Bellevue Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Bellevue Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Bellevue, WA

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Washington

Occasionally, neighbors will discover that the way they've been using their land doesn't conform with the property lines that the local government has on record. When they find out, the situation has to be resolved somehow. In such cases, there is usually a winner and a loser, so conflict is likely to arise.

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 commonly, and might have consequences down the road, including title eventually changing to reflect the perceived property lines, without the choice of either neighbor.

However, 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.

In Bellevue, Washington, property can also be the subject of title disputes, rather than boundary disputes described above. These types of disputes stem from disagreements over who owns a piece of property. Confusion in this area is more frequent than one might think. If a deed is improperly recorded, land can be "owned" by 2 people simultaneously. Even more troublesome is when land is "sold" to more than one person. This is normally inadvertent, but some people do it deliberately, hoping to abscond the profits gained by selling the same thing twice. In cases like this, a court has to determine which buyer owns the land. This is a big deal, considering how unlikely it is that a defrauded buyer could get his or her money back.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Bellevue, Washington

There are many ways to resolve boundary disputes. One way is to change the legal property lines to reflect the use that the neighbors had been making of the land before the discrepancy was discovered. This is typically considered a sort of "neutral" result - nobody's situation changes. If both neighbors knew about the real boundaries for a very long time, and did nothing about it, a court may view this as them having acquiesced to the status quo, and decide that it would be unfair to force the neighbors to change their use of the land after such a long period of time. This might also be done if enforcing the property lines would place a very large burden on one neighbor, and re-drawing them to reflect their actual use would put a comparatively small burden on the other neighbor

However, a court might also enforce the legal property boundaries, especially if failing to do so would place a significant burden on the owner of the encroached-upon land. If the owner of the encroaching land knew of the encroachment, and concealed it from his neighbor, this fact would also weigh heavily in favor of enforcing the legal property lines.

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

In general, the person who first recorded the deed at the appropriate government office will be the one who the court deems to own the land, if they didn't have any reason to know about the existence of the other deed, or other sale, or whatever else gave rise to the title disagreement.

What Can A Bellevue, Washington Attorney Do?

The legal problems that can come up in boundary and title disputes can get very difficult. Given this fact, and the high stakes of such disputes, most people shouldn't approach these problems without good legal representation. It should therefore go without saying that the counsel of a qualified Bellevue, Washington real estate attorney is essential in most of these disputes.

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Life in Bellevue

Bellevue is located in King County, Washington. It is near Lake Washington and Seattle. Per the 2010 census, it has a population of approximately 122,363 people. The city is well-recognized now because in 2008, CNNMoney ranked it as one of the best places to live and launch a business. Recently, it was ranked fourth as one of the best places to live in the U.S. The city's nickname is "beautiful view."

Popular sites include the Bellevue Arts Museum, the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art, KidsQuest Children's Museum, and Meydenbauer Center.

Bellevue is also home to many practicing attorneys who have established their practices via small firms or local law offices. Thus, residents have access to competent attorneys who focus on providing personalized, as well as excellent, legal services.

Famous residents include Ann Wilson, Megan Hilty, William S. Ayer, Jeff Ulbrich, Deon Butler, Martin Harrison, Michael Brantley, Aaron Curry, and Tim Lincecum.

Overall, this is a wonderful city to visit or call home!

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