Getting professional help with a boundary dispute

Boundaries Disputes It is notoriously difficult to establish the exact location of a boundary. If all else fails, and you decide to take legal action about the boundary, please note that there is normally a strict time limit of 12 years within which action can be taken.

To find out which side of your fence/wall is your responsibility, the obvious place to start is always your deeds to your property. On modern properties there is often a plan drawn to scale which shows the boundaries. The plan registered at HM Land Registry is a scale plan.

1. Negotiate directly with the neighbour to achieve a settlement of the dispute that has arisen; or.
2. Agree with the neighbour to enter into a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), and in the present conundrum I would recommend Mediation; or.

Establishing Boundary Lines Use special equipment to pull exact dimensions from different points around the house. Map those points with spray paint or stakes. Sign and file the survey and update it with county authorities and financial institutions.

How To Settle Property Line Disputes

1. Talk To Your Neighbors. This is the first step to take.
2. Put Up Signs And/Or Fences. If you live in an area with a lot of open land, it can be useful to put up signs to deter trespassers.
3. Conduct A Title Search.
4. Hire A Land Surveyor.
5. Hire An Attorney.

Find your property line by visiting your local county recorder or assessor’s office. You can access public maps of your street and locate your boundaries. Many counties also let you access property lines online. If your property is on platted land, you may be able to access the plat maps online.

General Boundary Rule This rule provides that the Title Plan shall be deemed to indicate the general boundaries only, and that the exact line of the boundaries shall be left undetermined. This rule is now governed by section 60 of the Land Registration Act 2002.

Taking the details from the legal description and plat map, a surveyor carefully measures the legal boundaries of your property. The surveyor will bury survey pins if they’re not already there and often mark the spots with stakes or flags for easy use.

Yes, you can find your property lines online. Your county may have online maps for all of the real estate in your area, accessible through the official county or assessor’s website. Property lines can also be found through any online search engine on Geographical Information System (GIS) maps.

Property markers are typically 14.5 feet in from the curb. Go to your front curb and measure back about 14.5 feet in the area you think your marker should be. Use a metal detector and then start digging. The marker should be about 6-10 inches below the surface.

LandGlide is a mobile app for your smartphone or tablet that instantly enables you to obtain property information while standing in a field, sitting in a car, or at the office. Simply hovering over a property while using LandGlide allows you to instantly display this information.

You can view parcel boundaries, or view property lines in Google Earth™ and other GIS applications via a familiar map view format and quickly digest key location intelligence information.

How to find property lines with a GPS:

1. Purchase and upload a GPS mapping software, such as Global Mapper, to your GPS device.
2. Obtain a plat map, legal survey review, mortgage map, or legal land map from your county clerk’s office or mortgage servicing provider.

No. google maps are not accurate when it comes to property lines.

From an Android device:

1. Open the Google Maps app.
2. Zoom in to your property’s location.
3. Tap and press your property’s location until a red pin appears. (It must be a point that isn’t already labeled).
4. The GPS coordinates will appear in the search box at the top of the map.

Locate a Hidden Survey Pin Survey pins are thin iron bars, two to three feet long and sometimes capped with plastic, which the original survey crew inserted on the property lines. If you have access to a metal detector, move the device over the ground along the sidewalk to the curb to locate the survey pin.

A direction that is expressed as a standard bearing is also based on a 360 degree circle but uses different points of reference. A bearing of N 60 degrees east means the direction is 60 degrees to the east of north. Likewise a bearing of S 15 degrees east means the direction is 15 degrees to the east of due south.

How to Use a Compass to Find Your Property Lines

1. Find the local difference between true north and magnetic north (known as declination).
2. Locate a beginning point corner mentioned in your deed description.
3. Position your body in the direction of the next corner, using the compass as your guide.
4. Walk the deed described length to the next corner.

Keep in mind, while this process will technically determine the location of the property line, the court systems recognize that property lines may not always be a straight line between two points. The fences were determined to be the property line, not the straight line between two points.

1. Side and Rear Yards. Yard structures under six feet in height may be located up to a side or rear property line subject to building code and fire code limitations. Yard structures six feet in height or over shall be located at least three feet from any property line and shall not exceed 12 feet in height.

Your jurisdiction may have laws about how far back a fence needs to be set on your property, which is typically 2, 4, 6 or 8 inches from the property line. Other areas will allow you to go right up to the property line.

As a last resort, if you feel confident that your property is being encroached upon, you can file a claim in court and ask a judge to decide the boundaries—but the more you involve the legal system, the more cost you will incur.

Solutions to encroachment:

1. Legal approach: One can always take the legal route to get an injunction order or eviction notice from the court to do away with the illicit possession of your property.
2. Out of court settlement: Legal assistance is not only expensive but also time taking.

If all else fails, going to court may be required to get rid of an encroachment. In many cases, you would need to prove two things: 1) that you actually own the property; and 2) that the neighbor is using the land improperly and should be removed.

3 Best Ways to Handle Encroachments

1. A Land Survey Works Wonders for Boundary Disputes. If you feel like your neighbor has or is developing on top of your land, you may want to get a professional land survey.
2. Talk it Over and Offer Concessions.
3. Bring on a Neutral Third Party.
4. Hire a Qualified Estate Attorney.

unlawful interference on another’s land or with their rights. ENCROACHMENT. An unlawful gaining upon the right or possession of another; as, when a man sets his fence beyond his line; in this case the proper remedy for the party injured is an action of ejectment, or an action of trespass.

A neighbor will not own the part of a structure that encroaches on their land. Instead, the encroachment will be viewed as an act of trespass. Also, although the neighbor will be able to sue that person for trespass, they will not automatically gain legal title to the portion of the building that is now on their land.

There is a term for this battle of land: “encroachment.” An encroachment happens when a fence or another piece of your neighbor’s property crosses the property lines. Other examples of encroachments could involve trees, parts of a building, fencing or any other fixtures located on both pieces of property.