Have you ever driven by a recent road improvement project and noticed that the city/county has taken a good portion of the property owner’s front yard for street/sidewalk and/or utility improvement? What most people don’t realize is the portions of the landscaping that were destroyed and taken were not actually within the boundary lines of the property owner. Property owners frequently improve their properties to the physical location of the edge of the right of way as constructed. It makes sense to do this as you don’t want an unkempt area between your property line and the physical location of the road. Many right-of-ways are platted to be 40-60 feet wide, 20-30 feet on each side of the center line of the roadway. If you locate the said center line, in most cases you will notice that the road and sidewalk may only go 12 to 20 feet from the center line, meaning there could be a substantial strip of land that you might think is yours as you maintain that area. In these days of curb appeal importance, it is relatively easy for a homeowner to procure retaining wall blocks and put them in front of the property to get that desired look. It is also important to remember that it is impossible to claim adverse possession on governmental property, so therefore the extensive landscaping and walls built on that land will never truly be yours.
How does this affect you?
Regularly I see inspections where owners have built these extensive retaining walls and planters into these street right of ways and as they have been common to the area, and the likelihood of street expansion being small, most purchasers will close subject to these conditions. I can tell you first hand that many real estate professionals don’t like the title companies ever raising this as a title concern because they are common, especially in some areas.
However, an event recently occurred that maybe will shed another light as to why this condition should be raised. A homeowner’s association was putting in a new water and electrical utility line and they were forced to evacuate a ditch very close to a homeowner’s block retaining wall. Though they thought the soil under the wall would hold, the weight of the wall was too great and the wall collapsed. In hindsight, they should have given the homeowner 5 days notice to remove his wall as it was built out into the street right of way. Most county and city building departments have an application form allowing use for these types of improvements, but they make it very clear that the homeowner may have to move these improvements in the future.
In closing, again, I just stress the importance of the Form 17- does the seller know if any of their improvements are over the property line and secondly, to know the importance of raising the question or exception that even though the likelihood of street expansion is small, there could always be the event of a local utility needing to add or replace a line that could also have an impact on these improvements.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to call your real estate title professional.