Deposit is in.

We sent our 10% deposit into our architect, Tony.  We are on our way!

Next stop, August 13th for closing!

Phew!

The past days have been quite nerve wracking for us.  A lot of what-if scenarios have been put into our heads by lawyers, real estate agents, etc.  This whole easement thing could be a very big problem if people are in the mood to fight.  People can always lawyer up and fight, even if they are in the wrong, and you have to suit up the same way.  Just gets expensive.

We decided to send all the BS to the sidelines and just talk to the neighbors like normal people.  We certainly want to start off on the right foot with them and playing legal games is not good ground.

So, Sandy called and spoke with them.  Plain and simple - they are cool people.  They don't want what is not theirs, they don't want to fight and they want to move on with their lives.  Apparently there is some bad blood between them and the seller.  Who knows how long it goes back, but they want to move on with their lives.

In short, they will happily sign an easement we draw up (no legal cost) and it will "go with the land" (so the township will be happy) and we can have it all done after we actually own the land. We'll sign over a few beers.


Anyway, they are going to be cool.  Phew!

Sellers, Neighbors & Buyers - the perfect storm.

Life is never as easy as you want it to be.

Apparently the sellers are playing hard ball and really don't care what we think about the easement, how much it will cost to pursue, and the time we've put in to figure it out so far.

This past week, I've spent a collective 8hrs on talking with various real estate attorneys, land survey engineers and township representatives.  To put it simply we have three options in front of us:

1) Do Nothing - we just leave everything as is.  Our land is what it is defined in the deed. Their land is what it is as defined in their deed.  The items of theirs on our property just sit and nothing changes.

• Pro: $0 Cost, 0 Time wasted
• Pro: Happy neighbors.  What happens in the future? TBD
• Pro: Simple & Fast Closing on the sale.
• Pro: We don't care about the encroachment, really.  We don't have any intention of moving their house, AC unit or shrubs - we are just trying to figure out who owns what.
• Con: Plenty of "what if" problems w/ neighbor.  What if their AC leaks freon into the soil and it requires "cleanup".  Technically it is their freon, but it is seeping into our soil. We are responsible for the cost of the cleanup.
• Con: Will there be problems if we sell the property later? If/when we sell the house, what problems will appear in that sale.
• Con: Counts against our impermeable surface calculations.  Since we are building, we need to be concerned with how much soil our home, plantings, driveway, etc will cover.  If we're close to our limit, then this area of theirs on our property counts against our total coverage.  Small, I know, but still... it counts.

2) Re-Deed the property.  Basically have the township re-draw the property lines for both properties.

• Pro: Fully legal and binding.  This would be recorded and passed down forever.  Basically a re-zoning of the property.
• Pro: Most 'complete' of the possible options.
• Con: Very Expensive. $3-5k for legal paperwork, plus $2500 (minimum) for each property in question.  So, we're looking at approximately $10,000 to execute this. 
• Con: Disallowed by Lower Merion township Zoning. Cannot put property into further non-compliance with lot dimension rules.  As it is now, our property is below minimum lot width for the Zoning it is currently in.  Making it smaller puts it further into non-compliance and that would not pass any zoning boards.
• Con: Long time to complete.  Probably a year of wasted time.
• Con: Requires multiple township approvals.  Everybody and their mother has a chance to weigh in on this.  It has to go through multiple township, county, and public hearings. You know that would be a mess. 

3) Grant of Easement - As discussed earlier.

• Pro: Fully legal and binding.
• Pro: Requires only 2 parties to agree. Grantor and Grantee.  There is no need for the township, county or state to get involved. This is just an agreement with the people in question.
• Pro: Grant should be filed with township / county.  We could  submit the final documents to the township and it would stay with the property.  Interestingly enough, easements can have various lifetimes.  You can say it lasts as long as one or both of you own the property, as long as XXX years, or that it can "go with the land".  Meaning, as long as the land exists... the easement exists.  We've been told by the township that they would only allow a "go with the land" option.  How could they stop you?  Well, they are the ones giving us the permission to build, and they can pull that at any time. So, need to keep that crew happy.
• Con: Legal fees = ~$1000. 
• Con: Engineering / Survey fees = ~$1000-$2000.  All about the Benjamins.

