Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Washington

Property line

We bought our house six years ago. When we bought the house there were property line stakes, our neighbor said he thought they were off so he has moved them several times. Each time he moves them five feet our way. We finaly paid to have the lot resurveyed and the stakes are about five feet on the neighbors side from where they were when we moved in. We are now putting up a fence and the neighbor keeps telling us the survey is wrong and since he has maintained the area we cannot put a fence there because it is his. He has not had a surveyor out to dispute the survey we had. As long as the fence is on our side of the property line (we have a couple post that are 1'' over the line he says he is going to take us to court for this, we are in the process of moving them the 1'') can he claim ownership to the property because he thought some trees and a couple plants are his? We told him to take the plants and plant them on his side of the line but the cedar tree is older than us and can't be moved. He is going to try for a prescriptive easment, the property line does go about six inches down the side of his second driveway but still leaves plenty of room to drive thru. He has lived in his house 23 years.


Asked on 7/31/07, 4:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Elizabeth Powell ELizabeth Powell PS Inc

Re: Property line

Your neighbor is not in a position to complain about your survey unless he pays for his own survey. You were right to have it surveyed.

Adverse possession is the principle that there is a statute of limitations on boundary disputes and other land ownership issues. In order to claim that your neighbor adversely possessed this property, his dominion over this strip would have had to have been open and notorious, actual and exclusive, hostile (that is a term of art) and under claim of right for ten years.

There is a shorter period if the party has been paying the taxes. (Seven years.)

This is not a prescriptive easement problem.

All that said, I would need to see the legal description attached to your deed, his legal description of his property, the survey, and the actual area at issue to really venture an opinion.

Your assertion of control over your property is the correct response. Your amendment of the fence line to the survey is also correct.

He can take you to court but must prove he has been damaged.

You might want to talk to Jay Rockey in Bellevue about this.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

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Answered on 7/31/07, 9:19 am


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