North Bergen Boundary Dispute Lawyers and North Bergen Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in North Bergen, NJ

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in New Jersey

Sometimes, neighbors will find out that their use of their land (or what they thought was their land) is not reflected in the actual property lines on record. Obviously, this can create a problem.

Ideally, the neighbors could just ignore the situation, and go on as they had before, effectively agreeing to change the property lines to reflect their past use. This doesn't always happen, however. Additionally, such a course of action is not free of issues, and could eventually result in ownership of the land legally changing to reflect the past use, even if one of the neighbors opposes this.

Consequently, neighbors more frequently 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.

While the boundary disputes discussed above occur fairly regularly, they aren't the only type of land dispute that can happen in North Bergen, New Jersey. There are also title disputes. These disagreements arise when it isn't clear who owns an entire parcel of land. There are many reasons why such confusion might arise, but a common one is failure to properly record a deed, or subsequent loss of a deed by the recording office. While typically innocent in origin, these disputes can also be the product of fraud. Sometimes, a landowner will sell his land to more than one person, with each buyer assuming that they are the only buyer. Having "sold" his land multiple times, the fraudster presumably flees the jurisdiction with his ill-gotten gains. This leaves the buyers to figure out who truly owns the land that each of them thought they had just bought. Obviously, whoever loses this dispute will typically have to absorb the loss of the land's purchase price, if the fraudulent seller cannot be found.

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in North Bergen, New Jersey

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 usually considered 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 a very 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 various possible reasons, might decide to give effect to the legally-recorded property lines, which would always change the neighbors' situation, with respect to how they use their land. For example, if the neighbor who is benefiting from the current 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. Accordingly, 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 basically 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 intricate laws in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Usually, 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 North Bergen, New Jersey Attorney Do?

As you might have gathered, it's not uncommon for the legal issues governing 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 North Bergen, New Jersey real estate lawyer to help in situations like this is always a good idea.

Talk to a Real Estate Law Attorney now!

Life in North Bergen

North Bergen is a township located in Hudson County, New Jersey. North Bergen, New Jersey has a population of about 60,000 people, as of the 2000 Census.

North Bergen got its name in the 1800s, when the former Bergen Township was divided into several smaller sections, one of them being North Bergen.

North Bergen, New Jersey is known for its hilly terrain, and is said to be second only to San Francisco in American cities with the most hills. It also has an elaborate shape - resembling an inverted "L." These factors have lead to different sections of North Bergen evolving into distinctive neighborhoods, each with its own unique look and feel.

In order to spur development and commerce, the state of New Jersey has designated North Bergen as an "Urban Enterprise Zone." Many state laws and regulations operate differently (or not at all) in these zones, for the purpose of encouraging businesses to set up shop. For example, sales tax is only 3 1/2%, as opposed to 7% in the rest of the state, and many items, mostly necessities for life, or those related to starting a business, are tax-free.

If you live in North Bergen, New Jersey and are in need of legal advice, you're in luck. There are many North Bergen, New Jersey lawyers who are ready to help you with whatever legal problems you may be facing.

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