it himself and them take you to court to pay for the cost.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
Assessments can be very inaccurate reflections of value. Especially the underlying land value. Use an appraisal, not the assessment.
 

rayking

Junior Member
Thanks, Nextwife. This is a good point. For the appraisor, are they licensed? Do they guarantee their work is fair? I am afraid there could be disagreement about which appraisor to hire if we could expect different appraisor results
nextwife said:
Assessments can be very inaccurate reflections of value. Especially the underlying land value. Use an appraisal, not the assessment.
 

rayking

Junior Member
I am sure my house value won't increase $50k if we buy the land and the neighbor's house won't decrease $50k if he sold the land to us. We are the only one who could buy this land because the land couldn't be used by anyone else. It is also too small for building a new house. This guy is way too greedy and kept flip-flop.
rayking said:
Thanks, Nextwife. This is a good point. For the appraisor, are they licensed? Do they guarantee their work is fair? I am afraid there could be disagreement about which appraisor to hire if we could expect different appraisor results
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Then the solution would be to either remove your encroachments or execute an encroachment agreement with the neighbor.
 

Garby

Junior Member
Conflicting answer?

In today's San Francisco Chronicle, this was in a real estate Q & A column, by Robert Bruss:

"Q. The house in back of mine was recently sold. The new neighbor contacted me to inform me that my fence is about 2 feet on his side of the true boundary, and he wants me to pay to have it moved. That fence has been there as long as I have owned my home. He claims his survey shows my fence is on his property. Do I have to pay to move it? Tampa, Fla.
A. No. Whether you or a previous owner of your home built the fence on the neighbor's lot (presuming the survey is accurate), you have no legal obligation to pay for its removal.
There is a very logical reason. If the fence is indeed on your neighbor's lot, it belongs to your neighbor. If he wants to tear it down, he can do so at his expense."

This appears to conflict with previous responses regarding the patio and garden on the neighbor's property. Does the law vary from state to state on this issue?
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Garby said:
In today's San Francisco Chronicle, this was in a real estate Q & A column, by Robert Bruss:

"Q. The house in back of mine was recently sold. The new neighbor contacted me to inform me that my fence is about 2 feet on his side of the true boundary, and he wants me to pay to have it moved. That fence has been there as long as I have owned my home. He claims his survey shows my fence is on his property. Do I have to pay to move it? Tampa, Fla.
A. No. Whether you or a previous owner of your home built the fence on the neighbor's lot (presuming the survey is accurate), you have no legal obligation to pay for its removal.
There is a very logical reason. If the fence is indeed on your neighbor's lot, it belongs to your neighbor. If he wants to tear it down, he can do so at his expense."

This appears to conflict with previous responses regarding the patio and garden on the neighbor's property. Does the law vary from state to state on this issue?

**A: Mr. Bruss is correct and there is no conflict with my response.
In this case, the neighbor does not want to claim ownership of the patio and garden.
 

rayking

Junior Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: Mr. Bruss is correct and there is no conflict with my response.
In this case, the neighbor does not want to claim ownership of the patio and garden.
I did some research on the neighbor's deed. There is a sentence like this in it:

Subject to easements and restrictions of record insofar as the same may be in force and applicable.

Since the patio encroachment is in a lot plan recorded in registry of deeds before he bought the house, does this mean he actually already took the house acknowledging this as the easement?

Thanks.
 

rayking

Junior Member
I read some book and it said it was something called "implied easement".

rayking said:
I did some research on the neighbor's deed. There is a sentence like this in it:

Subject to easements and restrictions of record insofar as the same may be in force and applicable.

Since the patio encroachment is in a lot plan recorded in registry of deeds before he bought the house, does this mean he actually already took the house acknowledging this as the easement?

Thanks.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
rayking said:
I did some research on the neighbor's deed. There is a sentence like this in it:

Subject to easements and restrictions of record insofar as the same may be in force and applicable.

Since the patio encroachment is in a lot plan recorded in registry of deeds before he bought the house, does this mean he actually already took the house acknowledging this as the easement?

Thanks.

**A: no, because the easement must be of record, ie. meaning recorded on title.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

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