AR Property question

[Aparker2005]

Hey everyone. First post here. I have a situation with property that involves family, and would like some advice. We live in AR.

My wife and I purchased our home from her parents back in 2014. At the time there were 3 storage buildings behind the house, 2 of which her step dad had sold to his dad, 1 was left for us. These were already sold, they said.

A month after we got settled in, her step grandfather got a moving company to move the 2 buildings. 1 was moved. The other was built on the property a few years before we bought the house, and is on a concrete slab. The moving company said it wasn't very safe to move this building as there was no support for moving it. So it's been on our property since may of 2014 when we purchased the home.

Early in 2016 I asked if they weren't going to be coming to get the building, if I could have the key and us store our stuff in it. Her step grandmother gave me the key and we've used it since, and have it fairly full now.

Yesterday I came home and her step grandfather was under our carport with 2 other guys. He told me they were there to look at the building and they planned to move it next week. My wife and I need to decide how we want to go about this.


Being a family ordeal, I hate having to have controversy, but we feel this building after 3 years of not being moved or anything, is ours. They want to move it, or us pay them the $2k he purchased it for, which I'm not doing.

We feel at this point we don't want the building moved, and we're also not going to be paying for it. I am also wondering if since being built on the property on a concrete slab, is this not part of the property now and they can't move it anyway?

Our deed or nothing says anything about these buildings. Thank you!

 

[FarmerJ]

SO when you bought the place in all the paperwork related to the purchase was there anything that was crystal clear in writing that spelled out that the outbuilding was not part of the purchase ? If it was not specifically excluded in writing then yes I suppose you would have every right to contact the building mover and tell them they are not to do a single thing to your property or you will not hesitate to call the police and go after them for property damage . AS far as controversy in the family goes 2 K is cheap enough that it would be one way to make it go away OR if that building was not excluded in writing in the sale of the property to you and you can just live with the drama and tell them to stay off of your property, the building is going to stay put since it was not excluded in writing in the sale so its yours. If you go that route don't be surprised if you are not invited to some holiday dinners or other family affairs.

 

[HRZ]

Generally speaking stepgrandfather is all wet and out of line....buildings affixed to the ground run with the ownership of the land and unless some clear written agreement was entered into prior to the sale and said agreement was designed to be preserved after the sale and not mereged as part of the deed ( which most likely did not preserve it ) and basically you are free to address it as trespassing and theft if folks persist in coming on your lands to remove it..after you give them a clear directive to stay off . You may not get future nvitations to family pig roasts ...but that's not a legal,question.

Let's not have a debate about if it is personal property if there are not big lag bolts into the slab ...at least as described this is not a moveable shed like some Home Depot big resin shed for garbage cans ...and quite frankly unless the seller made a clear written agreement about removal of sheds as personal property of the seller then there is not even a moral deal to honor ....generaly l a deal about real estate needs to be in writing ....and that's another problem for seller.

TO me it seems like Dad bungled whatever SGF had in mind..and Dad and SGF need to go hash out some alternate deal just between the two of them .

 

[Aparker2005]

Grandfather just called and we told him what we thought and got hung up on. After talking the wife and I decided we knew they had purchased the building, they have just taken 4 years to come get it. Already a family ordeal, so we're just going to tell them to come get it and be done dealing with it. We may have some ground to stand on, but we're gonna just eventually get our own and be free from the drama. Maybe we were wrong since there was a somewhat "verbal agreement" on that?

And there's no support beams or anything. It was a hand built building not intended on being moved. Gonna be interesting to see how they get it off our property. I will be making sure any damage that may occur is taken care of on their end.

 

[HRZ]

Grandfather was wrong ...and you blinked ...and verbal agreements as to real property matters have all the strength of wet toilet paper...but you are OK if your desire was to cut the drama .....( I would be real nervous about my ability to build a new outbuilding on my lands wo triggering some permit and reassessment issues ...and I've had neighbors remove and rebuild a building one wall at a time to circumvent those issues...as one wall at a time flies under the local radar as a repair.....then there is saga of guy about four doors down who removed two walls at same time and did not well brace things....and wind blew it down ...very very costly .do yourself a favor...low key double confirm you can put up a replacement outbuilding wo new permits or assessments ...if not..reconsider buying existing outbuilding ..

 

[FarmerJ]

Aparker what HRZ spoke of re being able to rebuild or replace and whether local governmental ordinances would allow a replacement or leave you with less than what you have now is a valid point. since I work overnights and often get a bit brain dead my experience with that sort of thing was my first home, I bought it in 1987 , it had a large shed that maybe you could park a vega or a pinto wagon in but it was in tough shape and a city inspector for my area saw to it that I had to go before a board to appeal her order to tear it down since I had already started to repair it. ( I did win because my argument was that if I tore it down I would not be allowed to build more than a garden shed since the repairs didn't need a permit there was no reason to force me to tear it down. Then later in 94 I bought and moved into a 4 plex and learned from a former tenant it had a 4 car garage when they lived there but the owner chose to tear it down rather than repair it and if it was torn down a replacement could not have been more than a 20 x 40 garage. four car garages in the city of Minneapolis are so rare its not funny as far as regular neighborhoods went. SO perhaps you might have to change your mind as to them removing it. ( call your city -county govt center Monday and at least ask about the zoning rules for your property re replacing out buildings)