San Luis Obispo Boundary Dispute Lawyers and San Luis Obispo Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in San Luis Obispo, 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.

People in San Luis Obispo, California 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). 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 San Luis Obispo, California

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 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 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."

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

Without delving into the specifics 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 San Luis Obispo, California Attorney Do?

As you might have gathered, it's not uncommon for the legal issues controlling 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 San Luis Obispo, California real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

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Life in San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo, California is a city in San Luis Obispo County. It is the county seat of, and largest city in, San Luis Obispo County. It has a population of about 42,000, as of a 2006 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau. It is located on California's central coast, almost exactly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

San Luis Obispo is home to the California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, which iscommonly referred to as "Cal Poly" or "Cal Poly SLO." Many of its degree programs, particularly argiculture, engineering, and architecture, are consistently ranked among the best in the United States.

Thanks to the presence of a large, nationally-renowned university, San Luis Obispo definitely has a "college town" feel to it. And its proximity to the ocean, and the mountains further inland, provide a wealth of outdoor recreational activities. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is located on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo provides most of the electric power for the area, and is also a major employer for professionals in a wide range of fields, particularly engineers. This power plant creates several thousand well-paying jobs, and is crucial to the local economy.

If you live in San Luis Obispo, California and need an attorney, you should be able to find one. There's almost certainly a San Luis Obispo, California lawyer who can help you with whatever legal issue you might have.

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