I have no legal background, so am talking out of my ass. Firstly, this does not sound like a title claim. I thought a title claim was to ensure that you own the home outright, with no leans or delinquencies against the property. I did not think the title search covers issues such as this.
Secondly, the neighbor certainly is within his right to ask to have the car port removed from his property, or be compensated for the loss of his property, assuming the car port hasn't been there for whatever the specified period of squatting time is. However, if he doesn't wish to have the car port removed, or sell his part of the property to your daughter, I don't see why he has any claim to request repayment for his expenses. I think he can request until he is blue in the face, but not sure there is a legal ground to his request. Unfortunately, the way to find this out definitively, especially since there may be local considerations to take into account, is for your daughter to hire a lawyer. So you would have to way the difference between paying the neighbor, or paying a lawyer to tell you you don't have to pay the neighbor. Either way, sounds like the lawyers are the one's making the money on this deal. Sorry Cliff. *GRIN* -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: (412) 268-9081
