she has no such thing. She may have documentation to support a claim for adverse possession in a suit to quiet title but she does not have proof she owns anything at the moment because, simply put; she doesn't own your property even if she has a valid claim to it through adverse possession.It's been two weeks since that conversation, and we hadn't seen his wife (we wanted to discuss with her in person), but just received a two page typed "Letter of Intent" from her in the mail saying she had spoken with her husband about our plans and told us to refrain from doing anything to the boundary line until she consults her lawyer. She doesn't want us to put up a new fence, nor trim any of the existing overgrown shrubbery that would be required to trim in order to build a new fence. She is claiming she has all the documents required to prove she is the rightful owner of the property from her side of our fence to the official survey line (and township border line) by virtue of adverse possession. She has owned the house since 1998 (in NJ the statute is 30 yrs), but says the fence was there when she bought the house.
A fence being in place does not in itself make for an adverse possession claim. There is more to it than that.
so, to start things off; do you have title insurance? Those are one of the first people you need to contact about this.
she has to prove she has met the requirements of adverse possession for the requisite period of time. The fence being where it is alone is not fulfillment of the requirementsThe questions we have are:
1. Does adverse possession apply if it is clearly our fence? Does she have to prove the fence has been there 30+ years? And if she can, does her case have legs?
it's yours until a court says otherwise. Do what you wish with your shrubs2. Her letter told us not to trim any shrubbery along the boundary line until the matter is resolved. Can she actually hold us to that if it's our property and on our side of the fence?
noppe because even if she has a claim for adverse possession it ends at your fence so the fence would remain yours and you can do with it as you desire.3. If we remove the fence (without putting a new one up), could we be punished for doing so after her letter asked us not to touch anything along the boundary? Meaning, would it look like we were acting in bad faith by doing so after receiving her letter?
this is the statute on the matter:
a few questions:2A:14-30. 30 years' possession of real estate, except woodlands or uncultivated tracts, and 60 years' possession of woodlands or uncultivated tracts however commenced or continued
Thirty years' actual possession of any real estate excepting woodlands or uncultivated tracts, and 60 years' actual possession of woodlands or uncultivated tracts, uninterruptedly continued by occupancy, descent, conveyance or otherwise, shall, in whatever way or manner such possession might have commenced or have been continued, vest a full and complete right and title in every actual possessor or occupier of such real estate, woodlands or uncultivated tracts, and shall be a good and sufficient bar to all claims that may be made or actions commenced by any person whatsoever for the recovery of any such real estate, woodlands or uncultivated tracts.
were you aware of the fence being set off from the property line as it was?
is there a requirement fences be set off from a property line any specific distance?
has the neighbor acted as the area on their side of the fence was in fact theirs?
has anybody spoken about where the property lines are at any time prior?
as to her owning the property less than 30 years:
the courts of new jersey have ruled that for a current possessor to be allowed to tack the time of a prior possessor, the prior possessor must have also met the requirements of adversely possessing the property so;
any idea how the prior owners thought of the issue?

