Bloomington Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Bloomington Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Bloomington, IN

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Indiana

If you know that you and your neighbor's use of your respective properties do not reflect the legal property lines, this can cause a problem.

In a seemingly-ideal situation, the neighbors will choose to ignore this new revelation, and go on as they always have. Of course, this doesn't happen often, and might have consequences down the road, including title eventually changing to reflect the perceived property lines, without the choice of either neighbor.

Nonetheless, it's more common for the neighbor whose land is being encroached upon by the other neighbor to seek enforcement of the legal property lines. The other neighbor will almost certainly want to use the property as he had been, since enforcing the legal property lines would cause him to lose some of "his" land.

People in Bloomington, Indiana should also be aware of the possibility of title (ownership) disputes. Unlike the boundary disputes considered above, the outcome of a title dispute can decide 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). Usually, 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 Bloomington, Indiana

One possible result of a boundary dispute is a court effectively re-drawing the boundaries to fit what the neighbors had perceived. This is most often 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 may do the opposite, and decide to enforce the property lines as they're drawn. This will necessarily 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."

In Bloomington, Indiana courts have many options when it comes to resolving title disputes. However, these disputes are usually controlled by some fairly perplexing (and old) legal principles. While they're generally built around policies that most people would find to be quite fair and reasonable, their application can be nearly impenetrable, even for some lawyers.

Without delving into the specifics too much, courts usually 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 prevail in a dispute like this, a buyer will generally 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 Bloomington, Indiana Attorney Do?

Real property disputes usually involve very old legal principles that can even confound lawyers who aren't experts in real estate law. For that reason, you should almost always hire an expert Bloomington, Indiana real estate attorney, who will assist you navigate these murky legal waters.

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Life in Bloomington

Bloomington has been named a Tree City for more than 20 years and serves as the seat of Monroe County. Home to more than 70,000 Indiana residents, Bloomington plays host to a number of institutions of higher learning like Indiana University School of Law, Jacobs School of Music, and the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Bloomington is also home to a number of experienced lawyers. Bloomington lawyers are licensed to practice through out the state and helped work on the movie Breaking Away which was filmed in Bloomington. It featured local quarries and a reenactment of Indiana University's Little 500 bicycle race.

Citizens and visitors of Bloomington are offered a thriving arts and cultural scene. Amateur theater companies like the University of Indiana Department of Theater and Drama, Bloomington Playwrights Project, and Theater of the People. Many performances are done at the famous Buskirk-Chumleuy Theater, a 616 seat vaudeville and movie house that was erected in 1922 and known locally as the "Indiana Theater." Many folks also frequent the happening music scene in Bloomington which hosts a large folk punk rock following. Bloomington is a popular concert tour stop for bands and fans come from around the nation to see their favorites play. 

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