Articles Posted in Real Estate Litigation

A recent Tennessee breach of contract case involving a real estate commission should probably be on the mandatory reading list for all real estate agents and agencies in Tennessee. (Ditto for any lawyer drafting listing agreements for real estate agencies). The pertinent facts of the case are as follows:

• The homeowner/seller (“Seller”) entered into a six month exclusive listing agreement with a realty company, Crye-Leike, for the sale of her home (“Home”)

• The listing agreement provided that Crye-Leike would receive a 7% commission if the home was sold during the six month term of the listing agreement

In Tennessee, adjoining landowners sometimes end up in court in boundary disputes. There are various reasons that boundary line disputes arise, including: imprecise descriptions in deeds; conflicts between descriptions in recorded plats and deeds to owners of subdivision lots; fences that have been in place for years, but that are not consistent with deed descriptions; and deed overlaps (where, for example, there is not enough land to satisfy the deed descriptions for two adjoining parcels which were once part of the same tract).

Even if a Tennessee court might otherwise resolve a boundary dispute in favor of Landowner A, instead of Landowner B, based strictly on deed descriptions and/or the testimony of a surveyor, Landowner B might still be declared the lawful owner of the disputed land. Why? In Tennessee, if adjoining landowners agree, even verbally, on a boundary line, the agreed boundary line may well become the legally accepted boundary line. Keep in mind that an agreement in this context requires some sort of communication and assent. It is typically not enough for one of the landowners to say simply that the other did not object to a fence, wall, or other boundary marker.

In addition to an agreement between adjoining landowners as to a boundary line, disputed property might be held to be the property of one of the landowners (let’s say Landowner B) based on the doctrine of adverse possession. This might be the case even if the court determines that the relevant deeds establish that the property would otherwise belong to Landowner A.

In Tennessee, easement rights are a fairly frequent source of conflict and disagreement. What is an easement? How does someone obtain easement rights? How does an easement affect the person upon whose land the easement is located?

Generally speaking, an easement is a right to use a part of the land owned by someone else. In Tennessee, there are many easements that give easement holders the right to use part of the lands owned by others to access other lands, frequently, lands owned by the easement holders. Some easements confer rights other than just the rights to go across someone else’s land. There are a multitude of easements in Tennessee that allow one landowner to use land owned by someone else to lay pipe, utility lines, or connect to a sewer.

Easement rights are often created by written documents. Sometimes, such documents are titled “Easement” or “Grant of Easement,” but a valid, enforceable easement can be created without specifically being referred to as an “easement.” For example, an easement can be created by a document that describes a “right to access,” “right of way,” or “right to ingress and egress.”