Florida Homeowners "Losing" Their Back Yards

A pity that Florida requires payment of taxes or color of title for AP.?ÿ Even without a survey, if somebody in the block looked at GIS it should have raised a red flag.

@bill93 It would be interesting to know the complete timeline of that neighborhood, including how that strip arose. Could it have been a never-used alley, planned by the developer, who neglected to convey the fee to the abutters?

Had to look this one up.

Holiday is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Interested to see how this unfolds.

That quote...?ÿ ":It's not worth anything."?ÿ?ÿ ummmm?ÿ Not true.?ÿ As I assume you are about to find out.?ÿ

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But I will say, if anyone had it surveyed and that parcel wasn't defined, they should be call their surveyors and attorneys.?ÿ

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Andy?ÿ

I would be very interested to know whether those "surveys" that supposedly did not show that piece of land were actual surveys or simple "plot plans". That's something that should be showing up on the tax maps, especially having been transferred ownership in 2008.

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There was a case around here involving lots with a railroad ROW crossing it. The railroad ROW was eventually abandoned and then sold to the county for a trail system under the rails-to-trails/railbanking program. But the homeowners started building improvements across the ROW to get to a lakeshore, acting as if they owned the railroad ROW too, and eventually the county served trespass notices.

It was something like a 20-year legal fight. After reading the article I pulled a couple of the deeds for the properties of the litigating homeowners, and the legal descriptions pretty much all say some version of "except railroad ROW". Maps going back to the 60s clearly show the ROW, and there's no way any title company worth their salt would have insured a homebuyer against that. Hard to feel too bad for the landowners in that case...

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I think it's Bigelow Drive, not Street as given in the article.?ÿ?ÿ

Google Maps even shows the strip as separate from the lots.

Google Earth near 28.1977,-82.76064 shows the pool as the most obvious improvement in the strip.

The Pasco County GIS, parcel 25-26-15-0010-02600-0000,?ÿ gives the owner (a trust and trustee name), phone number, and an address in Clearwater, which the homeowners don't seem to know about.

The houses on that street were built typically in 1971. Easement by prescription?

I am not familiar with Pasco County Tax Collector rules, but in Seminole County (where I am) the Tax Collector HAS to place a sign in the parcel being auctioned to prevent the "I didn't know"/"I wasn't aware" lawsuit fiasco. If you do buy a certificate you have to purchase the next two years in a row in order to foreclose or initiate other legal action. This is a big problem in South Florida with investors buying waterway canals in older platted subdivisions and then stirring up the innards of hell. ?????ÿ

I was involved with this encroachment enforcement shortly after the USACOE determined that the improvements inside the levee easement had to go. I led our State survey crew staking the southerly limits of the levee easement through these backyards and specifically recall the pool. That was probably around 2009. I directed staff to prepare everything with the intention of finding ourselves in court, but we never did, although I left that position and went to another agency in 2012. What made it worse was most of the major improvements, such as the pool, were permitted, but when the Corps put the hammer down on the whole subdivision and the City/County, rather than just these 8 homeowners, the negotiations took a turn. I just looked at Google Maps and sure enough, the pool is gone.

https://www.recordnet.com/news/20160830/levee-saga-comes-to-end

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Looks like an alley that was never built.?ÿ 1 look at the subdivision plat should clear this up in 2 seconds but apparently none of these people have a copy?

If I was a homeowner here I'd argue I have a prescriptive easement over the strip.

Doesnt this keep happening in Florida? What is different about Floroda that allows this to reoccur so frequently??ÿ

@bstrand

I've never really dealt with alleys very much, but looking at the county GIS site this would be landlocked on the west side as this strip ends at somebody's back lot line. Can an alley have only one access point?

Another reason for me to doubt it was an alley is that it extends through the street right-of-way and cuts out a pie portion of someone's front lawn across the street. I was going to make a joke about this guy setting up a toll booth to continue through the street, but apparently the development just north (a mobile home park) has erected a chain link fence across the road.

@blitzkriegbob?ÿ Yeah, after looking at it on google map it does appear to be a different animal.?ÿ And I was wondering if that was a different sub to the north.?ÿ I'm guessing the street is encroaching too or they wouldn't be able to put the fence there.

I think I'd still pursue the prescriptive easement though because this neighborhood definitely doesn't look new.

Here's the Filed Map, the area in question is lots 667 - 675. The map for the adjacent trailer park "Tiki Village Condominium" does not seem to be available on line.

The 20' strip does not appear to be part of the map.