Sometimes, boundary line mix-ups happen when it comes to property. Maybe the initial land surveyor mucked up. Maybe water erosion changed a boundary line. Or maybe your neighbor plain just wasn’t paying adequate attention.
It probably comes as no surprise that misunderstands happen.The real surprise may come in the myriad of different varieties of encroachments. Not all of them even manifest physically. Check this out.
The easiest way to describe an encroachment is that it is, quite simply, some kind of illegal intrusion onto property that belongs to someone else. Intrusions on highways or navigable rivers don’t even require actual obstructions. An intrusion that is simply illegal by nature is deemed adequate. For a street or highway, on the other hand, encroachments requires a fixture of some sort. Something as simple as even a wall or a fence is enough. All it takes for an encroachment to exist is an illegal intrusion or invasion of someone else’s property in some way.
Encroachment also brings up the additional legal issue of adverse possession. This term is the legal means by which someone can claim title to a parcel or portion of land to which they technically do not hold true title. Many factors need to be met in order to obtain title, or quiet title as most lawyers would say. This includes remaining in open, notorious, continuous and hostile possession of the piece of land in question for a specified statutory period. The length of time varies by state. If you do not want this occurring on your land, be sure to act quickly and effectively. It is sometimes wise also to seek the advice of a legal professional.
There’s also something called temporal encroachment, as a fun little aside. This is actually an action that affects a person’s perception of time, instead of being an actual structure. It can also affect a person’s ability to take action in the future, in the alternative. You can essentially tell that annoying co-worker of yours to stop temporally encroaching on your work day the next time they decide to stop by your desk to gossip for 20 minutes. See how they react to that!
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