WELLS SMALL FLEHARTY & WEIL

Our firms’ real estate attorneys have experience in all forms of real estate deals and each is a California licensed Real Estate Broker. Whether the deal involves a purchase, sale, lease, option, loan or some combination, our attorneys can assist with the negotiations, preparation, interpretation and enforcement of such deals.

Simply put, an easement is a right to use another person’s property for some limited purpose. The most common form of easement, is the right to travel across another person’s property to access property. Although many easements are granted by deed, there are multiple instances in Northern California where no recorded easement claim exist. However, a party may well have rights even without such a recorded instrument. Furthermore, even with a recorded deed, disputes over the scope and location of the easement often arise. Easement claims can be critical to the value of a person’s real estate, as there is little value to one’s land if they cannot access the property. Our firm has handled hundreds of easement claims, including one of the most recently published easement cases. See Cottonwood Duplexes v. Barlow.

It is not uncommon for neighboring property owners to not have a clear understanding of their respective property lines. In such instances parties may unintentionally encroach onto a neighbor’s property. Or, in some instances a neighbor may simply disregard a property line and construct improvements upon a neighbors land. In such instances, it is not uncommon for the neighbors to develop a significant animustoward one another. Our firm has handled numerous boundary disputes through trial. However, these matter can often be resolved through careful work on behalf of experienced counsel.

Many people who own property and want to subdivide it or conduct a business on the property are overwhelmed by the requirements imposed by the government bureaucracy. We can advise you on how to proceed and help you navigate through the different government agencies so that at the end of the day you can do what you want with your property. For over 29 years we have assisted hundreds of clients and to obtain entitlements before local technical advisory committees, planning commissions and board of supervisors including general plan amendments, zoning amendments, use permits, variances, processing of land divisions pursuant to the Subdivision Map Act and the California Environmental Quality Act. Our representation extends to clients with issues concerning the State of California Williamson Act, aka the Land Conservation Act including the handling of immediate cancellation projects on behalf of landowners to remove the land from the Williamson Act.