4) Grant Permission - Basically say they can use it.  That's it.  We grant permission to use the land with stipulations (they maintain, etc). If they don't agree to the permissions, then they are inherently stating they have right to the land (since they don't have to ask permission) and are therefore responsible for any issues. If they do, then they are agreeing to the stipulations.

• Pro: Needs only to be a mailed document to encroaching neighbors.  Mail a copy to us, and to them - registered, and we're done.  If they refuse it, that is a sign they don't want the property.
• Pro: $0 cost.

 Option 4 is new to us, and it the least binding. But, as is with any law, common sense generally prevails as long as the "reasonable man" would agree.  So while I think we're going to go with the Grant of Easement, it is nice that if we get push-back on that from the neighbors we can go with a one-sided permission document.

More to come.

Friggin' tree huggers!

This is our lot... or soon will be.  As you can see, it is flat, level and clean.  Oh, wait, what is that giant shadow?  That is the oldest and biggest Japanese Maple I've ever seen... and it is wonderful.

Great shade, great red colors in the fall, and it is our "spirit tree" if we had such a thing.  When our daughter was born, we got one from my dad.  Planted it, and then days later our dog Gumbo, pictured here in the shade, ate it down to the mulch.  Yup, ate a tree.

Anyway, we thought it was dead.  Next spring, up came a sapling and it grew and grew.  By the time we left OR it was about 8ft tall and very nice.  Unfortunately we could not bring it back East with us and it had to stay there.  We had actually grown to like that little guy, and was sad to see him go.

On top of that, I used to have a "climbing tree" when I was growing up.  You guessed it... Japanese Maple.  We had to leave that behind too when we moved from Phoenixville to Tokyo.  Again, sad to see it go.

Fate, right?  How could we not at least attempt to keep this great tree on our lot?

Today we met with Matt Ward, of John B Ward Tree Service,  that gave us a free estimate and some advice on what to do with it.  We asked a lot of questions and it turns out that it is quite healthy and would probably make it though the construction process quite well if we took some precautionary measures.

1. Remove all the paver stones around its base.
2. Fence off the "drip zone" so that no heavy equipment can get to it, or compress the soil around the roots.
3. Lay a 3inch deep pile of mulch in that drip zone.
4. Prune back the dead branches as well as trimming the ends of others.

That's it.  Not so bad right?

I think Matt was pleased that we were willing to save such a great tree and offered to give us the mulch for free. 

Again, how would we not save this tree.

Once we close on the property, I'll be there the next day pulling up pavers and fencing off the area - ready to accept a ton of mulch.

Grant of Easement / Adverse Posession / Spin-up!

If you look at the plot plan we got from Joe, you will see there is an "encroachment of adjoiner's dwelling" on the South-West property line.  Actually, I would probably not have noticed this if it were not for Joe's knowledge of the township... but anyway, it is there.

Honestly, it is minimal. The neighbor's house is about 9 inches over the line, but their A/C unit, gravel pad and some gas line plumbing is square over the line - up to 4 feet, I would say.  Fact it, their stuff is on our (well, soon to be our property).  Not that it really matters to us as it is on the edge, and we are not likely to need that part anyway... but it is what it is.

Based on what Joe told us, we have to account for any/all items on our land. Meaning, when we do our impermeable surface calculations for the proposed build, their stuff would count against us.  Again, it is not such a bit area, but it is something.  You'd be surprised at the various surfaces that count as impermeable;  pea gravel, stone walks, wooden raised decks. 

