Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Property line

You need to take the "notice" your neighbor "slipped under" your door to an attorney for review. Without knowing what the "notice" says or what it is, it is impossible to accurately answer your question.

Generally, if a lawsuit is filed, the plaintiff must personally serve a copy of the summons and complaint on all defendants. If personal service is not possible, several other methods of service are available, but service by "slipping" a notice under a door is NOT a valid method of service (unless a process server knocks on the door, receives a response from inside the residence, and the resident refuses to open the door to receive service). Once the defendant(s) has been served, he/she has 30 days within which to respond to the complaint. A response must be in the proper written form and must be filed with the court in which the action is pending. If a proper written response is not served on the plaintiff and filed with the court, a default may be entered, and the defendant's(s') right to respond is cut-off, meaning the plaintiff will win the lawsuit.

YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY CONTACT AN ATTORNEY or you may loose substantial rights.

Re: Property line

I would venture to guess that you have been sued under Adverse Posession laws. They are probably going to try to take that the 2 to 3 feet of property from you by way of Adverse Posession. The other lawyer is correct. Slipping a lawsuit under the door is not proper service. You are going to want to consult with a lawyer as soon as possible on this matter. From what it sounds like to me, you stand to loose a portion of your property.

Re: Property line

just get a real life attorney to represent you as i can see from your question you do not have the requisite knowledge to represent yourself

Re: Property line

One week to respond to what, and to appear where? If the notice is really a summons and complaint, do they show filing stamps from the court? Although you technically have 30 days from the date of a PROPER service to answer, it will make things simpler if you get represented and answer (if appropriate) or file papers objecting to the improper service as soon as possible. It's also possible that nothing has been filed in court and thatthis is just a threat, but you must find out.

As to whether you will actually lose any property as a result of a suit to quiet title due to adverse possession or a prescriptive easement, I'd say your chances of winning are reasonably good if you are well represented by an attorney who understands the requirements for adverse possession and also something about easement law. I assume this is an urban setting and that the lots are assessed and taxed based upon deed descriptions of square footage, building permits, etc. Under these circumstances, it is relatively difficult to take a strip of land from a neighbor by adverse possession or to obtain a prescriptive easement for an encroaching fence or wall, in the former case because the requirement of paying all the taxes cannot be established by the plaintiff, and in the latter (easement) situation, because it amounts to a "taking" of the fee and courts do not approve this for policy reasons.

Further, the agreed-boundary doctrine, where the traditional, accepted property line becomes the legal property line after decades of neighbors' ignoring (or not knowing) the true boundary, is seldom applied in koder urban settings because it is relatively easy to determine the correct boundary by survey, and allowing agreed boundaries to prevail over deed-description lot lines would lead to chaos.

Re: Property line

This is clearly not valid service of process. Are you sure it is a Summons and Complaint that your neighbor tried to serve you with?

If it's for Small Claims Court, you should know that in Small Claims, the court doesn't have the jurisdiction to adjudicate a quiet title claim. That's what this case is: a quiet title claim.

If your neighbor did simply leave a copy of the Summons and Complaint at your door, there are ways to deal with it. You can move to quash service; or you can move to dismiss; or you can appear and contest the merits of the case.

At any rate, you would have at least 30 days to respond to the Complaint, not a week.

Without seeing what he is suing you for, I don't know how to respond to the other merits of your question. If he seeks to impose an exclusive prescriptive easement, he will fail, because the law does not recognize such a beast. If the property on which he encroaches is truly yours, then you have the right to countersue and force him to remove his fence.

You may have coverage for such a claim in your title policy, depending upon the nature of the claim.

For further advise, seek out the counsel of a qualified attorney familiar with title and boundary disputes. We are real estate litigators with extensive experience in these types of issues. If you would like a no charge consult, feel free to email or fax the documents at issue.

Good luck.

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