Roswell Boundary Dispute Lawyers and Roswell Title Attorneys

Find the right Title & Boundary Dispute attorney in Roswell, NM

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in New Mexico

Occasionally, 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.

It's normally 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 extremely 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.

Normally, 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.

While the boundary disputes discussed above occur fairly regularly, they aren't the only type of land dispute that can happen in Roswell, New Mexico. 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 normally 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 really owns the land that each of them thought they had just bought. Obviously, whoever loses this dispute will normally 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 Roswell, New Mexico

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 typically 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

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 Roswell, New Mexico court has to determine who owns an entire parcel of land. There are some pretty complex legal issues involved here.

Suffice to say, you'll want the assistance of an expert on this subject. In general, however, you should know that courts almost always rule in favor of the buyer who first recorded the deed, AND (not "or") didn't have knowledge of any previous conveyances. This protects the buyer who was most diligent in vindicating his own rights, and acted in good faith (obviously, a buyer who knew about a previous sale of the same land isn't acting honestly).

What Can A Roswell, New Mexico 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 Roswell, New Mexico real estate attorney, who will assist you navigate these murky legal waters.

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Life in Roswell

Roswell, New Mexico is a city in Chaves County, New Mexico. It is the county seat of Chaves County. It has a population of about 46,000 people, as of the 2000 Census.

The first European-American settlers of the area arrived in 1865, and were from Missouri. However, they abandoned their settlement a few years later for lack of water. In 1869, two businessmen partnered up and built two adobe structures in what would become Roswell. They served as the general store and post office.

Roswell is perhaps best known for the 1947 "UFO event" that occurred about 75 miles outside the city. An object crash-landed in the desert, which many people believe (or like to believe) was an alien spacecraft. The far more likely explanation, however, is that the object was a package of experimental military equipment carried aloft by a balloon, and it was simply a test gone wrong.

Nonetheless, the legend persists, and many businesses in Roswell cater to the many UFO enthusiasts who visit the city.

The vast majority of Roswell's residents, however, have ordinary jobs and lead ordinary lives. Because the average person is more likely than not to need to hire a lawyer at some point in their lives, Roswell has a significant legal community. If you live in the Roswell area and have a legal problem, a Roswell, New Mexico lawyer is the person to call.

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