A neighbor is threatening to make me move a sand mound

[danrussoa]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Pa

My father passed on and I got his house in the estate. Part of his sand mound (drainage bed from septic tank) was put on the neighbors ground about eight years ago. The neighbors have sold their property since then and the new guy and his father have given me a LOW offer on my fathers house and land saying they will make me move the sand mound if I sell it to anyone else. He also swears they owned the property the sand mound is on while we were installing it. I know this to be not true. If I sell this property can they make me move it (approx 10,000 dollars) or can this be considered an easement or is it grandfathered in any way? I personally am not part of the sue happy craze sweeping the country but I do not want to lose several thousand dollars on bad information. Another point for clarity is this is a rural area with no curb appeal or anything the like. The property where the sand mound is located is overgrown with weeds and trees and there is a small swamp near it. Thanks

 

[FarmerJ]

Do you have a current boundry survey showing you that the property they claim belongs to them or not ? If you dont have current boundry survey then you should get one and find out the truth.

 

[danrussoa]

Property survey

I know some of it is on their property. My point is it was there before they bought the property and I think my dad had an informal agreement with the prior owners whom I would not begin to know how to get hold of. It was like" hey Jason, you mind if i run over a little" And he obviously said he did not mind or he would not have done it. The current owner knew it was there when he bought it cause he used to b.s. with my dad and they were friends. Now he is trying to use the moving of the sandmound as leverage to get the property off me at a very low price. Do I have to move it or is their some kind of grandfather law?

 

[nextwife]

Verbal agreements are not valid in real estate. If that neighbor WAS agreeable about the enroachment, Dad SHOULD have obtained an easment which would have given his house the LEGAL right to continue encroaching. These neighbors are NOT friends, they paid for the entire house and lot, and do not wish to have you continue to encroach.

Eight years does not begin to be a long enough time period for an adverse possession claim, as PA has a 21 year time frame.. There are other elements of adverse possession as well, but, the bottom line is that I see no legal way that this encroachment is protected, or "grandfathered"..

Get a survey and verfify what , if anything, as actually encroaching on your neighbor's property.

http://www.lgc.state.pa.us/deskbook03/Issues29.pdf

 

[nextwife]

Another optrion for you, if a survey does confirm encroachment, is to negotiate with neighbors to buy an easement, and pay them for it based upon the market value of the land that they cannot use.

 

[stmfitr636]

I'm not really sure how the sand mound is utilized in drainage fields but IMO, the portion that is encroaching on your neighbors land is actually his. If he wants it moved, he should do so himself.

Some one please correct me if I'm wrong.