Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Wisconsin

Me and my wife bought a house from our neighbor in the winter of 2000. This neighbor told us where the property lines were. He helped us build a garage addition and jungle gym years ago. He now would like to sell his house and states that part of our garage and jungle gym are on his property line. He is willing to give us 10 feet if we will move our jungle gym, which is a permanent structure. Considering it has been 12 years, do we have any legal standing in this matter? Such as adverse possesion, perscriptive easement, or squatters rights? We have maintained this area of property, such as lawn cutting, and snow removal for 12 years now. Please let us know. Thank you.


Asked on 9/09/12, 10:25 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
JAY Nixon nixon law offices

This illustrates why one should always have a survey prior to purchasing a property or commencing any construction projects, since verbal representations by the seller of where he thinks the lot lines are likely to be unusable in court later if they turn out to be wrong. While there are adverse possession laws which may help you at a certain point in time, obtaining legal title to land adversely possessed requires expensive litigation in order to have a judge redraw the property lines if you cannot resolve the issue through negotiations. Litigation might be more expensive than moving the jungle gym. I am not yet your attorney and will not be taking any action on your case, but you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have more questions. Also, please see me on the web at www.jayknixonlaw.com to read 15 years of my prior answers to consumer legal questions arranged by topic, please go to http://www.lawguru.com/answers/search/attorney/jknixon. Answers may contain attorney advertising materials.

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Answered on 9/23/12, 5:58 am


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