Little Rock Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Little Rock Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Little Rock, AR

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Arkansas

Finding out that property lines are improperly drawn and learning that you have been partially occupying your neighbor's land, or vice versa, can create some fairly serious legal issues.

Ideally, the neighbors could just ignore the situation, and go on as they had before, effectively agreeing to change the property lines to reflect their past use. This doesn't always happen, however. Furthermore, such a course of action is not free of issues, and could eventually result in ownership of the land legally changing to reflect the past use, even if one of the neighbors opposes this.

It's more commonly the case that one neighbor wants to maintain the current use of the land, property lines notwithstanding, while the other neighbor wants to enforce the property lines that are on record. This is because moving a property line necessarily expands the land of one neighbor, while shrinking the land of another. Obviously, the neighbor whose land would be shrunk will probably oppose any attempt to enforce the property lines.

While the boundary disputes discussed above occur fairly regularly, they aren't the only type of land dispute that can happen in Little Rock, Arkansas. There are also title disputes. These disagreements arise when it isn't clear who owns an entire parcel of land. There are many reasons why such confusion might arise, but a common one is failure to properly record a deed, or subsequent loss of a deed by the recording office. While normally innocent in origin, these disputes can also be the product of fraud. Sometimes, a landowner will sell his land to more than one person, with each buyer assuming that they are the only buyer. Having "sold" his land multiple times, the fraudster presumably flees the jurisdiction with his ill-gotten gains. This leaves the buyers to figure out who really owns the land that each of them thought they had just bought. Obviously, whoever loses this dispute will normally have to absorb the loss of the land's purchase price, if the fraudulent seller cannot be found.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Little Rock, Arkansas

One frequent resolution for boundary disputes is a court re-drawing the boundaries to fit with what the assumptions that the neighbors were operating under before the error was discovered. This normally happens when both parties were, for many years, aware of the actual property boundaries, and did nothing about it. Additionally, if the neighbor who has been encroaching onto the other neighbor's land has made costly improvements thereto, this weighs in favor of that neighbor, since changing the property lines would impose significant hardship on that neighbor.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons why a court might decide to enforce the property lines as the records indicate. If one neighbor knew about the discrepancy, and hid it from the other neighbor (presumably because the neighbor with the knowledge of the discrepancy benefited from it), a court will, of course, not reward this kind of dishonesty, and will decide against that neighbor. On the other hand, if the neighbor whose land would be expanded by enforcing the "real" property boundaries knew this fact, and took no action for many years, a court will probably not be receptive if he or she suddenly tries to enforce them. This is referred to as "sitting on one's rights," and courts will not reward this, either. If you have a legal right, you're expected to make efforts to vindicate it as soon as possible. If you don't, a court will basically say "I guess it wasn't that important to you if you waited 10 years to bring this to our attention. Next case."

With title disputes (as opposed to the boundary disputes discussed above), a Little Rock, Arkansas court has to determine who owns an entire parcel of land. There are some pretty confusing legal issues involved here.

Suffice to say, you'll want the help of an expert on this subject. In general, however, you should know that courts almost always rule in favor of the buyer who first recorded the deed, AND (not "or") didn't have knowledge of any prior conveyances. This protects the buyer who was most diligent in vindicating his own rights, and acted in good faith (obviously, a buyer who knew about a prior sale of the same land isn't acting honestly).

What Can A Little Rock, Arkansas Attorney Do?

Because of the high stakes, going it alone in a boundary or title dispute is rarely advisable. Therefore, it's almost always a good idea to get a good Little Rock, Arkansas real estate attorney to help you with such legal problems.

Talk to a Real Estate Law Attorney now!

Life in Little Rock

Little Rock is the largest city in the State of Arkansas by any measurement. The City of Little Rock is the most important center of government in Arkansas and acts as the state capital and seat of Pulaski County Government. Today, Little Rock is home to over 700,000 residents who live in the city's 36 diverse neighborhoods.

There are a lot of outstanding museums in Little Rock like the Arkansas Arts Center, William J. Clinton Presidential Center, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, and the hands-on Arkansas Museum of Discovery to name a few. Little Rock's Arkansas Arboretum is one of the most outstanding examples of native and exotic plans around. The Arkansas Art Center offers a museum school in addition to attractions like Van Gogh and Rembrandt pieces. The global hunger, poverty, and relief organization Heifer International operate their world headquarters from Little Rock.

Some prominent corporations and companies like Dillard's Department Stores, Windstream Communications, Acxiom, Rose Law Firm, and Metropolitan National Bank have headquarters in Little Rock. A number of hospital and renown research facilities make home in town. The largest of those include Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Baptist Health Medical Center, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and the Arkansas Children's Hospital. Other businesses that have major installations in Little Rock are L'Oreal Paris, Timex, Entergy, Raytheon, Siemens, Kroger, Dassault Falcon Jet, and ATT Mobility.

I suppose it wasn't too shocking for residents when the Brookings Institution ranked Little Rock as the 7th best economy in the United States. It was second best in growth. Don't think rapid expansion has taken a negative toll on Little Rock. It's as gorgeous as ever and even was awarded the title of 2nd cleanest city in America by Forbes Magazine.

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