Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - Property dispute in Oklahoma

I need some information. I am a single mom and have lived in my house since 1980. About 5 or 6 years ago my neighbor decided to increase the size of his driveway from the fence line to the curb. Nothing was surveyed. I just came home one day and it was already installed. But I think it crosses over into my front lawn. What is the first step I must take to find out if this person is over the property line. I will be selling my house in the next year and I am trying to avoid any potential problems from the begining. He was not very nice when I asked if surveyed the property line first before he installed this drive, and ever since the tension can be cut with a knife.

Five or six years is a long time to let something like that go. Hopefully one of the real estate pros will be along with a more definitive answer. In some cases he may be entitled to possession of said property. I believe the term is adverse possession:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

Your first step would be a survey; you'll likely need one anyway when you sell. After that, if he's encroaching on your property you may need the services of an attorney. I suppose if the driveway addition is across the property line you could take a sledge hammer and start removing it. That's not a suggestion, just an observation.

It's possible he KNOWS it encroaches and is being a jerk hoping you'll just ignore his handiwork.

Keep us posted.

The previous posting is exactly correct. Your neighbor is trying to possess your property. YOU MUST ACT QUICKLY. In the state of Washington, adverse possession can exist within 7 or 10 years (depending on certain circumstances). The quickest, easiest thing to do is to send a certified, return receipt letter to your neighbor AND the county in which your property is located (or whatever authority handles property titles). The letter should go something like this:

Dear Neighbor,

I noticed that you are using part of my land for a driveway/fence in the following location <describe>. At this time, you have our permission and you may maintain the section of the driveway and fence. We will give you notice if we need some or all of it removed.

What this does, is take away the "hostile" part of adverse possession. MAKE sure you get the letter "logged" with the county as well. At any time you can instruct your neighbor to remove the improvements and you have "stopped the clock ticking" on adverse possession.

If you let too much time go by, you are TOTALLY SCREWED. My wife and I purchased a piece of property and a fence was 3 feet on our side of the property line, but had been there for more than 10 years. We tore down the fence that OUR predessessors in title constructed, on OUR LAND that a survey clearly showed...but we were sued for tresspassing and eventually had to pay the neighbors more than $10,000 to STEAL the disputed land. It was a horrific experience made even worse by evil, selfish neighbors who refused to work it out.

TRUST ME, you need to take action swiftly. Also, please do not make the mistake that we made: make sure that adverse possession does NOT already exisit (i.e. the improvement is less than the statutory age)...because if it is too late and you tear something down or disturb it, you will be sued for tresspassing, you will lose in court and you will have to pay triple damages and legal fees...if you don't disturb or destroy anything you can go to court and you will only be bled dry by your own lawyer because you cannot sue for attorney fees in an adverse possession case.

Good luck. Tell us what your neighbor ends up doing please.