Milledgeville Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Milledgeville Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Milledgeville, GA

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 cause some very serious legal issues.

It's typically 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 quite 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. Nonetheless, in the long term, this can cause problems, particularly if one neighbor decides they want to enforce the legal property lines down the road.

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 Milledgeville, Georgia 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 Milledgeville, Georgia

One customary resolution for boundary disputes is a court re-drawing the boundaries to fit with what the assumptions that the neighbors were operating under before the error was discovered. This typically happens when both parties were, for many years, aware of the actual property boundaries, and did nothing about it. Moreover, if the neighbor who has been encroaching onto the other neighbor's land has made costly improvements thereto, this weighs in favor of that neighbor, since changing the property lines would impose significant hardship on that neighbor.

Nonetheless, a court might also enforce the legal property boundaries, particularly 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 further weigh heavily in favor of enforcing the legal property lines.

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

In general, the person who initially 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 conflict.

What Can A Milledgeville, Georgia 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 Milledgeville, Georgia real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

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Life in Milledgeville

Milledgeville, Georgia is a town in, and the county seat of, Baldwin County. Its current population is approximately 18,000 people. Milledgeville was one of the first capitals of Georgia, and it served in that capacity from 1806 to 1868, when the capital was moved to its current location of Atlanta.

Milledgeville, Georgia was named after John Milledge, an early governor the state of Georgia.The town was founded in the early 19th Century, andis a very early example of a planned city, being built for the express purpose of serving as Georgia's capital.

Milledgeville has the distinction of being the hometown of Oliver Hardy, famous for being one of the Laurel and Hardy pair, one of the most famous and popular comedy duos of the time. Furthermore, Milledgeville is the birthplace of Congressman Car Vinson, as well as several professional athletes, most of whom are in the NFL.

Milledgeville, Georgia attorneys, and the legal community as a whole, are part of what makes Milledgeville what it is today. If you need any type of legal assistance, it's probable that there's at least one Milledgeville, Georgia lawyer who can help you with your case.

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