BadDecisions
Silver Member
Some of the squatters right are downright scary, and time lengths are scary short as well. I know here in Arizona, depending on circumstances, a squatter can take title to a property in only 2 years though most are 5 or 10 years.
In my case, I have several acres of vacant land bordering my own, broken up in to 4 separate properties, and I've been using that land as a driveway for years. 2 of the owners, to my knowledge, haven't been out here ever in the nearly 8 years I've been living here, and the prior owner of my property isn't aware of them ever visiting in the 5 or so years he owned it. One of them was recently as he was looking at building on the land, and one purchased his land about a year and half ago. He was out frequently for a while as he was planning on building a house, but then pulled out pretty quick once he learned that he was told VERY wrong about the well situation on the land. Long story short, shared wells are VERY common out here in rural Arizona, with private wells really only being found on high end properties due to the cost of drilling them hundreds of feet down through rock. Sounds like they just assumed that since basically everyone else has a shared well out here, that my private well was also just another shared well, that he would be able to hook up to...which ain't happening. Once he learned that he would be paying ~$60K to have a well drilled, his plans to build came to a screeching halt. I suspect that the well drilling cost is largely why none of these properties have been developed thus far.
Not a one of them have ever expressed any opposition to my using of the land as a driveway, either verbally or written. I've been running the tractor down it on a regular basis to keep the driveway maintained, and it's clearly getting used on the regular. The area has clearly been getting used as a driveway long before I bought my property, and I just continued using it without even thinking about it. It wasn't until that guy bought the property that I even started looking in to it, only as a way to be prepared in the event he tried to force any ownership claims against me, or some other weird issue came up.
The guy with the incorrect assumption about the wells did ask if I'd be OK with rerouting the driveway once he built a house, which I didn't have a problem with, which was all of a 10 second conversation once. Based on my understanding of Arizona squatter's rights, I'm only about 18 months away from being able to claim squatter's rights on at least the 3 other properties, and potentially the 4th as well, depending on if that "move your driveway after I build a house" rises to the legal level of protecting his land, especially as a house was never constructed, nor has _any_ level of improvement taken place there.
That said, I have zero interest in stealing other people's property, though it's something that has crossed my mind as a way to protect the area in the event that any undesirable activity ends up happening there.
In my case, I have several acres of vacant land bordering my own, broken up in to 4 separate properties, and I've been using that land as a driveway for years. 2 of the owners, to my knowledge, haven't been out here ever in the nearly 8 years I've been living here, and the prior owner of my property isn't aware of them ever visiting in the 5 or so years he owned it. One of them was recently as he was looking at building on the land, and one purchased his land about a year and half ago. He was out frequently for a while as he was planning on building a house, but then pulled out pretty quick once he learned that he was told VERY wrong about the well situation on the land. Long story short, shared wells are VERY common out here in rural Arizona, with private wells really only being found on high end properties due to the cost of drilling them hundreds of feet down through rock. Sounds like they just assumed that since basically everyone else has a shared well out here, that my private well was also just another shared well, that he would be able to hook up to...which ain't happening. Once he learned that he would be paying ~$60K to have a well drilled, his plans to build came to a screeching halt. I suspect that the well drilling cost is largely why none of these properties have been developed thus far.
Not a one of them have ever expressed any opposition to my using of the land as a driveway, either verbally or written. I've been running the tractor down it on a regular basis to keep the driveway maintained, and it's clearly getting used on the regular. The area has clearly been getting used as a driveway long before I bought my property, and I just continued using it without even thinking about it. It wasn't until that guy bought the property that I even started looking in to it, only as a way to be prepared in the event he tried to force any ownership claims against me, or some other weird issue came up.
The guy with the incorrect assumption about the wells did ask if I'd be OK with rerouting the driveway once he built a house, which I didn't have a problem with, which was all of a 10 second conversation once. Based on my understanding of Arizona squatter's rights, I'm only about 18 months away from being able to claim squatter's rights on at least the 3 other properties, and potentially the 4th as well, depending on if that "move your driveway after I build a house" rises to the legal level of protecting his land, especially as a house was never constructed, nor has _any_ level of improvement taken place there.
That said, I have zero interest in stealing other people's property, though it's something that has crossed my mind as a way to protect the area in the event that any undesirable activity ends up happening there.
