'She paid insurance and taxes for years': Couple discovers after 40 years they were scammed, realizing they only own half their land and have been paying to maintain neighbor's property

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    r r/legaladvice • 1 day ago r/ JessiKay Grandparents just found out that half their property isn't theirs. 40 years later...we are devastated.
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    My grandma is going into the nursing home after devastatingly loosing Grandpa. While putting their house and barn on the market through a local realtor, a second realtor in the same office who also happens to be on the county Planning Commission, discovered that half of the property isn't theirs. 40 years later...
  • 03
    My grandparent's property is in Oregon and is surrounded by fields and forest owned by the kids of the original owner/builder of the house. They also happen to be her closest "neigbors." From my understanding, after the parents died, the kids split the house from the farmland/forest and sold it to
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    someone else, who a few years later had a realtor sell it to my grandparents. It was sold to grandma as if it was all one piece of property. It had a house, chicken coop, and an orchard. My grandpa then built a barn by the orchard a few years later. Now 40 years
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    later we find out that the property paperwork and the local Engineering Department(?) have documents showing the property line my grandparents were sold only includes the house, not the coop, orchard or where the barn was built. Basically they paid for 5(?) acres
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    and only were sold 2. When grandma said it was all 2 acres, I was shocked because it looked so much bigger, and now we know its accually 5(?) acres and she only owns the 2 acres where the house sits. 40-60+ years and no one
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    measured or got anything inspected to make sure anything was accurate. So now grandma only has the house and the "neighbor" gets the barn, coop, and orchard half of her property for free. Grandma is still paying $1000s to a contractor for the barns repair
  • 08
    a tree hit it, so now the neighbor gets the barn and repair work for for free too. She has also paid taxes and insurance on the barn and everything for years without anyone realizing that half of the property wasn't hers. We
  • 09
    were informed that with Adverse Possession it would cost grandma $100,000 to get her lost property back. She can't afford that, so the new owners will gain a $300,000 profit of that property according to our realtor, plus the barn repairs grandma paid for.
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    Grandma refused to wait as we requested, so she already sold it to someone who happens to be "friends" with these "neigbors". And this "friend/new owner" has already admitted to her and us that a propery/barn deal is going down between him and these "neighbors".
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    So I guess my questions would be: Can they legally profit off the barn grandma built 20-30 years ago and had repaired last month? Can she legally request they pay her for the barn from their property profits?
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    Can it really cost $100,000 to pay the neighbor or for that land back? That's what the engineering(?) office said it would cost. Are there free ways to fight this loss? Can I legally have the barn dismantled and rebuilt on my own property? Or will
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    they sue me for stealing the barn even though my grandparents payed for and had it built on property they didn't know they didn't own? We are already trying to empty the tools and equipment as fast as we can before they suddenly take possession of it unannounced.
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    Really, who divides the house and property off of farmland and neglects to include the orchard and coop that goes with it and is fenced with it? We have an assumption that this was planned all along so these "neigbors" can have an investment when my grandparents passed.
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    McLovin-Hawaii-Aloha • 1d ago Adverse possession was built for this
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    modernistamphibian • 1d ago We were informed Informed by whom? It sounds like grandma may have been scammed at some point, perhaps a long while ago, perhaps very recently. Please say that she had a real estate attorney for these recent transactions.
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    rpcleary 1d ago You're definitely in lawyer territory with this. The good news is that there is potentially a strong. case under Oregan's laws relating to adverse possesion. Since your Grandparents maintained the property publicly and acted as though they were the lawful owners for over 10 years without receiving pushback, they likely fulfill the requirements. Given the finances at stake, this is likely worth pursuing.
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    PressureHooker 1d ago Get a lawyer and get a surveyer. All the people your grandma has confided in have a vested interest in the selling of the property and your grandma not putting up a fight. This is so shady. You need an objective 3rd party that can go back and verify everything you're being told. Realtors can be just as scummy as used cars salesmen. They're usually looking out for themselves and their commission first.
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    • jess9802 1d ago Oregon lawyer here. I'm not a litigator, but I have handled uncontested quiet title/adverse possession cases. The law changed in 1990 and now requires an honest belief one owned the property. If your grandparents had not met the 10 year possession rule by 1990, then they had to have an honest belief the property was theirs during the 10 years. In any event, I think they have a good reason to consult with a lawyer. Your grandmother should not sign any more paperwork until she's
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