There is that, and then there is the pure and simple fact that we need to know what the seller is selling and what we are buying.  We have to be 100% in agreement on that.   So, again, Joe helped us out by giving us the legal property description documents for both lots. And, luckily, they agree exactly. Meaning, there is no problem in figuring out the actual property lines with respect to the township, the tile companies, and the mortgage companies.  We're good to go on that front.

Problem comes in with the Adverse Possession Laws in Pennsylvania.  Basically this law says that if someone uses your land and you don't assert your right to that land, you lose legal ownership of it.  It has to go unnoticed for 21 years in PA, but still. You don't use it... you lose it.  This whole law comes from the fact that the government wants people to own and use land.  Not just squat on it. 

Truth is, if the sellers of this lot had never submitted a plan to the township for approval  there would have been no need for a detailed land survey... and this would have gone un-noticed until the ownership of the parcel of land transferred to the neighbors.  Truth is, there is a line of trees on our side of the property line and it seems that the neighbors and the sellers had been treating this as the neighbors plot of land even though the neighbors knew of the true property line.

Anyway, while we have the legal right to cut down all those trees and have the neighbors remove the offending portions of the encroachment, we would never do that.  Just not cool.  I mean, it is not harming anyone, and what a horrible way to kick off a relationship with the new neighbors.

"Hi, we're moving in.  Don't mind the bulldozers ripping out your AC unit.  Hey, we should have a beer some day."

The legal remedy here is to grant an easement.  This is a legal statement along the lines of, 

Hey, we both know this is our property, but since you are using it and being cool about its use, we're going to grant you a right to it.  It is still ours, but here ya go.

Now, there are some ways to do this, but we want to make sure that this easement stays with the land and does not encumber any sale of either property in the future.  How would you like to buy a house if you knew a portion of the land was being used by someone else?

Think of it like this.  You buy a lot... it happens to be behind another lot, and you can't get to yours without going through theirs.  They would grant you an easement for a driveway, for example.  You are allowed to cross my property to get yours... but it is still mine.

So, that is exactly what we are going to do.  See?

Interestingly enough, the township does not care in the slightest.  It would be good of us to submit a copy of this easement to the township for both property files... but it is our land, and therefore it is up to us.

Pretty cool, eh?

We talked to the neighbors about this property line issue... and I think they think we're lawyer'ng up for a fight.  Nope, we just want to move in, be cool with the neighbors and let everything be.   Just want to make sure we're all clear.

My new best friend...

On the advice of our fantastic Realtor, Jenny Kirkpatrick, we have become best friends with member of the Lower Merion Township Planning and Building division, Joseph Newby.

Here is an interesting little factoid, Jenny helped my family buy (and sell) our first house in Devon when we moved back from Japan in 1982.  Also helped my Dad buy his home in Strafford, and my Mom buy (and sell) her townhome in Devon too. 

Joe is one of those guys who I think could be a real hard and stubborn dude if he wanted to be. He is in "control" of zoning, building plans and permits after all - and not a man to cross.  Despite the power, I can honestly say he is one of the nicest and most friendly guys I've met in a public service role in a long time.  People generally are so beaten down by The System these days that they have become hard, rude, unresponsive and generally disagreeable.  Not Joe - he seems to love what he does.  Not to mention he is really good at it from what I can tell.  I would mention a property address and he'd come right out with,

"I think that's an open lot. Nice neighborhood too."

Anyway, Joe is also my connection for plot plans, tax records and general "how do I build a house?" type questions.

The plan I had on a previous post came directly from Joe.  I asked, and he happily went back in to the files and pulled it for me.  No fees, no begging, no arguing... just a friendly, "hang on, let me see if I have it on file for you."

Anyway, thanks Joe.  We'll be working together for some time, it seems... and I will definitely owe you a beer on the front porch of the new house when it is done.

Good potential...

I met with the township today, and got the lot plan... this was a plan that was approved for the lot in question, and has expired.  Yes, I know it is small, when we get it, I'll make it full sized.

I think we are going to bid!