Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Missouri

overlapping deeds

I purchased my home 4 yrs ago and was shown the property boundaries by the realtor at that time. My west side neighbor had her property surveyed around that time. My neighbor on the east side recently had his property surveyed and found the deeds overlapped abt. 20 feet. The surveyor put 2 stakes at the front showing my deed and his. I was out of town so he removed the stake showing my deed line and added more stakes to within 5 ft. of my house and rope line and leveled every tree and shrub within the 20 ft difference which is 318 ft. in length. I purchased title insurance when I bought the property. He bought his property privately and did not go through a title co. What are my options? Do I need an attorney?


Asked on 2/21/07, 6:00 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joseph Burcke Joseph R. Burcke, Attorney at Law

Re: overlapping deeds

Since you have title insurance you can make a claim on that insurance and the title company will pay for a new survey and defend your title for you. On the other hand, you can have your own survey, and if it shows that your neighbor trespassed and cut down your trees, you can bring an action for trespass (along with a quiet title action to resolve the boundary dispute). This latter course will entitle you to treble th eamount of your actual damages arising from the incursion onto your land and the removal of your trees. You can measure the damages by the cost of replacement of trees and shrubbery of equal quality (which if the trees were mature will be quite expensive.

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Answered on 2/22/07, 9:37 am


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