We purchased property, had a survey and recorded it.?ÿ Neighbor had no survey but recently had one done.?ÿ There is an overlap. He is stating senior rights as he bought first. However, we are in MI which has a race notice statute. We have the first recorded deed on our property at the county.?ÿ However it was recorded 22 years ago by the original owner and he has since sold and now we own the parcel. At the county it shows our deed was recorded a year before the neighbor.?ÿ ?ÿDo senior rights continue on to the new owner or is the neighbor right that he has senior rights because he bought first??ÿ
I think senior rights only apply when a parcel is divided and lots are sequentially sold off. This wouldn't apply in some jurisdictions to a recorded subdivision with simultaneously created lots.
Were your lot and the neighbor's sequentially created as portions of the same larger parcel?
A 200x200' lot is created in 1880. Jones sells the east 100' to Smith in 1884. Smith is now senior, Jones keeps whatever remains when the east 100 feet is removed (it could be 100'+ or 100'-), if 57 sales of both lots subsequently take place it doesn't change today which is senior. It would be the east 100'.
A surveyor goes to the field and finds iron pipes, the north one is 99.5' from the NE lot corner, the south one is 100.1' from the SE corner. Neither one is 100.00000000000' "where they should be".
A competent surveyor will note the measurements vs record, produce a plat and explain the chain of title and reasoning for holding the found monuments.
There are no "overlaps".
Your chain of title will answer the junior/senior question. When and which parcel was split first from the parent, that's the senior one, sales far removed in time from the original split are irrelevant.
If you are willing, please attach both surveys and we may be able to assist you better.
Do senior rights continue on to the new owner or is the neighbor right that he has senior rights because he bought first?
Yes, senior rights continue with the properties, and don't change with each new owner.
Whether this applies to your property, I obviously don't know
Senior rights are about the creation of the lots, not necessarily whose deed gets recorded first. If mine and my neighbors lot were both carved out of the same tract, and his was carved first, it makes no difference which of us has owned it longer.
He is stating senior rights as he bought first.
What matters is who first bought from the original owner of the parent parcel from which the current parcels were created.
1. Farmer Brown divides his south pasture into 2 lots and sells one to Smith, and one to Jones.
2a. In time, Smith sells to Mason, who later sells to Drake.
2b. Jones sells to Slate, who sells to Flintstone, who sells to Rubble.
3. Neighbors Drake and Rubble get into a senior rights dispute. What matters is who bought first, Smith or Jones? When Drake or Rubble bought is of no consequence.
In the case of the OP, the problem is probably being caused by one of the surveyors. One plotted out exactly what the deed said while the other plotted out correctly what the senior rights indicates to be the true location. A simple example would be where a fellow assumed he owned a tract 200 feet wide and sold the east half to Dizzy Dean while keeping the remainder. A surveyor came out after that for the neighbor and discovered the tract was 210 feet wide on the north end and only 198 feet wide on the south end. The east half became 105 feet wide on the north end and 99 feet wide on the south end. The original seller doesn't know this and later deeds the west 100 feet of the original tract that he always assumed was 200 feet wide to someone. In truth, what he had to sell was a wedge-shaped tract being 105 feet on the north end and 99 feet on the south end (the true west half of the original). The mistake is in the wording of the second deed, not the first. But, a deed staking, short cut taking, lowballer surveyor comes along and plots out the 100-foot wide tract per the deed. The leaves a triangular gap on the north end and a one foot overlap on the south end. That surveyor is wrong.
