Salinas Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Salinas Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Salinas, 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 cause some very 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 especially 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, nonetheless, 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 further 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 Salinas, 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 anyone 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 Salinas, California

Courts have many tools at their disposal to resolve boundary disputes. One way is to just re-draw the property lines to reflect how the neighbors had been using the land before the discrepancy was discovered. This doesn't very change the position of either neighbor, and is sometimes the fairest result. This is most frequently done because the neighbors were both aware of the legal property lines, and that they differed from how they were using the land, and went on using the land anyway.

A court may do the opposite, and decide to enforce the property lines as they're drawn. This will always benefit one neighbor and hurt the other. A court will probably do this if one neighbor knew that his land was encroaching onto another person's property, and actively tried to hide that fact from his neighbor. Obviously, such bad actions shouldn't be rewarded. Conversely, if the neighbor whose land was being encroached upon knew about the discrepancy, and did nothing about it, the court will likely change the property lines to reflect this prior use, to prevent that neighbor from being rewarded for "sitting on his rights."

When a title dispute comes up in Salinas, California, the court has to apply some pretty difficult legal and equitable principles. These rules are sometimes very obscure, mainly because they can trace their origins back hundreds of years, to the common-law courts of England. However, a close examination of them reveals their basic goal: deciding ownership disputes based on longstanding conceptions of basic fairness.

Without going into too much detail, the individual who recorded their deed initially 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 Salinas, California Attorney Do?

The legal issues surrounding title and boundary disagreements can get pretty confusing, and there are typically very high stakes involved (most people think their land is pretty important). For that reason, a good Salinas, California real estate attorney will prove invaluable if such a dispute arises.

Talk to a Real Estate Law Attorney now!

Life in Salinas

Salinas, California is a city in Monterey County. It is the county seat of that county, as well as its largest city. It has a population of over 150,000 people.

Salinas has a long and interesting history. It was first settled by humans as early as the year 200 AD, nearly 2,000 years ago. In the 1700s, Spanish Catholic missionaries settled the area, and Salinas soon became known as a major agricultural center, owing to its fertile soil and abundance of open space. When California became part of the United States in the mid-1800s, settlement by Americans from other parts of the country skyrocketed.

Modernly, the economy of Salinas, California is heavily based on agriculture. Several large agribusiness firms are major employers in Salinas, CA. Unlike many American cities its size, the workforce of Salinas is still largely blue collar, with most of those workers employed in agriculture. Because the agriculture business is sometimes known for strained relations between workers and management, a large number of labor and employment lawyers from Salinas, CA have set up shop, representing both employers and employees. There are also many lawyers in Salinas who practice other areas of law. Many lawyers are drawn to Salinas, CA because of its quiet atmosphere and pleasant climate.

Needless to say, whatever legal issue you may be facing, there's probably a Salinas, California lawyer who can help you with it.

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