 | Jeff Otto is Branch Manager of Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation which is a member of LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc., a premier national provider of title insurance and settlement services. Lawyers Title has been in the local marketplace since 1955. Jeff has been with Lawyers Title for 34 years, the last 24 right here in Wichita. You may contact Jeff at (316) 682-9600 x 201 or by e-mail at jotto@landam.com |
Real Estate
2006-09-01 16:04:00
Relax...it’s just property
QUESTION: Can I ever really relax when buying real property?
ANSWER: “It’s such a pretty setting. Far enough away to provide that certain amount of serenity and quietness I’ve always dreamed of owning.” “There's an old dirt road, kinda like a loggers road, into the property, so there must be access." This is the sad lament of many a prospective country property owner who didn't ask enough questions before making the decision to move “away from it all”. Legal access to your property is critically important. Without it, you are the proud owner of a piece of landlocked, inaccessible property. Absent someone giving you legal ingress and egress, you’re out of luck, unless you can work with a helicopter or some other means of getting in and out.There are many types of access, some trouble free, but some full of problems. The most trouble free access is where the property abuts or adjoins a public road. With no other properties between yours and a public road, very few problems can arise. The fun begins when you find that secluded piece of property, tucked away back on a hill or in a scenic little valley with a stream, hundreds or even thousands of feet from the main road. The access to such a piece of property will undoubtedly be made across other surrounding properties, and that's where you'll sometimes encounter access problems. To avoid such problems, verify that the property you are purchasing has deeded access. In other words, the owners of the surrounding properties, land locking yours, have signed and recorded deeds granting access to your property.If the property doesn't have deeded access, you may still have access because it can be demonstrated that the road to the property has been in continuous use for an extended period of time. This is called prescriptive access, and varies according to the laws of each state. Prescriptive access is unreliable, though, and you may find yourself in court after you purchase the property if your neighbors decide they don't want you crossing their property any longer.After you've determined that you do have legal access to the property, you need to ask yourself "Who's going to maintain the road?" Unless you are the only one who owns property on the road, you probably will need to share the road maintenance expenses with neighboring property owners. Is there a written road maintenance agreement? Or do the owners just get together and share the costs and physical work of maintaining the road? If there's a written maintenance agreement, get a copy of it and study it. Make sure that you have good information that you can rely on before you make the decision to “move away from the rat race”. More next month…
