adverse possesion

[stever]

Hi all, Great forum , ive been prowling around for years checking these properties and i had no idea you all were here. Ill tell you what happened to me about 10 years ago. I was successful on bidding on a waterfront lot , at the waters edge there was 2 boathouses. ONe belonged to my property and the other to an old timer that lived on the Island. I had my lawyer do a title search on the property but for some reason he didnt catch the declarations on title dating back over 50 years. I found the declarations with a simple search myself after i had already purchased the property. It was considered adverse possession but his property didnt abut mine, it was separated by a body of water. I didnt have the stomach to fight with the old fellow so i just sold it.
The thing i didnt do that i should have is talked to the old timer and made a deal with him....i would have never missed the 20 by 10 foot  that he used but i guess i was not thinking ...oh well made a few bucks and learned a lesson
cheers
steve

[gap]

Yeah - can you imagine what you would have made if you still had it now?   Does it make you think of trying again?   Sometimes what seems like a trap is actually just a trap because of the way you're looking at it.

[stever]

I keep following these properties, and yes i try bidding every now and then. A friend of mine was recently in the area of the lot and said its for sale again, he said he would try to find out what its worth. ....It was a sloped lot but beautiful view....oh well,
always seems to be something of interest around the corner
steve

[Frank]

I had an adverse possession situation recently when I found that a neighbours paved driveway was partially on the property which I had just purchased.  In the end I managed to peacefully settle it by agreeing to sell the neighbour that portion and add it to his property (making it more valuable), for a few thousand - and he covered all of the legal, survey etc.. costs.  He was happy as punch and in the end it really didn't reduce the value of my parcel.  The net result was that I made a coupla extra bucks, and was able to sell my property without a cloud hanging over it. 

Had I gone in like a ram-rod and started to remove the offending ashphalt, I believe I would have been tied up in court for a number of years, and possibly ended up losing money on it.  Best to find out what the intruder likes and approach him on a peaceful basis - you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.