The house l purchased from from parents who own the house for 30 years (l owed for 10) now has a disputed property line. Originally on the right there was a house, and the house l own shared a drive way with it, which lead to both of the garages. In 1968 the house to the right was sold and knocked down with other houses next to it to make way for a commercial space. The driveway stayed with my house since we could not get to the garage without it.The commerical was built and they put a fence next to the driveway. Now that commercial has been sold and the new owners are telling me the fence (that my family did not put up) is 5 feet over on their side. Do not l own this land after all these years without dispute?

There are some laws that say that the fence will determine the property line since its been so long, but those laws vary by state and city. You should have an attorney who is familiar with local property laws review the case. It sucks to pay an attorney, but a few hundred bucks is a small price to pay compared to the value of that land.

Either go to the county and pull the plat of survey and see. Otherwise you can hire a surveyor to come out, at your own cost, and do a survey.

Maybe. It depends on the laws in your jurisdiction regarding squatter is rights. While 30 years seems long enough, your jurisdiction may have a longer time until possession becomes yours. Check with a real estate lawyer in your area and at the least, make sure that you get an easement to continue to use the driveway.

l heard the same thing SmartA said. Basically if you claim a portion of the neighboring property VIA a fence after 20 years, or so, it becomes yours. The rules could have changed since, spend a few minutes with a lawyer and cover your butt.

It will boil down to who paid the property tax on that strip for the last 10 years (what happened before u owed does not matter).

Have the land u have deeded to you, that u pay taxes on, surveyed. That is ur land. Where the fence is does not matter in the slightest, it is perfectly legal to place ur fence anywhere on ur property, it is required to be on the property line, as some here seem to think.

The driveway may very well belong to the other party, but u would have an easement to allow usage. They can challenge the easement if it is physically possible for u to build a driveway on ur property.

It is called adverse possession. The time and requirements vary by state. Typically if you have exercised control over the disputed area for a number of years, you can claim ownership by adverse possession. l would talk to a local attorney who is experienced in real estate litigation.

If there is an easement adverse possession may not apply (as somebody else said). However, l did not read that there was a recorded easement.

Not necessarily. Just because you've been using the land for the past 10 years, and 30 years prior to that does not mean it is now yours.

For your protection, get a survey done. Costs about $350-$400. The surveyor will come out and show where exactly your property line ends, and where the commerical space begins.

You will have to get a county surveyor to settle the issue.

l have a house in Kansas City with a shared drive way like the one u r describing but our neighbor is a residence not a Commercial development.

What u have is a reciprocal easement between u & the neighboring property owner. What this means is, that the two owners of the properties have agreed to ALWAYS allow each other to use the 5 feet on their side of the property line for access to the rear of their lots or Garages.

You do not own that 5 foot section on the neighbors property, it is covered under the easement document that is recorded with both deeds or is part of the deed is description, adverse possession is not a factor & it can not be claimed by u when u have an easement such as this.

Now the Commercial property owner neighbor of yours, has the right to take down the fence & use the drive also, even for the customers of his tenants, as long as nobody block ur access. But he can not put a fence down the property line & restrict ur use of his side of easement either.

Tell them to file a claim with there title insure. Its not your problem, they should have figured that out before they bought the property. Make them pay for the Survey and prove the fence is in the wrong place.

You do own the land; that is not the issue. What probably happened is at the time of the original home being built, the driveway was there by an unrecorded easement that became an easement after years of using the access to get to the garage.

When the other house was torn down, they did a survey on the property & one thing they do is check the property lines. This is probably when they found the fence was incorrectly placed.

First u get a real estate attorney.
Second, get a survey done on the property.
Third, try to settle & get the fence moved.