Cambridge Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Cambridge Title Attorneys

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Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Maryland

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.

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. 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.

Usually, when this happens, the owner of the property which is being encroached upon wants to expand their property to reflect the legal boundaries, and the owner of the land that will be shrunk by recognizing the legal property lines will want to keep the situation as it is.

In Cambridge, Maryland, property can also be the subject of title disputes, rather than boundary disputes described above. These types of disagreements stem from disagreements over who owns a piece of property. Confusion in this area is more common 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 usually inadvertent, but some people do it deliberately, hoping to abscond the profits acquired 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 Cambridge, Maryland

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 generally regarded 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 an extremely large burden on one neighbor, and re-drawing them to reflect their actual use would put a comparatively small burden on the other neighbor

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.

With title disputes, a court has to decide who owns a particular piece of land. There are many factors that a court will consider, and this decision is governed by some fairly complex laws in Cambridge, Maryland.

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 Cambridge, Maryland Attorney Do?

Real property disputes frequently 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 Cambridge, Maryland real estate attorney, who will assist you navigate these murky legal waters.

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Life in Cambridge

Cambridge, Maryland is a city of about 11,000 residents. It is located in Dorchester County.

Cambridge, Maryland was first settled by English settlers in 1684, making it one of the oldest colonial cities in Maryland. After settlement, the area became an important tobacco growing center, and then diversified into other forms of agriculture.

In the mid-1960s, Cambridge, Maryland was a major hub of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Modernly, Cambridge is a relatively quiet, small town. However, in 2002, it received a major economic boost in the forms of tourism, employment, and convention attendance, with the construction of a large Hyatt resort on Chesapeake Bay.

Cambridge is also the beneficiary of a state program designed to revitalize and restore the downtown areas of many cities, returning them to their past place as the heart of a city's business community, because so much business activity has moved to the outskirts of cities.

Cambridge is a 90-minute drive from Baltimore, making it an attractive option for people who want easy access to the excitement of a big city, with the ability to go home to a small town.

Cambridge, Maryland lawyers need to be competent to handle many different types of legal issues. Legal issues can pop up when they're least expected, and often have to be dealt with as quickly as possible. A Cambridge, Maryland lawyer can make sure that this happens.

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