Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: The survey says...

Adverse possession requires the claimant to pay the real property taxes on the disputed land for five years. Your first step is to check with your county assessor to determine whether your neighbors have paid those taxes. If not (it is extremely unlikely that they have), you should put your neighbors on notice that any encroachment on your land, including the 21 disputed feet, will be considered a trespass. Try to work the problem out with the neighbors, if the law is clearly on your side. If this doesn't work, your best remedy would be to file a quiet title action against your neighbors. To find out more, visit our website @ labusinesslawyer.com

Re: The survey says...

Your next step is to run to a real estate attorney's

office. A non-owner may acquire title to land

through adverse possession if the non-owner has openly and obviously

occupied the land for more than five years under

the sincere impression of a right to do so and has paid

the property taxes on the land. It is very difficult

to establish adverse possession. However, it is

not impossible, so you have a potentially difficult

and expensive problem.

Re: The survey says...

I will echo Joshua Genzer's comments and add that you should pass along the information to your title insurer. Adverse possession is kind of like legalized theft. The principle is that if someone occupies land for a certain period of time, the land becomes theirs. For example, if a building is accidentally built on the wrong side of the property line, then it is possible for the trespasser to take title after a certain period of time. If you are in Northern California, please let me know if you would like me to help. If you are elsewhere, I would be happy to try to provide you a referral.