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Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Georgia

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.

It's usually possible, though not always easy, for neighbors to come to a resolution of these disputes on their own. If the neighbors happen to like one another, and the difference between the actual property lines and what they believed the property lines to be is very small (a foot or two, for example), they might simply decide to go on as they had before. This is certainly a desirable solution in the short term, since it saves everyone a great deal of time and energy. However, in the long term, this can cause problems, particularly if one neighbor decides they want to enforce the legal property lines down the road.

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.

Title disputes in Cartersville, Georgia, on the other hand, involve questions of ownership over an entire parcel of land. This confusion can sometimes arise from improperly recorded deeds, resulting in inadvertent (and, occasionally, deliberate) sales of the same parcel of land to multiple people. Obviously, each buyer wants to be the one who takes title, especially if it seems unlikely that they'll be able to get their money back. This can lead to some very heated disputes.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Cartersville, Georgia

Courts have many tools at their disposal to resolve boundary disputes. One way is to simply re-draw the property lines to reflect how the neighbors had been using the land before the discrepancy was discovered. This doesn't really change the position of either neighbor, and is sometimes the fairest result. This is most often 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 might 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 behavior 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 probably 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 particular piece of real property. Courts will consider many factors, and there are some perplexing and (in some cases) antiquated legal issues that guide Cartersville, Georgia courts on these matters.

Without going into too much detail, the person who recorded their deed first 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 Cartersville, Georgia Attorney Do?

As you might have gathered, it's not uncommon for the legal issues governing boundary and title disputes to get very complicated. Furthermore, any dispute that can affect one's use or ownership of land has very high stakes (land isn't usually cheap, after all). Therefore, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hiring a competent Cartersville, Georgia real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

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Life in Cartersville

Cartersville, Georgia is a community located in Bartow County. After the 2000 census, its population was just under 30,000 people. A 2005 Census Bureau estimate placed its population at over 41,000, indicating very rapid growth.

Located about an hour's drive north of Atlanta, Cartersville is a popular place to live for families who want a quiet, safe place to raise children, but have at least one family member who works in the much larger city of Atlanta.

With an attractive historic downtown area, a community theater which performs in an historic venue, several art museums, and a fairly high median income,Cartersville, Georgia is considered a very good place to raise a family.

Cartersville is steeped in history, and one of the major points of historical interest is the Etowah Indian Mounds, a major archeological site. The mounds were built over 1,000 years ago, and artifacts from several different tribes are still being found in the area.

Given the rapid growth that the city of Cartersville has seen, and its various points of interest, it's no surprise that Cartersville, Georgia lawyers tend to be equipped to handle a wide variety of legal problems. Whatever legal issue an individual is likely to face, chances are good that a Cartersville, Georgia lawyer can help.

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Cartersville Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Cartersville Title Attorneys

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Georgia

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in Cartersville, Georgia