North Richland Hills Title Lawyers | Title Attorneys in TX

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Texas

There are times when neighbors will find themselves in a situation where how they've been using their land doesn't match up with the property boundaries that are on record. This can be a source of substantial conflict, as one might expect.

In these situations, neighbors usually have the option to resolve the dispute by themselves. If the neighbors are on amicable terms with each other, and the dispute is minor (for example, it only includes a difference of a couple feet), and enforcing the property lines would be a major inconvenience for one or both of the neighbors, they'll probably decide to just go on as they had before. This is a viable option, to be sure, but it's not a perfect one: if, sometime down the road, one of the neighbors wants to attempt to enforce the legal boundaries, they might find themselves unable to do so.

Typically, 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 North Richland Hills, Texas, property can also be the subject of title disputes, rather than boundary disputes described above. These types of disputes stem from disagreements over who owns a piece of property. Confusion in this area is more prevalent 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 typically inadvertent, but some people do it deliberately, hoping to abscond the profits gained 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 North Richland Hills, Texas

Courts have many tools at their disposal to resolve boundary disputes. One way is to simply re-draw the property lines to reflect how the neighbors had been using the land before the discrepancy was discovered. This doesn't very change the position of either neighbor, and is sometimes the fairest result. This is most frequently done because the neighbors were both aware of the legal property lines, and that they differed from how they were using the land, and went on using the land anyway.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons why a court might decide to enforce the property lines as the records indicate. If one neighbor knew about the discrepancy, and hid it from the other neighbor (presumably because the neighbor with the knowledge of the discrepancy benefited from it), a court will, of course, not reward this kind of dishonesty, and will decide against that neighbor. On the other hand, if the neighbor whose land would be expanded by enforcing the "real" property boundaries knew this fact, and took no action for many years, a court will probably not be receptive if he or she suddenly tries to enforce them. This is referred to as "sitting on one's rights," and courts will not reward this, either. If you have a legal right, you're expected to make efforts to vindicate it as soon as possible. If you don't, a court will typically say "I guess it wasn't that important to you if you waited 10 years to bring this to our attention. Next case."

With title disputes (as opposed to the boundary disputes discussed above), a North Richland Hills, Texas 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 first 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 North Richland Hills, Texas Attorney Do?

Because of the high stakes, going it alone in a boundary or title dispute is rarely advisable. Therefore, it's almost always a good idea to get a good North Richland Hills, Texas real estate attorney to help you with such legal problems.

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Life in North Richland Hills

North Richland Hills is located in Texas's Tarrant County. It is recognized as a suburb of Fort Worth. The 2010 census reported its population to be 63,343 people.

An interesting fact is that in 2006, this area was included as one of the "Top 100 Best Places to Live in America" by Money Magazine.

Top employers include Birdville Independent School District, Wal-Mart, North Hills Hospital, Santander Consumer USA, Inc., Tarrant County College-Northeast Campus, Tyson Prepared Foods, ATI Career Training Center, and Con-Way Freight Inc. There are also a decent number of law offices and well-experienced attorneys that reside in North Richland Hills. These offices and attorneys are sufficient to provide residents and local businesses with excellent legal guidance.

Kambri Crews, author of the popular book Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir featured North Richland Hills in the book. Also, Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush actor and singer, Logan Henderson, is from North Richland Hills.

All in all, this is a wonderful area to visit or call home!

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North Richland Hills Boundary Dispute Lawyers and North Richland Hills Title Attorneys

Title & Boundary Dispute Law in Texas

Possible Outcomes of Boundary and Title Disputes in North Richland Hills, Texas