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Gap on edge of property
Gap on edge of property
Hi there – Sorry if this has already been addressed, but I’m new here. We recently bought a new home on 20 acres in Wisconsin. Of course the title was verified and clear, but now that we have moved in I’ve noticed something. There is a small strip of land between my woods and the farm field that is listed as Gap in existing description. There is no parcel ID on it. My question is should my Title guy have said something to us about that?? I have called him about it and he is not returning my calls. I would like to acquire this strip, but how do I go about doing it. How expensive will it be? Or since our title company guy already pulled our title stuff, should he be responsible to this also? Or can I simply go to our City office and talk to them? Someone knows about this gap piece of property because he/she has set up a hunting blind on it. I have never run into this person yet, but am trying to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you- 5 Replies
Would have to see your Deed in order to have a clue what you are talking about.
Roughly, how big is this gap?
In theory, there “are no gaps, just un-identified owners”.
However, if it’s a foot wide, or 100′ wide, can influence the solution.
I’d suggest get a desc to this “gap”, (perhaps from the surveyor), and, file some sort of affidavit of claiming it, or quiet title action on it, or, get a quitclaim from the person you bought the bona-fide land from.
Just ideas here… As I have no details as of yet.
Nate
Hi Nate – Thank you for your help.
It is roughly a half an acre. 20′ wide x 800′ long.
The person we bought the home/land from had no idea about the gap. She has lived here for the past 50 years. Purchased the piece of land and from what I can see on-line the gap was already there back then.
Are you certain the term “gap” is on your deed description??? Or, does it appear on a survey or a local county office (appraiser/assessor) drawing???? Big difference. I don’t recall a deed ever specifically mentioning “gap”.
Gaps do exist, but only when intended to exist. I could have a tract 430 feet wide, then sell one guy the south 200 feet and a different guy the north 200 feet thus intentionally retaining the 30 feet in the middle. Perhaps that is valuable to me in order to access another tract behind the others.
What surveyors typically refer to as a gap is a case where the seller surely did not intend to retain some otherwise worthless strip, wedge or triangle of land. This comes up frequently when surveys have not been made but deeds have changed hands. Theoretically a half mile is 2640 feet, but , in the real world it might be much longer or much shorter. Say it’s 27 feet longer than 2640 on the west side of a quarter section and 2 feet longer on the east side of the same quarter section. Then the owner of the entire quarter section deeds the south 1000 feet thereof to one guy and the north 1640 feet to a different guy at a later date. That, theoretically leaves a strip that is 27 feet wide on the west end and 2 feet wide on the east end. The obvious problem is that the original owner merely assumed the total was 2640 feet and intended to convey away all of his interest in that quarter section. Strictly following the words of the two deeds would indicate there is a gap. In reality, the second piece deeded (the remainder piece) has an error in dimensions but the error is only found when the surveyor completes an accurate survey and subtracts out the first piece deeded (the 1000-foot piece in this case).
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