Neighbor thinks he owns my land?

[mjw357]

People that don't deal with land very often think they can have a survey done and just move lines at will........ don't work that way.


If I buy 40 acres with an old, established fence line or common corners I bought to that boundary......... your "new" survey is basically stealing land/timber that I paid for based on something that a survey crew may or may not have laid out correctly......


Survey is cool...... but understand that clear, maintained boundaries mean more in the real world........ most states ain't gonna make you move a fence grandpa put there.....

What you own is described in the deed, not in a survey. A deed description may be based on a survey, but a survey alone does not change anything. It's just an opinion.

If your deed calls out 'along a fence north of the stream' and that's the fence that grandpa put up, that's the boundary. If grandpa put up a fence where he thought it should go, that's a different matter.

 

[IronHog]

What you own is described in the deed, not in a survey. A deed description may be based on a survey, but a survey alone does not change anything. It's just an opinion.

If your deed calls out 'along a fence north of the stream' and that's the fence that grandpa put up, that's the boundary. If grandpa put up a fence where he thought it should go, that's a different matter.

Deeds.... around here anyway.... have legal descriptions.


That legal description will get a set of survey lines..... but it will be secondary to any clear lines that have been there for years or a fence that has been there for 100 years.

You can't just move a 40 corner because you had a survey done....... in Arkansas anyway. We've had people try to do it to us before.... their new paint ended up at the mill with the trees they were on.....

 

[dodge man]

People that don't deal with land very often think they can have a survey done and just move lines at will........ don't work that way.


If I buy 40 acres with an old, established fence line or common corners I bought to that boundary......... your "new" survey is basically stealing land/timber that I paid for based on something that a survey crew may or may not have laid out correctly......


Survey is cool...... but understand that clear, maintained boundaries mean more in the real world........ most states ain't gonna make you move a fence grandpa put there.....

Thats a pretty accurate statement.

 

[riptides]

What you own is described in the deed, not in a survey. A deed description may be based on a survey, but a survey alone does not change anything. It's just an opinion.

If your deed calls out 'along a fence north of the stream' and that's the fence that grandpa put up, that's the boundary. If grandpa put up a fence where he thought it should go, that's a different matter.

And when the stream moves, as nature wills, your deed has issues.

 

[Pirate]

Deeds.... around here anyway.... have legal descriptions.


That legal description will get a set of survey lines..... but it will be secondary to any clear lines that have been there for years or a fence that has been there for 100 years.

You can't just move a 40 corner because you had a survey done....... in Arkansas anyway. We've had people try to do it to us before.... their new paint ended up at the mill with the trees they were on.....

So the proper solution is to insist on a survey before purchase to ensure you know what you are buying. If I moved in and had a survey and found someone cut my trees, I would hire a lawyer and make their life miserable.

 

[IronHog]

So the proper solution is to insist on a survey before purchase to ensure you know what you are buying. If I moved in and had a survey and found someone cut my trees, I would hire a lawyer and make their life miserable.

And you'd have a hard time doing anything if the previous owners had been honoring that line for the past 80 years.... besides, our feller-buncher just took all the psuedo-line trees down anyway.

If you want to get a survey to confirm acreage.... that can be smart....may go your way one way or another. Plenty of 40's are 36-44 acres in the real world.


I can show you land my family holds a deed to...... but that fence and the last 20 years of crops the farmer next door has put down means he owns the land if it ever get to court.


Moral of the story:

1. Know your lines before you buy

2. Know your acreage before you buy


Trying to move old lines after a land buy will get you some angry neighbors and not much legal standing.....in Arkansas anyway.

 

[chucko]

Surveys are not always right. Had one done one time that come out 15 foot off. They started at the Arlington section pin thinking it was at the center of some road. The true pin was at the roads edge

 

[newbury]

What you own is described in the deed, not in a survey. A deed description may be based on a survey, but a survey alone does not change anything. It's just an opinion.

If your deed calls out 'along a fence north of the stream' and that's the fence that grandpa put up, that's the boundary. If grandpa put up a fence where he thought it should go, that's a different matter.

And when the stream moves, as nature wills, your deed has issues.

There are special rules regarding waterways. The way I met SWMBO was based on a boundary dispute in Mississippi. The W lumber company was claiming they owned a bunch of land because it was east of the stream. Well a lot of it was west of the stream before the lumber company ditched all the oxbows on the west side of the valley. So you had a curvy river straightened out on the west side of the valley.

Judge didn't like it.

Now when the river NATURALLY cuts off an oxbow ownership often changes hands.