The most important thing you can know about your farm - the boundaries!

[Gaz]

My goodness Red - i've been there and done that!

Our neighbor decided to create an issue when we were selling our farm to our wonderful tenants. What could have been dealt with so easily and without stress for anyone was turned into a war. In our case our water pipes, power poles etc were found to be NOT on our property (as a peg had been MOVED in the past). Our barn was built within the regulations for the county from the fence line...but the moved peg issued meant that it now sits just two feet away from the boundary...and we had to go through the process of getting county approval for the variation. etc, etc and more etc. The peg had been moved 19 years before...just 1 year more and all of this would have been sorted in a court in 5 mins with the disputed land that we looked after being handed to us. We are talking about less than a quarter of an acre here....

So NOT getting a survey ended up costing us a load of money for a new fence, building permits, alterations to the barn (we had to fireproof a wall) and legal fees. I would say it ended up costing 10X or more the cost of a survey.

At a court hearing it was suggested that the neighbor just sell us the small wedge of land and solve all the problems. She said that she would NEVER SELL TO THAT MAN! To this day I don't know what I ever did to deserve all the angst.

I have to admit that I am so glad that we sold that property and moved away.

I hope yours goes ahead easier than mine...and that one day its all solved and the stress is gone.

Gaz

 

[Smart Red]

@Gaz, no such luck. We were served court papers yesterday. Today we contacted an attorney. So much money and stress going into what I really suspect is a misunderstanding rather than a real boundary dispute. Talking to the neighbors is futile as all they have done is yell -- no discussion possible.

I just went through the summons. There are 25 reasons why they feel the land is theirs. Every one is a mis-conception or mistake. I have addressed each issue. Now to wait for the lawyer's meeting and see what 'they' think.

 

[catjac1975]

If this ends up in court do not speak no matter how made you get. It is all about the law not what they think or feel. Get a good land attorney and let them do all the talking. It will be very hard to keep your mouth shut.

 

[Smart Red]

If this ends up in court do not speak no matter how made you get. It is all about the law not what they think or feel. Get a good land attorney and let them do all the talking. It will be very hard to keep your mouth shut.

I don't think this is a "go to court" issue. It looks like both sides send their position to a property court judge who makes the decision based upon the briefs.

 

[catjac1975]

I don't think this is a "go to court" issue. It looks like both sides send their position to a property court judge who makes the decision based upon the briefs.

Here property court costs a lot for a lawyer. But this is New England. Every thing costs a ton. Make sure you have a lawyer.

 

[Smart Red]

I have read through everything the neighbors say to prove their claim to 15 (x 1350.4 ft) feet of our land.

All but one of 25 issues is what they "thought". They claim because they thought it was theirs it must be theirs. Of course during the same period of time we thought (knew) that same area was ours because we were here when the original surveyor's markings were here and knew where the boundary lines ran.

Since they moved in only 16 years ago and we've been here for 37 years we are in a better position to know what happened in the past. They say -- because they assumed they knew -- that my short horse fence was once a line fence. They say -- because they thought it to be so -- that my property reaches the corner of their machine shed. Doesn't and never did. They say -- because they don't know otherwise -- that the previous owner had full and exclusive use of the area in question when really, the first ten years we worked the properties as one large farm. We had easement via their driveway to the back fields and they had easement via our land to get into the back fields.

The only true issue is that they mowed about 100 sq. feet of grass on our property. They suggest that because they cared for it, they own it and 15 more feet from front to back of the properties. I could understand them believing that 100 sq. feet was theirs, however we had always allowed the prior owner to mow that area so that his yard wasn't a lake every spring or heavy rainfall. There is a drainage from neighboring farm lands that goes through the neighbors' horse field, barnyard, and most of the West side of their property. If the area hadn't been mowed and kept clear, all of that water would have stayed in their yard until it sank into the ground. We own the drainage ditch that keeps their yard useable. That is the only reason we allowed them to continue to mow that area -- for their own benefit, not ours. However, since nothing was said, they didn't know we allowed it or why.

They never had a survey done. Problem seems to be that for 16 years they haven't really known where their property lines lay and we didn't know there was a mistaken perception until 2012 when I immediately tried to solve the problem with copies of my records -- unsuccessfully it seems. So now we let the courts decide. If the judge isn't related to them or their attorney, the facts should be clear enough, but much of it is they thought/we thought. I see that lunch with the past neighbor is in the cards.

 

[journey11]

My 84-year-old neighbor mows with a large lawn tractor. He loves to mow, mows twice a week sometimes and he has the time to do it too. He swings a couple lanes wide into our lawn on that side and has for years. Doesn't bother me in the least...that much less DH has to do. But the neighbor on the other side must have thought he was trying to take over her property. She has been there almost as long as we've been here (7 years) and Charlie has been here forever. He was the previous owner of the entire parcel when it was a 26-acre working farm and he's the one that split it up to give land to his children (both have passed away and their parcels were sold.) She had a survey done just because of him mowing (years after having bought it.) Her line extends about 8 feet past her tall wood fence. She put up a No Trespassing sign on the area in question! It's a strip of hay now...she doesn't mow it! He was just being neighborly and never disputed her ownership of that strip. He'd know...he's the one who split it. It's understandable to be a little territorial when you're the one paying taxes on it, but this kind of unreasonableness is far too common. I have a hard time understanding why people won't just talk things through and have to act so ugly about it.

Nothing worse than contrary neighbors. I hope they aren't too up close in your face, Red! Surely the fact that they never had a survey done will make it a quickly closed case.

 

[seedcorn]

Journey, please send him my way. I hate mowing and he can mow to his heart's content.