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US man loses property worth $100,000 to neighbour. Here's how
Banks along with his spouse, David Barrett in 2021, planned to sell their $125,000 worth property when they discovered that about two-thirds of the acre was used by his neighbour.
A man in a Delaware beachside community in the United States lost his property worth over $100,000 after his neighbour asserted squatter’s rights during a court dispute over a plot.
According to the New York Post (article beyond paywall), Burton Banks, an Atlanta-based financial planner was required to transfer her neighbour, Melissa Schrock, the title of the undeveloped land he inherited from his late father due to the state's little-known adverse possession law.
Banks along with his spouse, David Barrett in 2021, planned to sell their $125000 worth property in Ocean View when they discovered that about two-thirds of the acre was used by his neighbour, who had erected a pen for her goats on the land for decades.
Schrock refused to leave the land and weeks later, Banks lodged a complaint to force her to scram. However, she filed a counterclaim under squatter's rights. In Delaware, squatter's rights, also known as adverse possession, allow people to claim ownership of property that is not literally theirs by occupying it for at least 20 years, the report added.
"It’s just always been my backyard since I was a little kid", Schrock told the News Journal.
In February, Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz titled the property to Schrock after finding that Banks mostly lived in Atlanta and "only occasionally" stayed in Ocean View. Even Banks' rare visits made it hard for them to convince the court that Schrock had not freely used the land, the report added.
Banks' revealed that as per the court documents, his father left an adjacent lot to Schrock’s mother, who later died and bequeathed the property to her daughter. "I can’t afford an appeal, but hoping I can at least warn others", he told News Journal.
