- Jurisdiction
- Colorado
Good Morning,
We purchased our house and 6 acres in 2010. All property boundaries were fenced so we elected not to get a survey completed. After 2 years of living on the property I received a notice to cancel a preexisting boundary adjustment that had been started by the previous owner before they were foreclosed (boundary adjustment was not related to my issue). I took the legal description of our property and my 200' tape measure and walked the boundaries to make sure the fence was in the correct locations. To my amazement our west boundary was about 80' short of our legal description.
Our neighbors bought their property a year or two before we purchased ours in the middle of their contract the county required the seller to upgrade the septic systems and leach fields on both properties. The initial location for our neighbors leach field was denied by the city and the seller located the leach field further from the house which landed about 90% of the leach field on our south west corner (approx 80' by 120' of raised leach field). When I had found that our property boundaries were off I also found a survey pin located on the leach field so the survey was completed after the leach field was constructed in approx 2009. I confirmed with my neighbors they ordered a survey for the purchase of their house.
The best thing to do to settle the property encroachment would be to move the leach field which would cost well over $10,000 and fence the rightful boundaries. The problem is we love our neighbors and they are probably our best friends. I have considered a couple of options with them...
1. Performing a land swap and giving them the amount of our land that is taken up by their leach field and them giving us an equal amount of land on our west boundary. This will still cost them approx $4500.00 for surveying and will take 4 months to file with weld county. It also creates a really difficult legal description of the properties and I would have to build several H braces to build a sturdy fence for our livestock.
2. We could write them an easement that would allow them to leave their leach field in place and if they needed to rebuild in the future they would relocate the leach field to their own property. We would included that our livestock would graze on the leach field and any damages would be assumed by our neighbors not us. This is not a free solution because I assume we would need a lawyer to write the easement and file it with the county recorder so that it makes it to our title. My only problem with this option is resale and the next owner not being entirely excited about the property encroachment.
My other thought is can we go back against the seller who originally installed the leach field in the wrong location? or the contractor who installed it? My guess is no and this would take a lot of time in court anyway.
Any advice on our situation would be helpful thank you.
We purchased our house and 6 acres in 2010. All property boundaries were fenced so we elected not to get a survey completed. After 2 years of living on the property I received a notice to cancel a preexisting boundary adjustment that had been started by the previous owner before they were foreclosed (boundary adjustment was not related to my issue). I took the legal description of our property and my 200' tape measure and walked the boundaries to make sure the fence was in the correct locations. To my amazement our west boundary was about 80' short of our legal description.
Our neighbors bought their property a year or two before we purchased ours in the middle of their contract the county required the seller to upgrade the septic systems and leach fields on both properties. The initial location for our neighbors leach field was denied by the city and the seller located the leach field further from the house which landed about 90% of the leach field on our south west corner (approx 80' by 120' of raised leach field). When I had found that our property boundaries were off I also found a survey pin located on the leach field so the survey was completed after the leach field was constructed in approx 2009. I confirmed with my neighbors they ordered a survey for the purchase of their house.
The best thing to do to settle the property encroachment would be to move the leach field which would cost well over $10,000 and fence the rightful boundaries. The problem is we love our neighbors and they are probably our best friends. I have considered a couple of options with them...
1. Performing a land swap and giving them the amount of our land that is taken up by their leach field and them giving us an equal amount of land on our west boundary. This will still cost them approx $4500.00 for surveying and will take 4 months to file with weld county. It also creates a really difficult legal description of the properties and I would have to build several H braces to build a sturdy fence for our livestock.
2. We could write them an easement that would allow them to leave their leach field in place and if they needed to rebuild in the future they would relocate the leach field to their own property. We would included that our livestock would graze on the leach field and any damages would be assumed by our neighbors not us. This is not a free solution because I assume we would need a lawyer to write the easement and file it with the county recorder so that it makes it to our title. My only problem with this option is resale and the next owner not being entirely excited about the property encroachment.
My other thought is can we go back against the seller who originally installed the leach field in the wrong location? or the contractor who installed it? My guess is no and this would take a lot of time in court anyway.
Any advice on our situation would be helpful thank you.