Reply To: 198 Year Land Lease

akuperma Unless you sold him the land, his claim be challenged, and you have until the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, which in most American states is 20 years (but some are less). You may be unable to use the small claims court since many states would require this action to be brought in a court of general jurisdiction since it is an action to determine ownership of land. If you are in the US, you need to check your deed (in some countries you’ll need to check an official registry). In any event you need a lawyer. Disputes over land are hardly unheard of, in part since even when buying a house many purchasers don’t have the property surveyed. If you have title insurance, you might also file a claim since if your deed included the land, they are required to defend your claim.

P.S. Your reference to a “land office” suggests you are not in US, since a central land office sounds like a Torrens system – so contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction. Anyone who handles real estate matters should be competent to deal with this.

This happened in the USA. A lawyer was already gotten but unfortunately the neighbor knew the judge and he ruled in the neighbor’s favor, the judge’s exact words when I first walked into the courtroom for the very first time was ” how long will this procession be, I have a lunch date at 1:00pm”, part of the problem with the situation is my neighbor thinks he is entitled to the 200ft of land in my backyard is because he was best friends with the former owner of the house, the former owner of the house wanted him to have the 200ft of land, even after he sold me the house, so they did a back door deal, that the neighbor gets the 200ft of land, without me even knowing anything about it at all.