Boston Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Boston Title Attorneys

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Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Massachusetts

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.

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.

Therefore, neighbors more often end up in some type of legal dispute over whether and to what extent the property lines should be enforced. Obviously, when the property lines are changed, one neighbor wins, and the other loses. It should come as no surprise, then, that legal fights are often the result.

Title disputes in Boston, Massachusetts, on the other hand, involve questions of ownership over an entire parcel of land. This confusion can occasionally 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, particularly 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 Boston, Massachusetts

One way to resolve boundary disputes is to simply re-draw the property lines to reflect what the neighbors thought they were all along. When this happens, nobody's case changes, and it's generally considered a neutral result (causing no significant loss or gain to either party). This is often done if both of the neighbors knew about the actual property lines for many years, and didn't do anything about it. A court might also take this course of action if enforcing the property lines would impose a significant hardship on one of the parties, not outweighed by the overall benefits of doing so.

A court, for several possible reasons, might decide to give effect to the legally-recorded property lines, which would necessarily change the neighbors' situation, with respect to how they use their land. For instance, if the neighbor who is benefiting from the prevailing situation (he is using land beyond the actual boundary of his property, thereby encroaching onto the land of another) knew about the discrepancy and took steps to actively hide this fact from the other neighbor, the court is very unlikely to do anything that rewards this behavior, even in the slightest. Therefore, a court is likely to decide against the dishonest neighbor. Conversely, if the neighbor who would benefit from enforcing the property lines did nothing to make this happen for many years, a court will probably tell them that they had their chance, and essentially consented to the current arrangement when they took no action to correct it.

When a title dispute comes up in Boston, Massachusetts, the court has to apply some pretty difficult legal and equitable principles. These rules are sometimes very obscure, mainly because they can trace their origins back hundreds of years, to the common-law courts of England. However, a close examination of them reveals their basic goal: deciding ownership disputes based on longstanding conceptions of basic fairness.

Generally, the person who records the deed first will be the one who takes ownership. Of course, this will only be if they had no reason to know about the other deeds).

What Can A Boston, Massachusetts 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 Boston, Massachusetts real estate attorney, who will assist you navigate these murky legal waters.

Talk to a Real Estate Law Attorney now!

Life in Boston

Boston, Massachusetts is known as the "Capital of New England" because it acts as the center of business, art, food, and culture. Bostonians comprise the 10th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Boston is home to a number of historical attractions like the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, and the American Revolution museums that offer about billion in revenue for the city.

Furthermore, tourists flock to visit Boston and its colleges: Harvard University, Boston College, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University, UMass Boston, and many other business, music, and pharmaceutical institutions of higher learning. Students offer roughly .8 billion to the economy. With so many students, Boston naturally is home to some of the top firms in technology and biotechnology. The city boasts the highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Boston is home to some outstanding New England based lawyers and law firms. Bostonians are subject to the area's high cost of living making the legal problems of the community somewhat unique. Violent crime has been on the decline since the Boston Police Department and United States Attorney and District Attorney started a crime and gang prevention campaign. Most Boston residents use the Suffolk County courts.

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