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Stubborn people can be so silly
Forty years ago a family owned all of one large tract plus a smaller adjacent tract along the southerly border of the larger tract that had as its only access to a county road through ownership of the larger tract. Then they sold off most of the large tract, retained an oddly shaped piece of it adjacent to the smaller tract mentioned above, and reserved a non-exclusive easement to a strip along the southerly boundary of the large tract so as to be able to access the county road.
Time passes. The large tract (less the odd tract) burdened by the non-exclusive easement changes ownership several times. It is about to change ownership again. Meanwhile the odd tract and the smaller adjacent tract that is the primary beneficiary of the non-exclusive easement has left the original family and is currently owned by an interesting couple. The unfortunate realtor and the title company involved contacted us due to the odd behavior of the interesting couple next door to the tract being sold.
The interesting couple next door have decided they actually own the area defined by the non-exclusive easement, built a fence along the wrong side of it and installed a locked gate to insure that no one, including the true owner of that area, can use the driveway (graveled lane). The easement terminates at the westerly side of the odd tract mentioned above. However, that route is rather important to the true owner as it is by far the superior route to get to a significant fraction of the large tract that wraps around the west, north and east sides of the odd tract.
The interesting couple next door profess to having in their possession a survey made about 1979 delineating the boundaries of the odd tract but absolutely will not show it to anyone. The description of the odd tract has bearings to the nearest second and distances to 0.01 feet. So, there most likely was a survey made by someone not local to the area at that time. The few local surveyors had not invested in that new-fangled Star Wars-type, laser-shooting gizmo stuff, but were rather adept with theodolites and 100-foot chains. They knew their measuring skills in rough country were far from the level of precision cited in the record deed.
The realtor and title company think that if we perform a survey to define the boundaries of the tract to be sold, including locating the non-exclusive easement area, the interesting couple will remove the fence and gate willingly. This despite responses from the adjoiners declaring they are not about to accept results contrary to their own way of thinking.
We have offered up an estimate as to the cost of the survey effort required, including assumed time wasted having a sheriff’s deputy keep the interesting couple at bay for a period of time when we cross over their new fence to install a few bars to clearly show the true boundary line. I’m 99 percent sure our number is too high. But, there are always a few stubborn people willing to do what it takes to claim every square inch of what their deed declares to be their property.
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