[Elliander]

I am moving into a neighborhood, in a house that has stood for more than 120 years, but right away I became aware of how odd the property lines are. It looks like it is because a connecting street is at an angle.

Here is a crop from a scan of the property lines. (It's too big in size and file size to attach as a whole) Locations of buildings on the map don't mean anything because the don't fully line up to scale, and I know where the property lines are with markers. I show this to give a picture of the angles.



Anyway, this raised a few problems I need some advice about fixing.

The first is my own property:

My property is 70 feet in the front, goes back 100 feet on the one side, is 90 feet in the back, and on the right side the there is more than one angle going out and down the hill.

It's actually so bad, that the house downhill of me, to the right, was actually built partially on my land. I know there is nothing I can do about that, but I basically own most of the yard directly behind his house.

Someone else is buying that property, and he wants to fix up that house, so I proposed a solution with him to exchange a potion of my land with a portion of his. So he would have the kind of yard he wants, and I would gain more behind his, and it would square off better.

We already agreed on who will survey both properties, but how exactly do we go about dividing each parcel, swapping pieces of each parcel, and merging those pieces together in a way we can both be happy with? And is that something the Surveyor can also do?

But this solution brings yet another problem.

His property is 27 feet in the front, and goes back 150 feet - at an angle. I will probably end up getting from him the land he has in the far back.

But the house to the right of him also built partially on his house. They are 39 feet by 150 feet. Same angle. And to the right of the far back of their property, 3 houses facing another street have a fence that is not of the correct angle going back. I took a measurement, and there is some 20 feet of their yard that is beyond that fence.

I spoke with the city about the whole mess, and they said that because of the way the property lines angle, there have been arguments about lines for several years. So I fully expect that, although I am sure whatever land I got from the man directly next to me, won't have anything built on it, I will have trouble with the people who, as a result of the fences taking yard from them, will want to take yard from me.

So I guess the next question is this. If 3 parcels each build a fence that is totally or almost totally on someone else's property, do they get that "extra land" in the same way as if a house is built on someone else's land?

And does usage as a lawn with no permanent structures built on it in any way affect how much land someone actually owns?

Like, should I expect any legal problems if I build something on land that I would gain, because someone else has been using that as a yard?

In this case, it's all just overgrowth and ivy, so I wouldn't exactly call that a yard, but still I want to figure everything out.

(I know, it's all confusing even to me.)

Then to further complcate things, a woman who lives up the hill, behind my house, owns a parcel 20 by 50 behind her house. The land I will gain from the man downhill of me, to my right, actually goes all the way up a too steep hill that I can't do anything with as is. My hope is to then be able to exchange a piece of that hill to her, who could easily build it up and use that land, for downhill land closer to my house that I could more easily use. But if not, is there anything I can't do with that hill? I have never built up a hill before so I don't know the rules.

Oh, and this is Illinois.

[LisaB4657]

I lost track of your situation about halfway through. But I can tell you this: if you want to "fix" your property lines and your neighbors do as well, then all of you have to get together and get a revised subdivision map drawn. Once it is prepared to everyone's satisfaction then all of you can apply to the city to have the revised subdivision recorded. Once the city approves the subdivision then you can all file corrective deeds to correct the legal descriptions of your properties.

It sounds pretty bad but if everyone cooperates then it should move along pretty quickly and it shouldn't be very expensive. The biggest expense would be the preparation of the subdivision map but if everyone shares in the costs then it won't be that bad at all.

[Elliander]

Oh, it's not the whole sub division that has this problem. Just 7 Parcels on one corner. And so far only 2 of us want to do something about it. Me, and the Parcel right next to mine.

Isn't there a way to simply divide two parcels into 4 or more pieces, exchange ownership of said pieces, then merge the pieces together in a new way? Without having to mess with the entire subdivision?

[LisaB4657]

Just because it's called a subdivision doesn't mean it has to affect the entire existing subdivision. :) You have to file a subdivision map anytime you want to make property line changes to any parcel of property, regardless of whether it consists of 1000 acres or 100 feet. If you take one parcel and divide it in half, that's a subdivision.

What you're proposing to do requires a subdivision that just happens to involve only your property and your neighbor's property. (However if you get the other affected properties involved now then your costs will be lower.)