Property disputes can be complex. The laws governing property rights are equally as complex. Our real estate agents often deal with land disputes which aren’t always black and white. Some of the grey areas involve adverse possession, also colloquially known as squatter’s rights.

Adverse Possession Explained

Let’s say you own a home in Washington. You do not live in the home. You may have inherited it and forgotten about it, or were just unaware of it. The home sits abandoned, and a squatter eventually moves in. You suddenly remember or learn about the now-occupied property. Does the property belong to you or the squatter?

The squatter scenario is actually uncommon. More often, a neighboring property owner gradually expands his property past the border line.

Adverse possession laws vary state-to-state. This is why such disputes require attorney intervention.

Adverse Possession in Washington

Under Washington statute, the law is generally on the side of the property owner. The encroaching neighbor or squatter is the one that has to establish burden of proof. If not, then the legal property holder has the presumption of ownership.

As with most states, no statute in Washington exists that outlines the neighbor’s/squatter’s specific burden of proof. However, the neighbor or squatter can generally win in court by fulfilling the following requirements:

• Exercise continuous use of the property for a minimum 10 years
• Openly use the land without intent to hide use or occupation
• The squatter’s/neighbor’s possession must be exclusive, meaning there is no prior agreement sharing the land between the squatter and real owner.

We Settle Land Disputes

Our firm has settled hundreds of similar cases in Lynnwood and its surrounding cities. Give Curtis and Casteel Law Group a call if you’re involved in such disputes. This applies in all adverse possession cases, whether you’re the legal owner or the squatter/neighbor.

Land Dispute Settlement in Lynnwood

Proudly serving the people of south Snohomish County, north King County, and the Greater Seattle area

Unfortunately, disagreements may arise when exchanging goods and currency with another company. While you hope you may never need to do so, at one point you may have to write a demand letter. This is a formal letter to a business partner, sponsor, or client that you intend on taking legal action.

What Is a Demand Letter?

All business owners in Lynnwood should be familiar with a demand letter. This is a formal notice that owners often draft with the help of a business lawyer. When is a demand letter necessary? An attorney may recommend a letter to a partnering entity that fails to compensate you for exchanges of goods or services. This may be a supplier who fails to provide the mutual agreed upon exchange in a transaction. In other instances, you may be the supplier, and the client fails to pay the fee in the full amount. [Read more…]

Are you putting your home on the market instead of using a realtor?  If so, you’ll need to list your home online and/or in printed publications. Aside from taking a few interior and exterior photos, you also have to write a description. We’ll show you how to write a killer home listing description that prompts home buyers to dial your contact number.

Tips for Crafting a Home Listing Description

Our real estate lawyers have read thousands of home listing descriptions over the years from Lynnwood home sellers. Some of them were too brief and general, others way too lengthy with superfluous detail. You should create a description that fits right in the middle. [Read more…]

Should You Hire Employees or Independent Contractors?

Do you own a startup? If the business takes off, you’ll eventually need to expand your workforce. With this comes a huge decision: should you hire employees or independent contractors? Depending on your industry, you may have to hire one or the other. With some industries, you have more leeway than with others.

Hiring Employees and Independent Contractors; the Difference

First, you should know what constitutes an employee and independent contractor.

Employee—Employees work under a formal contract, thereby giving the employer the right to dictate how the employee performs the work. You have the right to dictate how you train and supervise the employee as well as control work hours.

Independent Contractor—With independent contractors, you may provide a work outline and set a deadline. In other words, you may dictate what you want the end result of the work to be, but not dictate how it’s completed. [Read more…]

Upon death, a homeowner’s property is usually divided among the next of kin. Often, this consists of more than one person. The inheritors go through a probate process to determine how to share ownership of the property. The inheritors may also file a partition action if they cannot agree over what to do with the inherited home.

Partition Action Explained

Each inheritor is a tenancy in common, giving each the right to occupy the property. However, what happens when one inheritor wants to keep the property but the other wishes to sell it? This is where a partition action comes in.

Under Washington law, an inheritor can file for a partition action if he no longer wishes to co-own the property. There are two categories of partition action: [Read more…]

Traditionally, spring and summer are when people tend to put their home on the market. This is sound strategy since this is when buyers tend to house hunt. However, you may also benefit by having a holiday home sale. Selling before year’s end really is a better time than you’d think.

Why is This Beneficial?

Most people don’t sell their property during the holidays simply because they don’t want to deal with the hassle. The same goes for buyers. The holidays are a time for celebration, not making tremendous financial and life-changing decisions.

This is actually all the more reason to sell at this time: you have less competition. Our attorneys work with fewer home sellers and conduct fewer real estate planning sessions for clients during the holidays. However, those they do work with often report a good number of enquiries, including requests to see the home in person. [Read more…]

Most homebuyers consist of married couples. However, every now and then, our real estate lawyers serve unrelated clients who are co-buying a home. We’ll explain the steps for people co-purchasing property and how to go about the process.

Co-Buying Explained

Co-buying refers to when two or more non-married people purchase a property together. This may be an engaged couple, business partners, or friends. This is actually fairly common in the Lynnwood area. More non-spouses are co-buying homes together in order to combat the sky-high cost of living. [Read more…]

Starting a freelance business can be very rewarding. You work for yourself, dictate your own hours, and can work in your own home in some instances. However, like any other type of business, you need to know about freelancer legal rights before marketing your services. We’ll also outline how you may and may not advertise your business.

Your Freelancer Legal Rights

We recommend you look up Freelancer’s Union for a more detailed description of your rights as an independent worker. Here are some of your rights in a nutshell: [Read more…]

Buying or selling a home is a trying experience. You have to deal with an ocean of decisions and logistical hurdles. Among the many decisions and complex logistics, you will need to decide whether to purchase a home warranty. This should not be confused with a home insurance. We’ll explain the difference and whether a warranty is worth the money.

Home Sellers Should Offer a Home Warranty

Our real estate agents often recommend that home sellers include a home warranty and place it in an escrow account. This is a great bargaining chip that makes the property more appealing to prospective buyers. [Read more…]

In the Internet age, a website is one of the best ways to market your brand. Some business owners aren’t aware that websites can be subject to liability. We’ll explain why this is so and how to protect your site from legal trouble.

Why Your Site Needs a “Terms and Conditions” Agreement

Think about it this way: If YouTube had no terms and conditions, YouTubers would have free reign over the content they upload, including violent, sexual, and other explicit material. YouTube then could be held liable for any law violations (i.e. child pornography upload) by the users.

A “terms and conditions” agreement is a contract between the Webmaster (you) and site visitors. It outlines the rules the users must abide by. You don’t want to give users full freedom to do what they please. This is the case even if your site doesn’t involve user generated content. [Read more…]