I’m still scratching my head…
Buying rural land in the Southeast, and I’ve got a title/survey knot I’d love honest takes on.
The history: my tract and the neighbor’s both come out of a common former owner. Back in the 1950s, a narrow strip described as a dirt road, the road access to what’s now my property, got included in a transfer to the neighboring property by mistake and got deeded back to my side of the chain by a recorded 1956 deed once the mistake was realized. In 1973 the heirs on my side confirmed the strip as part of their land. When that estate wrapped up, the strip passed with everything else and came down my chain.
The neighbor’s chain tells the same story from the other side: their deeds carry a less and except specifically exempting that road strip from their chain, all the way through their 2014 deed.
Then it gets interesting. Around 2021 the current neighbor buys his place and has it surveyed. Admittedly the surveyor, title agent and closing attorney all overlook the less and except in the neighbors own chain, and the road strip gets included inside the neighbors plat.
Come 2026, I buy my tract next door. Unknowingly at the time the same surveying outfit does my survey and leaves the road bed off my boundary even though it’s in my chain of title and it’s my road access. My deed now describes the property by the new plat.
So now: the neighbor points at his plat and claims the strip. The surveying company says they can’t show it inside my tract without documentation of title, while the conflicting plat next door is their own work from years ago made off an overlooked exception.
He