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Central Minnesota | We had a similar situation come up about 5 or so years ago.
The neighbor to one of our farms purchased his parcel around 1980, and dad purchased a parcel right next to his the following year. Neither of them were surveyed at the time. He never farmed his parcel. He owned a tiling business. And always rented his parcel out. We farmed ours. There was an established tree line, as well as barbed wire fence as the property line. That's what we always used since 1980. In around 1985, he came to dad, and said i want to tile my parcel, and if you let me hook into your tile, i'll put an intake on the line fence. Dad said ok. So that's what happened. Fast forward to 2020, he comes out and starts looking at OnX and claims he owns some of our field. So he hires a surveyor, after we had planted corn, and the surveyor goes out and puts metal fence posts thru our field at an angle.
We called Rinke Noonan. Spoke with Ben, and Jake about it. They sent our neighbor a nice letter. Basically stating, stay the heck off the field, or law enforcement will be called, also to remove the posts. He never did. So that fall we had to walk the corn field to find the stakes. He claims he never got the letter. That fall after fieldwork, he proceeded to go out there with an excavator, and tear out the tree line, and fence. Buried and burned the trees on our side, fence posts were scattered all over the field along with barb wire. More Attorney letters. Following year, we spent alot of time and money cleaning it up. Planted where the original line fence was. Planted beans, rolled them, picked rocks and sticks and fence posts again. That fall, ended up catching a burnt stump into the bean head. $7000 damage. Had to meet with mediator, all of that fun stuff.
By the time it was all said and done. We won the adverse possession claim. It cost us roughly $55,000-$60,000. He had to pay to have it resurveyed, where the original tree line was, as we maintained everything on our side of the tree line, and had farmed it for close to 40 total years. He had to pay to repair damages to bean head.
It was settled many times. Attorneys had worked out deals, and then he would change his mind. In the end, we had gotten what had belonged to us. He had the acres he was paying property taxes on, and that was also deeded to him. The whole thing arose from a line that wasn't correct on OnX. He had 78.1 acres on his property tax statements, and also on his deed. When it was surveyed out, he had 78.13 acres after it. And the line stayed where the tree line originally was. But if it went off of his legal description, he would have had 81.9 acres. There was alot of errors in it.
He also tore out the intake he put in on the line fence. His reason on it was "The neighbor wrecked it" so he took it out. There was no signed easement ever. And in the depositions, our attorney asked him where his tile all went, he said north to a different drainage system. So now, we will go out there, and disconnect all of his tile that's tied into ours, and cement it shut. Then when his doesn't work, he will need an easement to fix it, and tie into ours. Easements can get expensive.
We have used Rinke Noonan for alot of things over time. They are great, but not cheap. When you need someone for water or tiling, that's where they are the best. | |
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Adverse possession
