Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Minnesota

Re: property line

Further efforts to settle this are needed before going into court. You may force your neighbor to take the fence down after a long and expensive trial, but you still may be unhappy with the result. Also, there may be a factual dispute about where the boundary really is (surveys are not always accurate), and your neighbor may have a defense of adverse possession (if the fence has been up for 15 years) or equitable estoppel or practical location.

If further direct contacts with your neighbor are fruitless, maybe the surveyor is willing to try to convince them to move the fence. Otherwise, it's time to hire a lawyer to become familiar with the facts and try to resolve the matter (a good lawyer won't go to court until he has made an attempt at resolution).

Also, if you got title insurance when you bought the house, check to see if you have a boundary endorsement that gaurantees no encroachments.

However you resolve it, make sure that the resolution is recorded against the title of both properties (usually by a Quit Claim Deed), so you or the next owner of your property won't have to do this all over again with different neighbors.

You can e-mail me with further questions or to discuss my helping you with the case.