Advice on a property dispute.

[Mark Paes]

I'm trying to help a friend. Here's his situation.

Well... this is tricky to explain without visuals.

Once upon a time, my house was part of a large plot of land which included a small carriage barn directly behind. The owners, back in the 1960s I believe, built a new house next to this one, and sold this house along with a small plot of land to their daughter. This plot did not include the barn- or any outbuildings- and is in fact too small for the zoning regulations which came along later. Forty-odd years later that daughter owns the newer house next door and is planning to sell it at auction in April.

We have asked them several times over the years to buy the small plot behind ours that includes the barn. Adding that piece of land to our own would bring our property into better alignment with zoning rules, provide some outside storage that we don't have otherwise, and also correct a historical error- anyone looking at our property can plainly see that the barn is supposed to go with the house.

Since they have been unwilling to sell to some friendly neighbors, I'm trying to find a way to get the land that I want through her sale. I'm tempted to try to buy it myself, slice off the section I want, and sell the rest. But that's a big risk on my part, so I'm thinking someone with some realty experience could be of assistance. I'm also tempted to attend the auction simply to run up the bid and make an offer to the competition before gavel drops- essentially "sell me that parcel or I keep bidding".

Basically, I'm pissed about this and I'm looking at every angle to sort it out to my satisfaction. If I have time I'm going to pay a visit to the township zoning officer and see what he has to say; if he thinks adding land would be beneficial to our property compliance and overall value, I'll keep pursuing this.

What really irritates me is that they don't even use the damned barn. They keep a few odds and ends, and a lawn mower, and that's it. They can't even see it from their house due to the trees and bushes. One winter a door blew off and laid in the yard for several days until I bought some blasted hinges and fixed it. I figured that was fair enough since they let us keep my mower and bicycles in there.

Any advice on what to do would be appreciated.
This house is in Lancaster County, PA.
:D