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What Encroachments Have To Do With Real Estate?

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Alliance

When dealing with property, on occasion boundary line mistakes happen. Maybe a mistake was made by the initial land surveyor. Water erosion might have caused a change to a boundary line. Inattentiveness on the part of a neighbor is also a likely cause.

It likely comes as no surprise that misunderstands happen. The myriad of different varieties of encroachments might be the real surprise. Some of which aren’t even tangible manifestations.

Broken down to its easiest definition, an encroachment is an illegal intrusion of some kind onto the property of another. When it involves intrusion onto a highway or a navigable body of water, an obstruction does not even need to exist. The simple fact that it is an illegal intrusion is sufficient. For a road or highway, on the other hand, encroachments require a fixture of some kind. This could be something as simple as a wall or a fence. As long as it illegally intrudes into or invades the property of another in some way, you’ve got yourself an encroachment.

Encroachment also brings up the additional legal issue of adverse possession. This means someone can claim title to a piece of land to which they technically do not hold true title. Quieting title, as the majority of lawyers would refer to it as, requires many factors. Open, notorious, continuous and hostile possessions for a statutory period of time are all adverse possession requirements. The duration of time varies by state. In order to ensure this does not happen to you, prompt and effective measures need to be taken. It is sometimes wise also to seek the advice of a legal expert.

There’s also something known as temporal encroachment, on another note. In place of being an actual structure, this is actually an action that affects a person’s notion of time. It can also involve a person’s ability to take action in the future, in the alternative. If you have a gossiping co-worker who likes to interrupt your work day, just tell them to stop temporally encroaching on your work the next time they do it.

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Posted by

Greg Smith

www.boulderhomesource.com

Comments (1)

Margo Currie
Exit 1 Stop Realty - Saint Augustine Beach, FL

I've had encroachments on two properties I've owned, but they really never became an issue.

Nov 10, 2010 01:42 AM