The Cook County Recorder of Deeds has a website that has searchable indexes. The address below should guide you there, or you might just have to google it. This quick search can shine some light on your situation.
You should still seek out a Professional Surveyor and/or lawyer to reach a decision.
http://12.218.239.81/i2/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
You are a wonderful group of professionals. I have gotten far more help here in just a few hours than all day online.
I cannot say thanks enough. We are currently working with an attorney so we continue our quest to get it figured out.
Again, a sincere thank you for your time and advice.
Kristin
You are way ahead of the typical layman with your quick sketches and knowledge of the potential issues involved. You should have ZERO problems.
The West 33' Comes Out Of Lot 33, Not the Small Lot
So the depth would be whole.
Take a careful look at what the West 33 feet exception is from, i.e. Lot 38.
In Court you also have color of title that includes the garage.
Of course we would also need to see the neighbor's description.
Paul in PA
The West 33' Comes Out Of Lot 33, Not the Small Lot
If you know the section township and range give Sidwell a call 630-549-1100 commercial depatment and they will email you a PDF of the tax map for $25. If you go to the Assessors office its $10 but add in the train/parking/taxi and wandering around downtown and its a bargain. You can get the recording information of the subplat off the tax map. Once you have that send a fax (that is the only way you can contact them)to Property Insight attn: Carol Hobe 312-223-5908 include your contact info and email address as well as your tax pin number and the name and recording info of the subplat and they can email or mail you a copy of the subplat for $30 the county recorder is $60 minimum and a very stern "come back in 2 hours for it". Illinois is a non-recording state when it comes to surveys so the recorder will not have anything. Best bet would be to ask Chicago title or First American (check your title insurance policy if you have one). You can also look at the county GIS by googling "Cook viewer". Lastly if your plat is pre 1874 than it burned in the great chicago fire. Property Insight (formerly Chicago-Title) has assembled alot of the available old stuff stamped "ante-fire".
Exception doesn't always mean exception. 33 feet reserved for a street that never happened. Sounds like more of a future condition that didn't happen and so stays with your lot. Would need to examine all the chain of evidence in the area though. This is a tricky one that even if true might not be picked up on by many surveys or attorney opinions, so don't fault the surveyor too much for showing it held by the neighbor deed (which of course it might be).
Your map is sideways, which direction is north?
YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!
We just got a call from the lawyer explaining that the surveyor was able to determine that the tax maps were entered incorrectly and that my parents legally own the entire plat!!! The neighbor can choose to request the tax boundary lines be re-drawn, but for now, my parents will receive a survey showing that they own the whole lot which means they can sell their house without having to tell people that the garage isn't included 🙂
I can't say thanks enough.
>The owner of the adjoining lot is my dad's brother.
We be calling that an uncle up north.
when you get that map, take it to the assessors office and have them redraw the parcel lines
Awesome!! I dare say surveyors in general would spend more time on an interesting issue to help someone than finish billable boring work! Especially on a Friday. I guarantee people were googling anything they could find to find your property online. It's like a friendly competition.
But I'm worried that your actual surveyor couldn't figure this out on his own.
