I want to sell my house, but my garage is encroaching on city land. The person that sold the house to me lied on his disclosure papers about the encroachment. I don't want to move a perfectly good garage -- and it costs money to do it. I checked with my title insurance company and for some reason they wouldn't take care of something like this. Not sure I understand why. The city hasn't been any help, either. How can I solve this problem so I can sell my property without problems. This is a single family home in a small MN town.
Thanks!

How long has this encroachment existed? Was the city aware of it?

We have only owned the house since 2005. The house was built in 1914, but the garage isn't that old. The person we bought the house from bought it in 2001, and he said he was lied to about the situation as well. The owner before him bought the house in 1993.

The city as far as we know was not aware of it.

Ok, What we have here is a case of adverse possession. If you can determine when the garage was built, you might be able to build a case you now own the property due to adverse possession.

I would get a real estate attorney invovled to try to get your property survey amended.

I would also review your title insurance. Your carrier should have caught this and really should be at least covering your costs in getting the survey changed.

Thank you!

Yes, it will be real easy if the city will just transfer ownership of those few feet to you. This is of course a reason that you should have had a survey before buying.

Title insurance will not help since your title is good, you just have a shed setting off your property

I'm still not sure the insurance shouldn't help. You were buying the shed as part of the deal, and they should have made sure you had clear title to it.

First, if your survey shows that your garage encroaches on city property then most likely your title insurance policy contains an exception for it. That means that they will insure the title to all of the improvements on your property except for that piece that encroaches on city property. That's why they won't do anything about it now.

Second, it's highly unlikely that you will be able to "win" the property by adverse possession. Most state laws say that adverse possession laws do not apply to property owned by cities, counties or the state.

Ooops. I still think its worth a try to go for the adverse possession. But I see now why the title company may be off the hook.