The dispute originated when the Preradovic family acquired the adjacent Pinedale Road property in December 2022 and discovered through a pre-sale survey that a wooden fence encroached by nearly nine feet. Despite escalating demands ranging from a $30,000 purchase price to a yearly lease, the Murrays defended their claim based on continuous caretaking dating back to December 1998. The Delaware Court of Chancery resolved the matter by awarding full legal ownership of the contested ground, which includes an adjacent garden planter previously excluded by a magistrate.
Key points
Continuous, decades-long maintenance of adjacent residential grounds can legally grant ti…: Continuous, decades-long maintenance of adjacent residential grounds can legally grant title through adverse possession under Delaware law.
Prior structures and landscape features established before a home purchase support legal…: Prior structures and landscape features established before a home purchase support legal claims against newly completed boundary surveys.
The Delaware Court of Chancery confirmed adverse possession applies to both fully fenced…: The Delaware Court of Chancery confirmed adverse possession applies to both fully fenced land and adjacent unenclosed garden planters.
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A Delaware couple who spent more than two decades looking after a piece of land beside their home have won a court battle against neighbours who wanted them to pay $30,000 or move their fence.
According to the
judgment, Joseph W C Murray Jr and his wife Danielle, residents of Newark since 1998, faced the demand after a survey revealed that their backyard fence extended into the neighbouring property. On Friday, the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the couple had gained ownership of the disputed land through adverse possession, including a garden area that was not enclosed by the fence.
The disagreement began when Rade and Zeljka Preradovic purchased the neighbouring house with their son Nikola in December 2022. Before the sale, a property survey identified that the wooden fence separating the two homes crossed into the Preradovics' land by nearly nine feet at one point.
The Murrays had bought their house on Pinedale Road in December 1998. At the time, the fence was already standing, along with a stone retaining wall and a raised garden planter. Over the…
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