Learning about Laws Concerning Automobile Incidents

It's well-known that neighbors can have a major impact on the quality of life you experience in your home. No matter how nice, quiet, or considerate your neighbors are, though, you must always remain vigilant when it comes to protecting your property. If you're not careful, your neighbor—inadvertently or on purpose—can end up taking part of your land without paying you anything in return. Here's how it can happen and how to protect yourself.

Adverse Possession

In many cases, the theft occurs innocuously enough. Your neighbor builds a fence or erects a shed that intrudes a few feet onto your property. Since the structure is not intrusive or you're not using that part of the land, you decide to remain quiet in the interest of good neighbor relations. However, a few decades later, your neighbor files a court petition to claim the land and wins the case based on the concept of adverse possession. You lose a few feet of land and your neighbor doesn't have to pay you a dime for it.

Adverse possession is the new name for squatters' rights laws. These laws basically allow people to take possession of property owned by others under very specific circumstances:

• The individual must intend to take possession/make use of the property
• The possession of the property must be open, adverse, exclusive, and continuous
• The possessor must not have permission from the actual owner to use the property
• The possession must occur for the length of time specified by the appropriate provincial or territory law (e.g. a minimum of 20 years of continuous use in Nova Scotia)

If all of these factors are true, the "squatter" can file a formal request with the government to have the property transferred into his or her possession.

The person can still be awarded the property even if neither of you knew the individual was encroaching on your land. This is often seen in cases where there wasn't a proper survey of the land prior to the purchase of the property or the erection of structures such as fences. The parties subsequently discover the errors when an official survey is conducted, but sometimes it's too late or too arduous to fix the situation, resulting in a loss.

How to Avoid Losing Land

Protecting yourself from adverse possession by an encroaching neighbor is actually very easy, but requires you to be constantly aware of what's happening on your land. If you haven't already, the first thing you should do is have your land surveyed to firmly establish where the property lines are.

While there are many tutorials online that provide information on how to do your own land surveying, it's best to hire a professional. This way, you can avoid accusations of bias and you'll be provided an official report to show to the court should the need arise.

If there are no existing structures currently intruding on your land, you should clearly mark the boundaries for reference and send your neighbors a friendly note about where the boundaries of your properties lie for their own records.

On the other hand, if your neighbor does have structures that overflow onto your property, there are a few things you can do to protect your rights. You should notify your neighbors as soon as possible about the problem. Depending on your long-term goals, you can take one or more of the following actions:

• Give your neighbors express permission to use the land. This will negate the portion of the statute that requires the occupation of your land to be unauthorized, so your neighbor won't be able to use this law against you. Be aware, though, that you will have to disclose this agreement to potential buyers if you opt to sell your home, which can impact the value and desirability of your property.
• Request that your neighbors move the structure. While this will protect your financial interests, it could cause your relationship with your neighbors to become strained. If goodwill is important, you can offer to help pay for the relocation of the offending item.
• Offer to sell the land to your neighbors. This option eliminates the hassle of moving structures or losing potential buyers while also putting some money in your pocket.

No matter which option you choose, it's important to work with a real estate lawyer to ensure your rights are protected during the transaction. For more information about adverse possession or assistance with resolving border disputes, contact a local attorney that specializes in real estate law.