Helping You Resolve Various Property Law-Related Matters in and Around Tacoma
Property is often the most valuable asset that an individual owns. Because of the high stakes, property disputes can be among the most contentious and hard-fought in the legal system. So, whether you’re an experienced developer trying to plat a 300-site project, or a single homeowner faced with an adverse possession claim, you need to make sure you’re protected.
Negotiating Common Property Law Issues
While no attorney can guarantee you a favorable outcome, hiring someone who knows what they’re doing will give you the best chance of success. Law in general has a difficult learning curve, and property law is one of the most nuanced areas of specialty within the legal system as a whole.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that resolving a property dispute usually is not a viable do-it-yourself project. We frequently work for clients who could have saved a lot of money by hiring us earlier. As with the medical profession: prevention is usually cheaper (and more effective) than a cure.
Our main priority is to resolve your dispute as efficiently as possible. Generally, this means we do our best to favorably settle your dispute without resorting to litigation (i.e. going to court). This is because litigation is typically uncertain, time-consuming, and expensive.
Resolving property disputes out of court almost always requires negotiation. However, the negotiation can take many forms because the incentives and relevant laws vary from case to case. Understanding the leverage at play is essential to negotiating effectively.
If, for example, your neighbor comes to you seeking a discretionary easement and you know the easement will substantially increase the value of his property, then you can likely negotiate to capture a large amount of the increase in value. However, if you don’t understand how much the easement will increase the value of your neighbor’s property, or that you have the discretion to grant the easement, then it is very difficult to know how much compensation you can demand without offending your neighbor and spoiling the deal.
Conversely, if your neighbor comes to you seeking your acknowledgement of a prescriptive easement, then you may be in a very weak bargaining position. If you push the negotiation too hard, your neighbor could sue you and win the easement in court—in which case, you would get no compensation, and you may even be required to pay your neighbor’s attorney’s fees (in addition to your own!).
Thus, if you don’t understand the intricacies of real estate law, you run a high risk of either agreeing to too little compensation, or of blowing the deal entirely. Making sure you’re informed and negotiating on our your behalf are two of the main ways real estate attorneys like us add value.
Contact a Qualified Tacoma Property Attorney Today
How can you avoid a sub-optimal negotiation? Hire a qualified attorney!
At the Brink Law Firm, we fight to ensure that property owners throughout the Tacoma area are properly represented in all forms of property disputes. Let us put our years of experience to work for you. Call us at 253.620.6666 or contact us online today.