One family had a novel way to settle a boundary dispute. With a handsaw. I’m Amy E. Feldman.
A Maine family had a property dispute with a neighbor, whose tenant built a garage on the property, but he built it over their property line. A surveyor confirmed that the property line went right through the middle of the new garage–so the family took a handsaw and sawed the garage in half.
The Maine family didn’t seem to have any problem with confrontation, but some families do, and therefore don’t make an issue of the fact that a neighbor’s structure has been built over the property line, but they should, or they risk losing their right to that part of their property. That’s because under a legal doctrine called adverse possession, if someone who doesn’t own the land inhabits it for some period of time, in most states 15 years, the trespasser becomes the legal owner even if the landowner never sold it.
That said, no lawyer would tell you to saw a garage in half but rather to talk to the neighbor to come to a solution, although the Maine family has told the press that they consider the matter resolved.
From The Judge Group, I’m Amy E. Feldman for KYW News Radio.
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