i was lied to about acrage i own

[tcsroom]

What is the name of your state? wisconsin
i hope someone can give me answers on this. someone just purchased the property next to me.he had it surveyed and now the survey markers go right threw my yard. i have found out this is right. i paid for 19 acres in 2003 and now it looks like i only have 9 or 10 acres. we were told our boundries were much farther to the west by the realastate company we bought the house and property from.i was told that a realastate company has to be within 10 percent of the acage when listed.the title company say they are not liable for this kind of thing because they only insure for the property with in the legal description.which means i was lied to in the beginning as to how much acrage i bought. . so now i have paid taxes on 19 acres for three years now, which sould of been only 9 or 10 acres.which brings up two questions. who is liable for re-enbursing me for the money i paid for the 19 acres and does the county have to pay me back for overpayment on my property taxes, thank you.lisa

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? wisconsin
i hope someone can give me answers on this. someone just purchased the property next to me.he had it surveyed and now the survey markers go right threw my yard. i have found out this is right. i paid for 19 acres in 2003 and now it looks like i only have 9 or 10 acres. we were told our boundries were much farther to the west by the realastate company we bought the house and property from.i was told that a realastate company has to be within 10 percent of the acage when listed.the title company say they are not liable for this kind of thing because they only insure for the property with in the legal description.which means i was lied to in the beginning as to how much acrage i bought. . so now i have paid taxes on 19 acres for three years now, which sould of been only 9 or 10 acres.which brings up two questions. who is liable for re-enbursing me for the money i paid for the 19 acres and does the county have to pay me back for overpayment on my property taxes, thank you.lisa

Lisa, the acreage you bought is determined by what it says on your legal description. There are about 42,500 square feet in one acre; have a surveyor look at your legal and find out how many acres you have. Better yet, get a survey.

In other words, whatever it says in writing is what you got.

Check with the county tax assessor to see how many acres your land plats out to be.

 

[jimmler]

What is the name of your state? wisconsin
i hope someone can give me answers on this. someone just purchased the property next to me.he had it surveyed and now the survey markers go right threw my yard. i have found out this is right. i paid for 19 acres in 2003 and now it looks like i only have 9 or 10 acres. we were told our boundries were much farther to the west by the realastate company we bought the house and property from.i was told that a realastate company has to be within 10 percent of the acage when listed.the title company say they are not liable for this kind of thing because they only insure for the property with in the legal description.which means i was lied to in the beginning as to how much acrage i bought. . so now i have paid taxes on 19 acres for three years now, which sould of been only 9 or 10 acres.which brings up two questions. who is liable for re-enbursing me for the money i paid for the 19 acres and does the county have to pay me back for overpayment on my property taxes, thank you.lisa

Have a professional land surveyor perform a survey to find out what the true acreage is, then take that information to the County and try to get some of your money back. Even if you don't get the back taxes, at least you can change the acreage you pay on in the future.

This is a prime example of why you need to have a survey done prior to closing on your property, to protect your interests.

Your legal description will list an acreage, but you won't know if it is accurate until you have the survey done. We did a survey one time where the acreage was incorrect in the description because a scriveners error missed a line in the description, and there were three more acres than the description listed. Usually the acreage is less once a survey is performed if the property has not been surveyed for a long time.

Tell the surveyor you need a plat also, so you have a paper copy, this is not always included.

Let us know how it works out, and good luck.

jimmler
I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying since 1989.

 

[nextwife]

Have a professional land surveyor perform a survey to find out what the true acreage is, then take that information to the County and try to get some of your money back. Even if you don't get the back taxes, at least you can change the acreage you pay on in the future.

This is a prime example of why you need to have a survey done prior to closing on your property, to protect your interests.

Your legal description will list an acreage, but you won't know if it is accurate until you have the survey done. We did a survey one time where the acreage was incorrect in the description because a scriveners error missed a line in the description, and there were three more acres than the description listed. Usually the acreage is less once a survey is performed if the property has not been surveyed for a long time.

Tell the surveyor you need a plat also, so you have a paper copy, this is not always included.

Let us know how it works out, and good luck.

jimmler
I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying since 1989.

That would only apply if the exact acreage would have impacted the assessed valuation. Depending upon location, exact lot size may not have really made a difference in taxes. We don't really even know if the county was misfiguring lot size as to taxes or the owner was.

 

[jimmler]

That would only apply if the exact acreage would have impacted the assessed valuation. Depending upon location, exact lot size may not have really made a difference in taxes. We don't really even know if the county was misfiguring lot size as to taxes or the owner was.

Agreed.

jimmler

 

[efflandt]

Have you done the math based on legal description to see what your acreage should be? Is it possible that the boundary on the other side of your property is in the wrong place, which may give you more room?

I hope you did not buy it from a man named Smith in Desoto who banks in Bangor. He marked my western boundary (Price County woods) 300 feet onto my neighbor's land, and that neighbor's west boundary on someone else's land. which I did not discover until 12 yrs later when a logger had the 160 acres he bought surveyed. At that time we also found out that the easement we had been using was not valid.

Grab your title insurance and legal description and check the plat map at the county.

 

[seniorjudge]

Have you done the math based on legal description to see what your acreage should be? Is it possible that the boundary on the other side of your property is in the wrong place, which may give you more room?

I hope you did not buy it from a man named Smith in Desoto who banks in Bangor. He marked my western boundary (Price County woods) 300 feet onto my neighbor's land, and that neighbor's west boundary on someone else's land. which I did not discover until 12 yrs later when a logger had the 160 acres he bought surveyed. At that time we also found out that the easement we had been using was not valid.

Grab your title insurance and legal description and check the plat map at the county.

Title policies do not cover acreage and they only cover boundary lines if you get survey protection (for which, oddly enough, you need a survey!)

 

[dpall]

you may have an overlapping legal description. I just found out my legal description overlaps two others. Nothing has been resolved yet, but the surveyor and the lawyer called it a nightmare. So far my research says I have a title claim because title companies claim they cover fraudulent and erroneous legal descriptions on thier websites. They don't cover acerage loss due to surveying errors or unknown encroachments, even if they are in public record. In New Mexico the law is written to protect title companies, for evey 400 dollars they recieve they pay out 20 dollars. The law says that they are not responsible for not researching the title, even if the failure to search public record results in property loss for the insured. It took me one hour to find out that my legal description was overlapping two others, by searching public record. You will find lawyers and surveyors will be reluctant to deal with you case if the descriptions overlap. Hopefully your situation resolves itself with no land or finacial loss to you. I hope to hear any helpful info about this in this forum.