adverse possession nightmare!

[Kristinski]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

Hi. In 2000, I bought the house next to the house I've owned since 1980. I bought the house at public auction and was led to believe that it was adjacent to my current house. From 2000 to 2005 I paid all taxes and maintained it. In 2005 I received word from a third party stating they had purchased, (from the same woman who sold me the house,) an 8 foot strip seperating the two houses by quit-claim deed. . As it turnas out, the legal description to the house does not contain that 8 foot strip. In fact, that strip has not been deeded out since the late 1800s or early 1900s. It appears that the woman I bought he house from did not own it (by deed), but merely possessed it for around 50 years. When a third party found this out they purchased a quit-claim deed to the strip and told me to stay off. I just don't see how this lady could sell me the property, leave the area and then sell it to someone else. Please help!

 

[FarmerJ]

LOL 8 feet okay I guess you can honor her request and stay off of it and let her sit on it checking the tax rolls every year to learn if she is current and let her sit on it til the martians come. OR till she tires of owning it and wants to sell it cheap, BTW if you stop mowing it will your city cite her if she refuses to mow it ? Maybe you will get lucky and she will refuse to take care of it end up with fines and eventually end up letting it go to tax forclosure , wich would be nice because your county govt might be more than willing to add it to one of your parcels just to get it off the books.

 

[onestr8]

You could always fence in your property leaving her little 8' strip looking like a dog run!

Have you asked about purchasing the strip? What other reason would the person have for wanting it other than to try and make some quick $?

If they don't want to sell, I'd inform them that you look forward to being neighbors and you will do your duty as a conscientious citizen to report any and all violations no matter how minor in an effort to keep the neighborhood beautiful for all the property owners. Let them sit on it. It sound like it is useless. They'll get sick of paying maintenance, fines and taxes eventually.

 

[VeronicaLodge]

why did someone buy a strip like that in the first place? weird

 

[CraigFL]

Because you titled this thread "adverse possession", I'm assuming the house sits on or partially on this 8 foot strip?

 

[divgradcurl]

You really should sit down and talk to an attorney, who can review all of the deeds and other documents and advise you accordingly.

 

[Happy Trails]

Did you try and do what SJ suggested in your original thread?

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=325707

 

[Orcons]

You need an attorney. It sounds like the 8 foot strip of land was sold by someone who claimed adverse possession after they sold off the property that they lived in when they adversely possessed the strip. Is that the case?

I see two problems here, both of which you would need to look at in the context of the laws of your state and relevant case law. First, if you can tack in your state, when you bought your property you would have purchased any rights in the strip obtained by the previous owner. Under tacking you can claim a previous owner's use as your own so you would have a claim on the strip. Even if you can't tack it seems odd to me taht someone could make a claim after they sold the property. If states allowed that you would have claims arising well after properties had changed hands. AP is meant to quiet title, not to create on-going problems. Second, the woman who claimed the strip and then sold it probably would have had to go to court to gain title of that strip. Did that happen? If so, what claims were made in that case and if not, and it needed to be done, the woman sold something she didn't own.

Good luck.