The Fence That Sat Twenty Feet Inside the Line
The Praedis family has owned 12 acres east of Wenatchee since 1994. In 2011 their neighbors, the Hendersons, commissioned a survey and built a six-foot fence-but the fence sits 20 feet inside the Praedis boundary, adding a 20-by-110-foot strip to the Henderson side. The Hendersons have mowed, gardened, and kept a storage shed on that strip ever since. The Praedis never objected, assumed the fence was the line, and paid the property taxes on the full 12 acres every year without exception. The Hendersons have no deed, no written agreement, and no color of title. In 2024 the Praedis list the land; a buyer's survey reveals the encroachment, the sale collapses, and the Hendersons now claim the strip. Thirteen years have passed since the fence went up.
1. Evaluate the Hendersons' adverse possession claim element by element. Where does it fail?
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The elements are actual possession, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous for the statutory period (ten years under RCW 4.16.020), and hostile-plus Washington's statutory condition that the claimant must have paid all taxes on the disputed land for at least seven successive years (chapter 7.28 RCW).
- Actual, open, notorious: satisfied. A fence, garden, mowing, and a shed are exactly the kind of visible possession the doctrine targets.
- Exclusive: satisfied as to the strip.
- Continuous for ten years: satisfied; 2011 to 2024.
- Hostile: likely satisfied. Washington applies an objective hostility test; a claimant who builds to a line believing it is hers can still be "hostile" in the legal sense. This is not the weak link.
- Taxes: fails. The Praedis paid the taxes on the full parcel every year, so the Hendersons never paid taxes on the strip. That defeats the claim as a matter of law regardless of how open or hostile the possession was.
2. Do the Hendersons have a viable prescriptive easement or another theory? Explain the difference in requirements.
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A prescriptive easement is a different animal: it requires use, not possession, that is open, notorious, continuous, and adverse for ten years, and it does not carry the tax-payment condition. That makes it attractive here-but it does not fit the facts. A fence, garden, and shed are possessory acts occupying the land, not use of a right-of-way across it. Possession does not ripen into an easement.
Their better theory is mutual recognition and acquiescence, which requires (1) uncertainty about the true boundary, (2) both owners treating the fence line as the boundary, and (3) acquiescence for the statutory period.
The weakness is element one. The Hendersons commissioned the survey themselves in 2011, which undercuts any claim that they were uncertain about where the line was, and the doctrine assumes good faith. The Praedis' answer is that they never agreed to anything-they simply did not know. This is real litigation risk in both directions, not a clear winner.
3. What must the listing agent do right now, with the listing active and a buyer already lost to a survey?
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Disclose. The encroachment and the Henderson claim are known material facts. They belong on the seller disclosure statement and must be given to any buyer before or during negotiations. Staying quiet to keep the next deal alive is a misrepresentation and a license problem, and the failed sale is itself a fact a buyer will hear about.
Stay in lane. The boundary question, quiet title, and any lot-line adjustment are attorney and surveyor work. Advising on title is not the agent's job.
Give the seller a menu:
- Quitclaim the strip to the Hendersons in exchange for a release-clean title, fast closing, some value lost.
- Negotiate a recorded boundary line agreement plus an encroachment easement where the structures stand.
- Litigate or quiet title, with the closing delayed accordingly.
Get a title commitment to see whether the encroachment will be excepted, because that determines whether a lender will close at all. Reprice and relist with the dispute disclosed in writing.