Boundaries

We represent owners in disputes over where a boundary is, and co-owners who cannot agree on what to do with land they hold together.

Most boundary disputes start when a survey puts the line somewhere other than an old fence. We review the deeds and the recorded surveys, work with a licensed surveyor, and determine whether the deed line, an agreed boundary or adverse possession controls. Where the neighbors can agree, we write the boundary line agreement or the property line adjustment (often called a lot line adjustment), prepare the county application and the deeds, and work with the surveyor on the descriptions.

Where the neighbors cannot agree, we bring or defend the case in the circuit court of the county where the land is: adverse possession, quiet title, or ejectment where a neighbor’s fence or building is over the line. For co-owners we bring or defend partition cases, in which the court divides the land or orders it sold and the proceeds divided.

Services we provide

• Boundary line agreements
• Property line adjustments
• Adverse possession and quiet title
• Ejectment
• Partition

Statutes and rules

• ORS 105.620, Adverse possessionten years of actual, open, notorious, exclusive, hostile and continuous possession, begun under an honest belief that the land was the possessor's own.
• ORS 105.605, Quiet titlethe suit that asks the court to declare who owns what, against anyone who claims an adverse interest.
• ORS 105.005 and following, Ejectmentthe action by the owner with a present right to possession to recover the land and damages for the time it was withheld.
• ORS 105.205 to 105.405, Partitiondivision of land among co-owners, or its sale and the division of the proceeds when it cannot be divided without prejudice.
• ORS 92.010 and 92.190, Property line adjustmentsmoving a common line between two parcels without creating a new one: the definition, the county's approval and the deed that records it.
• ORS chapter 209, County Surveyorsthe surveyor's duty to file surveys and corner records, which is why a recorded survey exists for most disputed lines.
• ORS chapter 96, Line and Partition Fenceswho builds and pays for a fence between neighbors.