Shared dock

If I was to get everything I want I would have the dock tore out and build my own. Having said that , it's half on their property so they also have a say.

I pushed my budget to get this place (It's a beautiful house and the lot and water is great) so the many thousands it would take to tear out and totally rebuild is not appealing at the moment.

Also I would get into the hassle of permitting etc.

I am thinking an easement from both properties to access the dock walkway and each party has their "side" of the dock. Not perfect but might work.
 
I think a land survey may be the big decider. County land maps generally do not have the same accuracy as survey maps. The former are informational and the latter literally are scalable maps. Your picture looks like the dock may be on your property. A survey will determine where things stand.
 
Good point...a survey is being done.
 
I have looked and cannot find it
 
What am I missing? Surveys, easements and encumbrances are usually figured out before closing. Did you close already? Do you use attorneys in your jurisdiction?
 
PlayDate said:
I agree with Frank's comments but I would start in a simple place.....pull the building permits. I seriously doubt your community lets people show up with pile driving equipment and build docks without a plan and a permit. Your aerial photo shows lots of docks on neighboring properties.

That will answer a number of pertinent questions:

1) Who pulled the permits?
2) How was the dock sited?
3) When was it built?
4) What company did the construction?
5) Who paid for the work?

Hopefully it was permitted. If not....things are far more complex since it may be cheaper to tear it down and move it on to your property. Having a dock easement between two neighbors is just problematic.
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Don't need a building permit for docks in my area just a permit from the army corp of engineers which you need to submit plans to but nothing from local community, then that permit is good for life of docks or until the property changes ownership.
 
I built a dock for my parents in 1973 16 by 16 feet with a 15 foot walk way to it. No permits no plans. To build a similar dock today you need an engineered drawing, permit and specific materials. You can maintain the dock but not alter its foot print. If your dock was built in 1995 call the people you pay taxes to and ask them if you needed a permit to build a dock in 1995.
 
Golfman25 said:
What am I missing? Surveys, easements and encumbrances are usually figured out before closing. Did you close already? Do you use attorneys in your jurisdiction?
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An attorney was used for closing with the standard title search etc. No recordings reference the dock found anywhere. I never questioned the dock because it was represented to me as part of the property.

We moved in and the neighbors told us it is a shared dock. A survey is being done to establish definite property lines and start the process of sorting this out.
 
Quint4 said:
An attorney was used for closing with the standard title search etc. No recordings reference the dock found anywhere. I never questioned the dock because it was represented to me as part of the property.

We moved in and the neighbors told us it is a shared dock. A survey is being done to establish definite property lines and start the process of sorting this out.
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Weird. In IL surveys are part of the closing process. What evidence do the neighbors have that it is a shared dock?
 
Golfman25 said:
Weird. In IL surveys are part of the closing process. What evidence do the neighbors have that it is a shared dock?
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All they have is tax records indicating taxes paid annually on a dock since 1995. No agreement or other documentation can be found.
 
If the dock was represented to as yours and nothing was said about it shared then the listing agent has some liability there. It should be in the disclosures that it was a shared dock. They have Errors and Omissions insurance that will cover it. I would double check the listing and make sure it wasn’t disclosed and if it wasn’t then I would file a claim with the listing broker. If it is a shared dock then it doesn’t have the same value to you (or anyone else either) that your own dock would have. If they represented it as your own dock or didn’t disclose that it wasn’t then they have liability.
 
Jeremygavin said:
If the dock was represented to as yours and nothing was said about it shared then the listing agent has some liability there. It should be in the disclosures that it was a shared dock. They have Errors and Omissions insurance that will cover it. I would double check the listing and make sure it wasn’t disclosed and if it wasn’t then I would file a claim with the listing broker. If it is a shared dock then it doesn’t have the same value to you (or anyone else either) that your own dock would have. If they represented it as your own dock or didn’t disclose that it wasn’t then they have liability.
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Yeah, I think you have a tough case. The standard disclaimer is details are not guaranteed and should be confirmed by the buyer. That's why we have home inspections, title searches, surveys, etc.
 
I hear ya.......we had a home inspection and title search done. I have bought 3 previous homes here in Ohio and never had a survey as part of purchase.
 
Quint4 said:
I hear ya.......we had a home inspection and title search done. I have bought 3 previous homes here in Ohio and never had a survey as part of purchase.
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Did you purchase title insurance? if you got a loan I'm sure the bank would have required it on their part. Read the fine print, most policies will not cover items that would/should have been found with a survey.
 
Yes title insurance purchased.
 
Golfman25 said:
Yeah, I think you have a tough case. The standard disclaimer is details are not guaranteed and should be confirmed by the buyer. That's why we have home inspections, title searches, surveys, etc.
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Here is MA as a licensed agent you have to be certain about what you are representing or disclose that you are not sure. If the agent represented to you that the dock was solely yours then whether it is or is not is irrelevant. They are the professional that is representing the seller. It may be different elsewhere but here that’s the way it would
Play put. I did a deal last year that we thought was tied into town sewer as it was in a city with very few septics so we put in the listing as town sewer. It was a property that we bought, cleaned the junk out and put it on the market as a wholesale deal to be rehabbed. I am the owner of the property as well as the listing agent through the brokerage that I own. Come to find out it was never tied in to town sewer. The buyer came back to us after he closed on the josue and found out it wasn’t tied in and asked us to pay for it. We had listed it as an As Is sale so as the seller I wasn’t liable. The problem was that as the sellers agent we listed it as town sewer so my brokerage was liable under errors and omissions and was the ones that had to write the check. It was covered under our E&O insurance.
 
Jeremygavin said:
Here is MA as a licensed agent you have to be certain about what you are representing or disclose that you are not sure. If the agent represented to you that the dock was solely yours then whether it is or is not is irrelevant. They are the professional that is representing the seller. It may be different elsewhere but here that’s the way it would
Play put. I did a deal last year that we thought was tied into town sewer as it was in a city with very few septics so we put in the listing as town sewer. It was a property that we bought, cleaned the junk out and put it on the market as a wholesale deal to be rehabbed. I am the owner of the property as well as the listing agent through the brokerage that I own. Come to find out it was never tied in to town sewer. The buyer came back to us after he closed on the josue and found out it wasn’t tied in and asked us to pay for it. We had listed it as an As Is sale so as the seller I wasn’t liable. The problem was that as the sellers agent we listed it as town sewer so my brokerage was liable under errors and omissions and was the ones that had to write the check. It was covered under our E&O insurance.
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Jeremy,
Be thankful you are not in NC, that would have been grounds for losing your license. Until a couple of years ago we did not even put sqft in our MLS listing in GA or NC because of the liability issues. I've seen agents get fined/reprimanded for using the MLS sqft. when they were the buyer's agent. It is just crazy sometimes.

Quint4 said:
Yes title insurance purchased.
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Guess each state is different. I'm surprised they did not make you get a new survey. Do you use an attorney for closing? Who does the title research?
 
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