Seattle Property Dispute Lawyers
Property disputes often begin with something surprisingly small. A new survey places the property line several feet from where both neighbors thought it was. Someone blocks a driveway that has been used for years. A fence, retaining wall, garage, or landscaping turns out to cross a recorded boundary. What starts as a disagreement over a few feet of land or the right to use a road can quickly affect access, ownership, property value, and the ability to sell or refinance.
We represent homeowners, landowners, businesses, and other property owners in boundary, easement, encroachment, adverse possession, and title disputes throughout Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and throughout Washington. We examine the deeds, surveys, recorded documents, historical use of the property, and other evidence needed to determine what rights exist and how they can be protected.
If another person is challenging your ownership, access, boundary, or right to use property, call Seattle Litigation Group at (206) 407-3300 for a free case review by an experienced Seattle property dispute lawyer.
What Types of Property Disputes Do Our Seattle Property Dispute Attorneys Handle?
Real estate disputes can involve ownership of the land itself or competing rights to use it. Our property dispute attorneys handle matters involving:
Boundary lines and conflicting surveys
Easements and rights of way
Encroachments by fences, buildings, driveways, retaining walls, or landscaping
Adverse possession
Prescriptive easements
Quiet title actions
Disputes between co-owners of real property
Conflicting deeds and other title problems
These claims frequently overlap. A disagreement that begins with a fence, for example, may ultimately require the court to decide whether the surveyed boundary controls, whether ownership changed through adverse possession, or whether years of use created some other enforceable property right.
What Is Adverse Possession in Washington?
Adverse possession can allow someone who does not hold record title to establish ownership of property after possessing it in the manner Washington law requires for the applicable period.
For an ordinary adverse possession claim, Washington courts require the claimant to establish possession that is exclusive, actual and uninterrupted, open and notorious, and hostile for at least ten years. The ten-year period is associated with RCW 4.16.020 and Washington adverse possession case law. “Hostile” does not mean angry, threatening, or confrontational. In this context, it generally concerns possessing the property as an owner rather than using it with the true owner’s permission.
This distinction matters because neighborly permission can defeat the hostility element. A driveway that one neighbor knowingly allowed another to use may present a very different case from land that a neighboring owner openly occupied and treated as their own without permission.
Washington also has specialized statutory routes with different requirements. For example, RCW 7.28.070 establishes a seven-year rule for actual, open, and notorious possession under a good-faith claim and color of title when the claimant also pays the legally assessed taxes during that period. That is different from an ordinary ten-year adverse possession claim.
What Is a Prescriptive Easement?
Sometimes the dispute is not about who owns the land. It is about who has the right to use it.
A prescriptive easement can arise when someone uses another person’s property in a manner that satisfies Washington’s legal requirements for the prescriptive period. These cases commonly involve driveways, private roads, pathways, parking areas, or other access routes that have been used for many years without a written easement.
Washington courts apply principles similar to adverse possession when evaluating prescriptive easement claims, including a ten-year prescriptive period. Whether the use was adverse or merely permissive can be one of the central questions.
That makes the history of the property important. Prior deeds, communications between former owners, photographs, maintenance records, witness testimony, and evidence showing how the property was used can become critical.
What Happens When Neighbors Disagree About a Property Line?
The recorded legal description and a professional survey are important starting points, but they do not necessarily answer every boundary dispute.
Washington recognizes legal doctrines that can affect a disputed boundary based on the parties’ historical conduct. Adverse possession may be one possibility. Depending on the facts, the doctrine of mutual recognition and acquiescence may also become relevant when neighboring owners have treated a particular line as their boundary for the required period.
This is why an old fence should not automatically be assumed to establish either the true legal boundary or ownership by adverse possession. The history of the line and the owners’ conduct matter.
When surveys conflict or physical improvements do not match the recorded boundary, our attorneys examine both the title documents and the property’s actual history before determining what claim or defense may apply.
What Can I Do If My Neighbor’s Fence or Structure Is on My Property?
An encroachment occurs when a structure or improvement extends onto neighboring property without an established legal right to be there. Common examples include fences, retaining walls, garages, sheds, landscaping, driveways, and portions of buildings.
Before demanding removal, it is important to determine exactly where the legal boundary lies and whether the neighboring owner may assert adverse possession, an easement, or another property right.
A current survey, title documents, historical photographs, prior surveys, permits, and communications between the owners may help establish when the encroachment appeared and how it was treated.
Property owners should also be cautious about informally granting permission or entering agreements without understanding how those decisions could affect their property rights.
How Do Easement Disputes Arise?
Even when everyone agrees that an easement exists, they may strongly disagree about what it permits.
A recorded easement may provide access across another parcel, but disputes can arise over its location, width, permitted uses, maintenance responsibilities, gates or obstructions, increased traffic, or whether current use exceeds the rights originally granted. Other cases involve an alleged easement that does not appear clearly in the property’s recorded documents.
Resolving the dispute may require examining the instrument that created the easement, the surrounding deeds and plats, and the historical use of the property. When no express easement resolves the issue, other easement doctrines may need to be considered.
How Does a Quiet Title Action Resolve a Property Dispute?
A quiet title action asks a court to determine competing interests in real property and establish the parties’ rights. Washington’s quiet title statute, RCW 7.28.010, allows a person with a qualifying interest and right to possession to seek a judgment quieting title or removing a cloud from title.
Quiet title litigation can be useful when competing ownership claims cannot be resolved privately. Depending on the circumstances, it may be used in disputes involving adverse possession, boundary lines, competing deeds, unresolved interests in property, or other claims that prevent the title from accurately reflecting ownership.
A successful judgment can establish the parties’ respective property rights and provide a basis for correcting or clarifying the public title record.
What Should I Do When a Boundary or Easement Dispute Starts?
Do not assume the fence, driveway, or existing pattern of use necessarily establishes the legal answer.
A useful first step is often gathering the documents that show both the legal description and the history of the property. Depending on the dispute, that may include:
The current deed and prior deeds
A current professional survey
Earlier surveys and recorded plats
Recorded easements and covenants
Title reports
Photographs showing historical property use
Communications with current and former owners
Records concerning construction or maintenance of disputed improvements
Information from people familiar with the property’s history
Property disputes can become harder to resolve after someone moves a fence, removes an improvement, blocks access, or changes the physical condition of the land. Preserving evidence before making major changes can therefore be important.
How Can Seattle Litigation Group’s Property Dispute Lawyers Help?
The legal description in a deed tells only part of the story in many property disputes. Resolving the problem may require reconstructing years of ownership, possession, access, improvements, and communications to determine which property rights can be enforced.
Our property dispute attorneys review deeds, surveys, title records, easements, plats, historical evidence, and the parties’ use of the property. We pursue practical resolutions when an agreement can protect the client’s rights and litigate when a court needs to determine ownership, access, or title.
Our civil litigation attorneys also handle related construction and contractor disputes when construction defects, improvements, liens, or contractor issues overlap with a real property disagreement.
If you are facing a boundary line dispute, easement dispute, adverse possession claim, encroachment, or title problem, call Seattle Litigation Group at (206) 407-3300 for a free case evaluation.
