Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Alabama

We purchased land for unpaid taxes that joins another piece of our property. When we started cleaning off the lot we found out that a fence from the property beside it is 10ft on our land. We contacted the people who we thought owned the land and they have let it go to a morgage company and it has changed hand several times. They think Chase has it now. What I would like to know is what do we have to do to be able to take down the fience that is on the side taking up the 10 ft of our property? The man we talk to that formerly owned the land with the fence said he was aware that it was over the line by 10+ ft but was told maybe noone would say anything and after time it would be his. Can we move the fence?


Asked on 4/07/10, 9:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
James Coleman Murchison & Howard, LLC

This is a boundry line dispute. First, how did you acquire good title to the property? Did you do an action to quiet title in the property? Then, 1) how long as the fence been there, 2) did the person who owned your land before agree to let the fence to be on what is now your land? 3) did the people who owned the land agree that the fence was a boundry between the properties? 4) Did everyone involved know where the fence was?

In these cases, a person who has a fence on another persons property will gain ownership of the other land if he holds that land for a period of 10 years, in an open and notorious fashion, without permission of the real owner of the land, and as a matter of right (as if he knows he owns the disputed strip of land) You should first demand that the person who owns the fence remove it from your land. If they don't, you should take them to court and prove that they have no right to the property. If you just move the fence and don't say anything, you could subject yourself to a lawsuit from them for destroying the fence. Demand that they move the fence and sue them if they don't

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Answered on 4/16/10, 4:48 am


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