ENROACHMENT OR EASEMENT DISPUTE?
I bought a vacant land lot number 407 in LA city, CA from the public LA Tax collector auction tax sale for ,000 from april 2008.
The next lot 406 had a house which was built from 1906. both lot 406 and lot 407 belong to the same owner from 1940 to 1997. Then the onwer owed county tax then both lot was sold at LA Tax collector auction sale from 1997 for different owners.
The old owner of my vacant lot owed county tax again, the Tax Collector sold the land for me in 2008. The house in 406 lot was forclosesuded in March 2008, Now the bank sold it for some one.
I didnt know how long the house owners built a driveway and some of itbuilding over my lot. The building built over my lot 5 feet, the driveway and the fence cover all of my lot. From outside, it look like there are no vacant land. They took almost all of my land
The neighbor next to my land just bought the house from foreclosed, and all the deeds didn’t mention any kinds of easements. I understand about the description easement in CA. The neighbor cannot claim adverted possession because they did not pay tax for 5 years. The only way they can claim is description easement. But the description easement didn’t mean they have the right to exclude me(actual land owner) from using my land. If the judge allows them to clam the description easement, then it means exclude us from building in our land (similar to adversed possession).
What can I do please? If I sue them can I win and make them take off the building which over my lot
April 4th, 2010 at 11:49 am
It’s called easement by prescription. First do you have a recent survey showing the encroachment? You need to send a certified letter along with a copy of the survey to the current owner asking him to cure the encroachment asap. There may be a statue of limitations issue here. You need to talk to an attorney.
realtor.sailor
April 4th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Where is LA city? Interesting. You should have a good case as long as the language in your lot description document doesn’t give over rights of your land.
April 4th, 2010 at 11:49 am
I was almost on the other end of a similar situation. My home is on a double lot (in IL). The closing title co. paid property taxes late and not enough to cover the empty lot, and my lender failed to pay the 2nd installment. So I got notice of tax sale and had to scramble to get the money from the title co. myself and pay the rest myself until I could sort out escrow with my lender (another long story).
If I had somehow lost that 2nd lot to tax sale, my home encroaches on it by 1.5′ and my fence surrounds the back yard of both lots.
I imagine anything completely on your property is yours and you probably need an attorney to figure out what to do about encroachments. The owner of the outbuilding would likely have to move it, and the part of the fence on your property is yours. But if the home overlaps your property, that is a stickier situation.