Landlocked parcel

Congratulations. You have handled the situation well.

Question. There are many tracts adjoining this tract. Why could they not bid on it and add it to what they already own?

I reviewed a survey last week for a landlocked tract of more than 40 acres. The survey had a note that an ingress/egress easement was in process. That might not fly everywhere.

Yes, I was worried about that. I don't believe any of the adjoiners knew about the sale, though. I have met a few when I was walking the boundary looking for corners, but no one asked what was going on.

A guy last year came to my house and wanted access through my property to hunt in there, which is ridiculous since it is only 1.5 acres. He told me he got permission from the owner, and when I asked who that was (I knew the situation), he said it was the water company. I called him on that, then he began to offer me money to let him access it. There are some nice size deer in the area, I guess he was going to archery hunt (no discharge of firearms in the boro), but that still seems very dangerous to me.

It's good you picked it up. Since you're an adjacent owner you are the perfect person to buy it. Sherriff's deeds sometimes can't be usefully transferred to the buyer. At least one Supreme Court case in my state precluded the buyer of a Sherriff's deed from taking possession. This tract doesn't look like that's an issue.

Here is a related question...since there is no deed, I am assuming I am junior to the subdivision lots surrounding it. Interestingly, the tract to the north that I own is senior to the subdivision, but the subdivision encroaches by a few feet onto my property. It also encroaches by 5' onto the railroad (now a rail-to-trail). I believe there was some sloppy work done in the 1960's.

This is an area with no monumentation requirements and no recording requirements. I believe that these lots originally had hub and tack at the corners (at most), and a few got rebars and pipes set over the next 55 years. Most new property surveys I have seen in this immediate area are just a hub and tack with guard stake, seems like the local mortgage surveyors don't want to set anything more permanent.

I did a careful search for lot corners, and found some. Some of them were right on, others were up to 2' ' off in the direction of the side lot lines. My computed positions are based on locating all of the roads in the subdivision and some front lot corners on the street.

Not even the outer corners of the subdivision were monumented at the beginning. I did find a few substantial mons (2" pipes) and a couple of rebars that fit very well. The ones that didn't fit were solid 3" steel pipes on one property that stuck up about 30", so I am just assuming they were set by the property owner for whatever reason.

My question is, would you show on the new deed what was on the subdivision plan, or slightly zig zag through the found corners that fit reasonably well? I have no idea who will prepare the deed, this all just happened this afternoon and I need to go down to the sheriffs office to pay and see what the process is. The forms say I need to pay 1 $181.75 recording fee, and that "they" will prepare the deed. But maybe this situation is a bit different since it is vacant land with no deed prior to this sale

It is interesting that the situation even exists. One would think that creating an access easement through some location within the subdivision would be required to access K106 while obtaining the final subdivision approval.

I have surveyed some "land locked" parcels in NJ over the years, but, there was always either access easements or pre existing agreements between the owner of the parcel and another owner allowing unrecorded access. In the cases where the means of access existed through lands of others, the title companies always required that the unrecorded access be formalized and recorded prior to insuring title.

I don't know what your future plans are with this newly acquired parcel, but you might want to consider consolidating K106 with K50 so that the common line between the two parcels is eliminated to avoid future problems.

I suggest investigating how property taxes are computed. In my state, the value may be based on a recent arms-length sale (a distressed sale or tax auction probably wouldn't be considered). If there is no recent sale, a formula is applied by a computer that assigns a higher value to the acre closest to the house, and a lower per-acre value for the rest of the area. If either the parcel without a house that you already owned, or the new parcel are considered buildable lots, you may be paying higher property taxes than if they were all combined for tax purposes. It may be possible to have the three considered one property for tax purposes while still being three parcels in the land records.

This was from a different parent parcel (farm) than mine, but the subdivision used land from both parent parcels. I don't want to merge them because then I would need to do a subdivision if I wanted to, for example, build a house for my daughter on it. In this area, one house/parcel. Otherwise you need to do a formal subdivision. At this point I am planning on nothing, but in the future (maybe before I pass on or maybe after) I would want to make a subdivision here. I put my house at the far corner of my parcel so that it would not interfere with future development.

