Adverse posession question
 

So I was talking with the g/f last night, and she was griping about her next door neighbor, and amongst his other sins (like washing out his concrete tools on her lawn) it seems he extended his driveway onto her property by a small amount. This was back in '99, and she's never done anything about it. Is there a potential 'adverse possession' issue here?

Time to call in Jim...

In the State of Washington, adverse possession requires:

1) Exclusive use of property.
2) Continual use over a period of years; 10 years or 7 under color of title (pay taxes).
3) Hostile possession to the true owner's interest.
4) Open and notorious use.

What Scott listed is pretty much the norm in most states. He probably has not been paying taxes on the property so she should fall under the 10 year rule.

A good CYA first step would be to send a notarized letter identifying such, remediation of the situation, and a demand of compensation for lost usage.

Only in writing. Bullys continue until they can't.

Didn't the guy have to apply for a permit with the town? Normally you also have to bring in plots from a surveyor as well. Then again, this guy doesn't sound like the type to do stuff by the book.

http://www.stimmel-law.com/articles/Adverse%20Possession%20-%20How%20To%20Aquire%20Land.html

See last paragraph for summary.

Yes. She should do something about it.

I am guessing that she doesn't really care about the driveway much, but rinsing off a couple tools really frosted her?

I can see how some might take offense to the paving part of her yard bit, but maybe some of the other "sins" are not really worth making a big stink about (of course I grew up in a time where we tolerated our neighbors and could live with a few problems back and forth without resorting to calling the cops or sueing). Glad I grew up in a rural area where neighbors helped each other and got along even if the dirt bike noise early on Saturday mornings or a dog pooping in the lawn might not be considered pleasant by either side.

Send a notorized registered letter stating his driveway is on her property and needs to be moved.

Before he gets the letter knock on his door, or maybe when he is out washing his tools walk over to chat and tell him you sent the letter as a CYA measure and that you will not go nuts if the drivway stays but you needed to make sure he understands he is on your property and he might have to move it if you get tired of it.

My brothers driveway encroches the neighbors vacant lot, they sold the lot to a builder who saw the driveway on the survey, the builder sent a very official letter stating they were aware fo the driveway and demanded it be moved.

That was the last he heard from them 2 years ago. CYA.

The last 2 feet of my driveway was built on the neighbors’ lot by about a foot (it kind of curves out at the end). When my neighbors about to move in, my first conversation with them was with a greeting at the front door with their realtor telling me I was on their lot and needed to remove the part of my driveway!!!! Mind you we are talking about 1 foot. They even went as far as actually painting a line and writing "cut" on my driveway. Well you can imagine that I didn’t take too kindly to that!!!

I ended up having to get the builder involved and lawyers and whatnot. Turns out that my driveway is on what is considered an easement so it got to stay so I win!!

Needless to say, things were NEVER good between us – thankfully they moved out a year later. My new neighbors didn’t give a rats a$$ so all is good.

We happen to have fantastic neighbors, especially the next-door and backyard neighbors, which are the most important! Man, I can't imagine how bad things could be with bad neighbors!

Some people just suck.

When I moved to my current house the guy on the right had erected a fence the entire depth of the poperty. We have a line of trees that sit right on his side of the property line.

When he put up the fence he put it on his side so it looks like the trees belong to us.

One day my wife half joked about chopping them down. That's when we found out that he had planted them and they were on his property.

I asked why he put the fence on his side. He said who cares about a couple of feet.

Needless to say he is a very cool guy. Is into cars as well so we get along great. By far one of the best neighboors I've ever had.

In the previous house I had a triangular piece of grass that seperated my driveway from my neighboors. At it's widest it was maybe 4 feet.

Neighbor would cut the grass straight down the middle even though he had to turn around at the end and come back up. He could easily have cut the thing without any additional effort and 10 seconds of his time.

Whe I cut the grass i used to do the whole thing. What a dick.

when i bought my house, the PO put up a fence that was 1 foot onto the neighbors property. i wish i took a picture, but the neighbors hose bib was on MY SIDE! a hose was going up and over the fence to his side. the poor dude, would have to open my gate, turn on the water and take the hose and do his watering. first thing i did was tear the fence down and relocated it correctly. this went over huge with my neighbor, and we are now good friends. being and having a good neighbor is as good as gold. the house on the other side of me is pushing it.

I've been fortunate with my neighbors. When we bought the house it needed new fences. I went next door to tell my neighbor I'd tearing down the fence to build a new one so he shouldn't let his dog out. He said, "hang on a minute I'll get my check book". He came back and asked how much the run between our two houses was. I said about $1000 in material. He wrote me a check for $500 on the spot. It hadn't occured to me that we should share the cost so I didn't ask, he just offered, pretty cool I thought.

From the title I thought this thread was going to be about you getting busted with a bag of weed. :p

SmileWavy

Thanks for the input; I've forwarded the relevant info the the g/f.

I did this with our neighbours in Dallas. We got along very well and it was never a hassle. But then, we were friendly and talked, which it sounds like never happens in this case.