Submitted by Silly_Yak_3741 t3_yarsra in RhodeIsland
Me and my family recently bought land In the town of Warren RI. We purchased the home with all intent of adding on an addition to be able to accommodate our large family, AKA my mom and dad with a in-law to be built. We had architects, surveyors, landscapers, realtors and all close neighbors involved in knowing our future plans for the property. After weeks of waiting for our survey to be completed on July 7th we finally were able to finalize the plans with our architect and approach the zoning board with were the boundary lines were in relation to the addition. We then took the time to personally meet with our neighbors Wally and Elaine felag aka Senator Walter Felag who we had a very friendly relationship with and explained to them our plans to update the retaining wall, add proper drainage and replace the trees that are overgrown and causing erosion to our property. We even discussed which kinds of materials would be used and walked the property to show them where the property lines were. We had all intentions of keeping them involved in the decisions and plans in regards to the retaining wall and bushes.
On August 12th my families beautiful sunny Saturday was disrupted by a court summons being hand delivered to us by the authorities ordered by Senator Walter Flag and his wife Elaine Flag, owner of feminine fancies in Barrington RI, who are attempting to claim ownership of about 2,000 sqft of our property in adverse possession of our already modestly sized lot of land.(lot size is 11,300sqft)He is claiming a row of bushes he planted 30 years ago was thought to be the property line and now should be looked at as such. These rows of tress are 13 feet on my property. This will cause my lot to become nonconforming with frontage and lot size. We are not able to do my in-law addition on my side yard because they will be moving my side yard from 36ft to 18 ft. He is using a law in place from many years ago to steal this land. He claims he had paid taxes on it but has been found to be lying about that from the town tax collector. He has still managed to use the courts to have a restraining order put up on the trees and land that goes with it. So i am unable to proceed with any build or use the land i legally own. I am now having to battle this senator in court to keep ownership of the land i just purchased.
We were taken back by the severity of the situation and blind sided by the claim. We knew we did all of our due diligence to make sure we knew exactly where our property lines were and had no clue about any potential adverse procession claim. We never once were told they “owned” any part of our property during the 3 months we lived there, nor did the realtor that sold us the property have any clue about there dispute with the trees despite having multiple conversations with the felags.
As far as we know and the town knows we own past those bushes and the variances we require do not affect the Felags property as it stands. I ask that Walter Felag and Elaine Felag please reconsider there objection to our variance and allow us to continue to go forward with our home as we have established relationships in this town and would hate to uproot our growing family. They have denied any talks of mediation and they are legally trying to take part of my property. My family has been through a terrible ordeal having to wait to see what our future holds for this property. My 5 year old son started Kindergarten and my daughter is in Pre-K in the warren school district. I would hate to have to uproot my children because of these awful people we live next to. We have nothing else we can do but make this as public as possible and get him out of his power seat he holds in the senate. Felag should be representing the people of the good state of RI not bringing them to court to take there property!!
Brotendo88 t1_itdbxp6 wrote
I suggest taking to the r/legaladvice and see if they can provide any helpful info.