Re: Property Boundary

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On 8/20/08, M Conway wrote:
> On reparian property, I put an un-used cast iron woodstove
> in a depression eroded during flooding with plans on
> filling it in at a later date. I own the property. You
> can't even see the stove unless you are on my property.
> One morning I heard a knock on my door. I rose and found
> my neighbor and his wife standing on my deck. He asked me
> to follow him, he wanted to show me something. He seemed
> quite agitated. When we arrived at the eroded depression
> at the end of my yard he mentioned something to the effect
> of having concerns about someone falling in the
> depression, injuring themselves and then suing him. I
> sleepily made a comment that a person walking along a
> stream bed on another person's property should be careful
> and mentioned that it was not his property. After
> questioning where I believed my property ended and his
> began he became irate that I would tell him what people
> will sue for and what they will not (apparently he has
> been sued in the past). He actually rents his property as
> a vacation spot to numerous individuals in all seasons.
> At that he left displeased, never mentioning the stove,
> which was what I thought he had in mind (would have
> removed it if he asked).
>
> Maybe a year later, he had his property surveyed. Lo and
> behold, my property extended a full 5-10 feet more toward
> his rental cottage than he may have anticipated. I
> noticed, despite the realized boundaries, he continued to
> mow according to his old erroneous boundary assessement.
> I asked him if there were any confusion after the survey
> and he claimed that he was only "doing more" to ensure he
> was covering his property. I began cutting along the new
> boundary. I regularly checked that the metal post (rebar)
> was still flagged and set into the ground every few
> months. Another year passed. On one occasion, his
> nephew, cut well into my property, clearly outside of the
> mower boundaries from the last cut (he probably didn't
> know). I went to look for the boundary post and it was
> missing! I asked the neighbor if there was any confusion
> and he became quite irate and said he had never hand any
> interest in where our properties begin and end (he also
> revised the first encounter over the depression - now it
> was admitted the survey was done to see if I was dumping
> on his property). Should I worry about his mowing of a
> portion of my land (adverse possession?). Should I worry
> about the missing marker?
>
> Thanks.

Give him written permission to mow across the property line
if he wants to (revocable at your discretion of course). Get
him to acknowledge your permission note with his signature or
have a witness to you giving him permission. Permissive use
does not count for adverse possession or prescriptive
easement claims.

A more aggressive tactic would be to put up a string
barricade along the property line at least once a year with a
few little signs that say “private property no access without
permission.” Then take a dated photo. If you physically
restrict access (even with a single length of string) at
least once a year it will break any claim of continuous,
unbroken possession or use of the property by him. “Hostile"
(open and notorious without permission) use or possession is
a requirement for adverse possession or prescriptive easement
claims.

PS: Frankly I think spelling on a web forum like this is a
non-issue but we have a spell check nut-job on the forum who
gets some kind of thrill out of questioning a poster's
intelligence if they don't spell perfectly. Note the
generally accepted spelling of ["Riparian"].