Gilbert Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Gilbert Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Gilbert, AZ

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Arizona

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. Additionally, 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 frequently 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.

People in Gilbert, Arizona should also be aware of the possibility of title (ownership) disputes. Unlike the boundary disputes discussed above, the outcome of a title dispute can determine who owns an entire parcel of real property. Confusion over who actually owns a piece of property is more common that some people might imagine. Many local property records are still kept on paper, are not very well-organized, and sometimes date back a hundred years or more. A lost or misfiled deed is the most common way for a title dispute to arise. However, sometimes fraud on the part of a seller can lead to title disputes. Unscrupulous individuals will sometimes try to sell the same piece of land to more than one person. And some people even try to sell property they don't own, occasionally succeeding (and this isn't just limited to bridges in London). Typically, once the buyers discover they've been duped, the "seller" is nowhere to be found, leaving them to figure out who owns the land they all thought they had purchased.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Gilbert, Arizona

One possible outcome of a boundary dispute is a court effectively re-drawing the boundaries to fit what the neighbors had perceived. This is most frequently done if the neighbors were aware for a long time of the "real" property lines, and didn't do anything about it. It also helps if the neighbor who is encroaching makes major improvements to the land, and enforcing the new property lines would place a major burden on him.

On the other hand, a court could decide to take the opposite approach, and order the neighbors to abide by the legal property lines. When deciding which course of action to take, courts consider many factors, but most of them boil down to common-sense principles of fairness. For example, if the owner of the land who was encroaching onto his neighbor's land knew of the encroachment, and hid this fact from the other neighbor (hoping to continue to use more land than he paid for), that will weigh heavily in favor of enforcing the legal property lines. On the other hand, if neither neighbor knew about the error, and it turns out that the actual property line goes through somebody's living room, a court probably won't enforce them.

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

Without going into too much detail, the person who recorded their deed first will be the one who takes ownership, provided he or she did not know (or had no reason to know) of the existence of the other deed.

What Can A Gilbert, Arizona Attorney Do?

As you might have gathered, it's not uncommon for the legal issues governing boundary and title disputes to get very complicated. Moreover, any dispute that can affect one's use or ownership of land has very high stakes (land isn't typically cheap, after all). Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hiring a competent Gilbert, Arizona real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

Talk to a Real Estate Law Attorney now!

Life in Gilbert

Gilbert is a Maricopa County city that was ranked 24th safest city in the United States based on FBI crime statistics. Gilbert also maintains a top-notch school system that earned the title of 36th best place to live by GreatSchools.org. A large percent of Gilbert's 209,000 residents is comprised of families and young professionals, unsurprisingly. The rapidly growing high technology, renewable energy, and life sciences economy supports a wide range of high paying jobs. In fact, the average household income in Gilbert is ,213 and over 1/3 of the adults hold higher than a bachelor's degree. There are some very reputable lawyers living in Gilbert and know the local courts systems very well. Gilbert lawyers advise clients on a wide range of cases. Lawyers in Gilbert are knowledgeable of local courts so they'll be able to work with you to determine the best course of action for your case and with which court you should file you claim. Gilbert is an attractive community for its plentiful amenities too. There are a number of shopping centers that serve the area of Gilbert as well as movie theaters and fun parks. Gilbert offers a number of public parks with picnic and barbeque accommodations. Bike paths and lanes make it easy for cyclists to safely travel throughout Gilbert. Josh Betley, professional BMX rider, lives in Gilbert.

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