I wonder if a title search and survey at closing are required in Florida? Boundary encroachment should have been caught during closing on the vacant land.
What a shock for this old guy. Lived there 25 years and now he’s got to spend his life savings on lawyers. I would think an easement was created after 25 years.
Rather than spending his life savings on lawyers, he could have the land surveyed for a few hundred bucks. Once he figures out who’s in the right, he either (a) brings in the lawyers if he’s right, or (b) brings in a cement truck to extend his driveway on his own property if the other guy turns out to be right. Going straight to the mat with lawyers seems premature, since they’re going to insist that the land be surveyed anyway.
I guess the biggest issue is whether an easement was created after 25 years. Whoever owned the vacant land apparently never contested the boundary. Especially if the land was bought and sold several times.
Thats why surveys and title searches are part of closing. The buyer can back out if there’s any problems.
Buying a vacant lot in an old neighborhood can be a bad idea. Theres often a reason nothing got built there. We have a few vacant lots in my neighborhood. odd shapes, bad drainage etc. just hard to build on
Seems to me the issue (assuming the neighbour is correct) is whether the old fellow has acquired the property by adverse posession. The requirements for that vary by state.
I can’t imagine doing something like that with no warning. To just put those cinder blocks down and have your future neighbor find them when they come home is surreal.
And we’ve only heard from one side. But yeah, barring other facts, just putting down the blocks is pretty damn ugly. Sounds like the new neighbor may be just wanting to sell the house after he builds it. Otherwise, he’s seriously pissed off the man he’s going to have to live next to for a long time.
It can also be an act of genius. A friend heard through sources that the city had plans for a specific location. He purchased two lots for back taxes. Less than a year later he was fighting with the city over the value of the land and ended up making a killing on the deal.
And for all we know, they were done and the new owner said “Huh, somebody else’s driveway is on my property…” We only have a 79-year-old man’s word that the new neighbor never contacted him; maybe there are 47 voicemail messages on that answering machine lying under a stack of newspapers in the corner.
That was my first thought, that somehow by home-brewed legal theory (like a poor-man’s copyright) the new owner thought he needed to “correct” the adverse possession.
Given the bitterness of the old man’s tone, I would be surprised if this came completely out of nowhere. My impression is that he wanted what he had been enjoying for 25 years and was pissed that the new owner called him on it. I could be wrong.
The power of the press and bad publicity worked. The new neighbor removed his blocks.
No ill will? As if any responsible person would block off half a driveway and think no one would mind?
Glad it got resolved. Hopefully not too much damage was done. It looked like those blocks were set down in mortar. Getting that mortar scraped off the driveway may be difficult. I’m not sure if it had fully cured.
Wanted to add…
I wouldn’t risk stirring up any further conflict by saying anything about the driveway. A little stuck mortar isn’t worth the cost of lawyers. Especially since the exact boundary hasn’t been established. It’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.
If there’s any fault here it’s probably with the original builder. That driveway looks original and it was the builder’s sub-contractors that poured it. Good luck finding any of those people. We’re talking decades ago.
I’ve lived in Florida. Weird shaped lots are not uncommon at all. It looks like the neighbor assumed the property line went straight from the end of the fence to the street. One would assume when the neighborhood was laid out, the driveway entrance was put in then (assume, again, the boundaries were laid out and the permits pulled then) and the driveway poured when the lot was sold and the house building begun.
Hmm… What struck me was that the new neighbors blocks were in a nice straight line taking an angular slice out of the driveway, not half of it. Someone decided the direction of that line. I’m guessing that the new neighbor already had a survey done, laid the blocks to make a point, and they finally agreed to share the driveway as-is with an understanding of the correct boundary.
The new neighbor removed his blocks.