The dispute that was not disclosed, was about a boundary fence restricting access to and from my property,?
Property rights, including in the US, are very complicated. You need to be more specific on what exactly happened in order for someone to give you a better answer, but I will try. Under Common Law (which is followed in the UK and US for the most part) there are a number of scenerios that would impinge your property rights. 1) Adverse posession-which means someone for a period of time usually 10 years openely and notoriously occupies your property, then after that time it is theirs. This arises very often when a household places a fence in the wrong place (lets say ten feet inside their property line) the neighbor maintains that ten feet for the period of time required by law…that portion of property becomes your neighbors. 2)Easments allows certain rights to travel with the property so long as the property exists and the easment has not been adversley stopped. The best way to prevent this from happening is to make sure when you buy a property that the fence line is on or beyond your
