New neighbor buys the property next door to you in Maine.
And the property side line was a natural tree
line, rocks long gone that were mentioned in the deed. So what to do? Just wrote a blog post on the easy Maine way to handle simple survey boundary disputes.
Ever had a neighbor where they mowed over where you thought was the line? In the back of your head thinking do they really suddenly think they own more than the little talk you had when you or they moved in?
Or are you slow on the draw to mow? And Mr Rogers or Johnny On The Spot is in a lawn contest and keeps it golf course close, neat, trim? Can not resist taking a few extra passes, swipes of grass.
The thought of if you don't say something, will they lay claim like squatter rights start to dance between your ears, behind your eyes. But without corner posts, and with both of you having vague, less than desirable deed descriptions, you limp along. Because the Maine homes lots are not part of a subdivision. Not laid out soldier formation. Not straight, grid, in a line like kind house lot formation with compass bearings. No official stamps, plastic mylars recorded anyway, and just never done.
No starting points even the three blind mice could easily establish, figure out if there was a free fresh piece of cheese at stake.
You are out in the country. Small acre lots, just whatever grampy or someone that rode a horse to town for church, groceries wrote out in pen and ink. Barnyard lawyer fashion, to folks in the family or the land traded for two pigs and a chicken. Or maybe a horse in the trade that died shortly after the ten day plates expired. Anyway the easy method to settle the score. Swap deeds, shoot the line that is missing because of trees or rocks or gravel pits, whatever long removed before you both came on the scene.
Trade release deeds, clear it with a mortgage holder who could put a wrench in to the operation if there is one. If you are worried you may have lost a foot or two, the other guy has the same thoughts. But it is expeditious, quick, not costly, done for the world to see. The surveyor will shoot the line, degrees of latitude, longitude and help draft the legal description of this exercise. Now in downtown LA, where you could put a ton of homes on that one acre (that is 208 x 208 if square) and with values more zero places, a few feet could mean I can park off the street or not. The stakes are higher, everyone squeezed in on scarce, more valuable dirt to be giving away, gaining. This simple approach works in many cases. We're not talking 300 acre farms where you lop off hundreds of feet. Just the simple my neighbor and I figure somewhere in this two foot section is the line "no fault survey". Shoot it, note it, get back to having fun in Maine.
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