Support NeoGAF

[Christoff Yurievich]

so the other day I found out that I own a 200 sq. ft. piece of property that no one had ever told me about. The problem is that my neighbor thinks that it is his property as he currently has stuff on it. Anyway, after going through the assessor's office and various title companys it is determined that I do indeed own this strip of land.

this is the land minus the property borders: (mine is the one at the bottom that has the white trailer out front; the picture is from before we bought the house)

as you can see, the property is definately mine, it's just that he thinks it is his.

so I went to a lawyer today and it turns out that in Washington state there is a law that says after 10 years of someone putting their stuff on your property (and you don't do anything about it) your property becomes their property. I've only had the house for 3 years but because of "tacking," the years the guy before me owned the house are combined with my years to equal me getting screwed.

I'm going to try to get it back anyway by basically cheating the system. one option is to get the fire department involved since technically they are blocking an emergency access. Another option is to get the land surveyed and present them (the neighbors) with the information and ask them to remove their stuff. who knows...wish me luck.

 

[fart]

cover his property with pudding

 

[Teddman]

so I went to a lawyer today and it turns out that in Washington state there is a law that says after 10 years of someone putting their stuff on your property (and you don't do anything about it) your property becomes their property. I've only had the house for 3 years but because of "tacking," the years the guy before me owned the house are combined with my years to equal me getting screwed.

He'll need to be able to prove that he's had stuff on your property for 10 uninterrupted years then? I assume the burden of proof is on him since you actually OWN the land. Sounds like he'll have to decide if it's worth it to go to court, I'd simply claim he hasn't had stuff on the land that long and see if he wants to spend money to fight it.

 

[teruterubozu]

It's called "squatting" in California. It's very difficult to kick people off property if they've been there for awhile.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

He'll need to be able to prove that he's had stuff on your property for 10 uninterrupted years then? I assume the burden of proof is on him since you actually OWN the land. Sounds like he'll have to decide if it's worth it to go to court, I'd simply claim he hasn't had stuff on the land that long and see if he wants to spend money to fight it.

for now yes I do own the land. Until I get a timetable that says otherwise, I own the land. The trick is to get him off the property without him finding out about this law. My wife and I decided to call a surveyor, have him plot the land, and take that information to the neighbor and see what happens.

 

[ronito]

HA! Now I know where you live!!

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

well, at best you know the city (it's in my profile) so I'm not to worried about getting visitors.