After this situation was created, no one ever used the land for anything, so no possibility of a prescriptive easement.

The new deed should follow the enclosing parcels. Unless monuments were disturbed they should be held since they are probably originals. I would also be very interested in occupation for this one.

I am operation under two assumptions, 1) the builder of the subdivision owned both the subdivided land and the lot you just bought and 2) The subdivision was built sometime in the 60's.

If assumption 1) is correct and the developer's subdivision common line between the two parcels overlap, the default would be that you have to honor the subdivision line as the buyers are entitled to the lands in accordance with the subdivision plan, even if that means shorting the parcel that you just purchased, but that would not apply to any other lands not under common ownership.

If assumption 1) is not correct it becomes a different ball game where not only Junior and Senior rights exist but long standing lines of occupation come into play as well and that's when you would have to consider either honoring lines of occupation or cheating headaches down the road by rejecting them because everybody wants what they assumed that they bought and some might be willing to take disputes into a costly court battle.

I find it difficult to believe that a deed for the parcel that you purchased does not exist for a couple of reasons. However, if as you said, it is just a leftover piece of the subdivision, the subdivision lines must be held based on the fact the resulting lot was a part of the parent tract of the subdivision. If that was the case, it very well could explain the lack of the deed as just an overlooked part of the final paperwork. If it is, in fact, a leftover part of the subdivision, the original boundary filed with the subdivision plans will detail what was left over.

In the end, as the buyer and want title insurance, you will have to foot the bill to determine what the property actually consists of and have a proper metes and bounds deeds recorded. It's in your best interest to do that and have corners set as well.

He describes this parcel as a left over portion of the original subdivision. The line between the adjoining subdivision and the and the left over parcel created will control, however, we both agree that after some 60 years, a hard look needs to be taken at the lines of possession.

My original thoughts about consolidating the lots were pretty much the same as yours but the author stated somewhere in the thread that he did not want to do that because he is thinking of building a house for his daughter and didn't want to have re subdivide because two dwellings on a single lot are not allowed.

1. I would think the deed to be prepared conveying you the parcel would be something like:

"All of deed xxx/yyy containing X acres, saving and excepting A , B, C, etc."

2. As for access, "Boundary Retracement Principles and Procedures for Pennsylvania” Knud E. Hermansen, 2024 states in section 4.6.2:

The Legislature has permitted the petition for and subsequent condemnation of easements for private roads. However, the road must be necessary (severe hardship but not always absolute necessity required) for the enjoyment of the property.

The several courts of quarter sessions shall... upon the petition of one or more persons, associations, partnerships, ... for a road from their respective lands or  leaseholds to a highway or place of necessary public  resort, or to any private way leading to highway... shall direct a view to bad of the place where such road is requested, and report thereof to be made, in the same manner as is directed by the said act of 13 June 1836 (36 P.S. § 1961). (Proceedings to Open Private Roads, 36 P.S. § 2731 (1927).)

This statute is meant to ensure that no private property is landlocked or prevented access to public roads. If a parcel cannot gain access by an amicable grant, the statute can be used. In fact, the courts will provide a private road even though the owner bought the property knowing access did not exist.

Fact that owner of property requesting private road knew his property was landlocked at time of purchase did not preclude right to petition for private road. (In re Private Road in Monroeville Boro., 204 Pa.Super. 552, 205 A.2d 885 (1965).)

All That being said, I would think once you own the tract in question it's no longer landlocked for you. You adjoin the parcel, and you currently have road access. So, if you decide to sell it, just grant an easement for access in the new conveyance.

Nice work. We just signed the agreement today on a 40 acre parcel that we are purchasing. It had an old road many years ago early 1900’s. Around mi 1930’s dot abandoned the old dirt road and stopped it. No longer apart of the row precriptive easement back then. Now the old farm was split via wils during this time hence a 40 acre parcel being land locked. In 1996 an ingress egress easement was granted of 12 ft wide along the old dirt road for our parcel. About 1000 ft. Had to purchase an additional 13’ from the current owner we are. Crossing so we can 1. Get a navigable driveway correctly built without causing issues for that owner and to get utilities aka power and fiber. We will be on a well and septic. Now if gravel prices would drop lol.