Oxnard Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Oxnard Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Oxnard, CA

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in California

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.

Sometimes, neighbors will decide amongst themselves that the issue isn't worth fighting over, and will go on as they did before. This is particularly likely if the neighbors are on good terms, and the difference between their use of the land, and the actual property lines, is small (say, a few feet or less). This is an ideal situation, at least in the short term. It can, however, cause problems in the future - preventing a neighbor from enforcing the actual property lines, if they suddenly have a reason to do so.

In these cases, what often happens is that the owner of the property which is truly larger than he initially believed (due to the property line not being where he thought it was) wants to make use of the additional property, and eject his neighbor from it. The other neighbor, on the other hand, will want to keep using the land as before, to avoid having his property shrink.

In addition to the boundary disputes mentioned above, land owners and buyers in Oxnard, California should also be aware of the possibility of a title dispute. Rather than being a disagreement over the exact boundaries between two pieces of land, a title dispute is a conflict over who actually owns an entire plot of land. Uncertainty over ownership of land can come up more often than you might think, and is most often caused by a buyer's failure to correctly record a deed, or the accidental loss or destruction of a deed. Sometimes, however, these disputes can be more dishonest in origin: on occasion, unscrupulous sellers of land will attempt to sell the same parcel to more than one person. Obviously, once you've sold land to one person, you can't sell the same land to someone else, as you no longer own it. These tricksters know this, but are attempting to gain a large amount of money through the multiple sales. Once this is done, they typically attempt to flee the state or country before the buyers discovery they've been duped. This leaves it up to the buyers to figure out amongst themselves who owns the land.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Oxnard, California

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.

A court, for various possible reasons, might decide to give effect to the legally-recorded property lines, which would always change the neighbors' situation, with respect to how they use their land. For example, if the neighbor who is benefiting from the current situation (he is using land beyond the actual boundary of his property, thereby encroaching onto the land of another) knew about the discrepancy and took steps to actively hide this fact from the other neighbor, the court is very unlikely to do anything that rewards this behavior, even in the slightest. Accordingly, a court is likely to decide against the dishonest neighbor. Conversely, if the neighbor who would benefit from enforcing the property lines did nothing to make this happen for many years, a court will probably tell them that they had their chance, and basically consented to the current arrangement when they took no action to correct it.

In the case of disputes over title, courts have to figure out who owns a particular piece of real property. Courts will consider many factors, and there are some complex and (in some cases) antiquated legal issues that guide Oxnard, California courts on these matters.

Without delving into the details too much, courts typically resolve title disputes by looking at who recorded the deed first, and whether or not that person had notice of any prior sales of the same land. To succeed in a dispute like this, a buyer will usually need to prove that they were the first to record their deed, and that they had no notice (or reason to know) of any prior conveyances of the same land.

What Can A Oxnard, California 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 Oxnard, California real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

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Life in Oxnard

Oxnard may not be a household name throughout America but it plays a major role in California's international trade, manufacturing, defense, and agricultural economies. Oxnard is the key port for Del Monte Foods, Chiquita, Land Rover, BMW, and Jaguar shipments to the west coast. It's the deepest port between San Francisco and San Diego.

The city also has strong ties to agriculture and civil rights as the childhood home of Caesar Chavez and annual California Strawberry Festival. The USDA ranked Oxnard as one of the preeminent strawberry producers in California supplying over 1/3 of all California strawberries.

The top employers in Oxnard are currently St. John's Regional Medical Center, Oxnard Union High School District, and Waterway Plastics that collectively employ over 5,000 Oxnard locals.

Tourism helps boost the Oxnard economy as well. Tourists flock to Oxnard's renown soft sand beaches that are also known for being much less crowded than other hotspots. The Oxnard Public Beaches offer accommodations like palm tree lined walkways, picnic, and barbeque areas. The Carnegie Art Museum, founded by the famous Andrew Carnegie in 1907, displays over 1,500 pieces from Southern California artists and other influential Americans like Colin Campbell Cooper and Millard Sheets. The Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife is another popular Oxnard museum neat Heritage Square that locals and tourists enjoy visiting.

If you live in Oxnard, California and need an attorney, you're in luck. Oxnard, California lawyers are members of a very diverse and sophisticated legal community. If you have any legal issues, an Oxnard, California lawyer can help.

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