Is it possible to make an agreement with my neighbor without involving the authorities?
First of all, in terms of the agreement you're going to use, there is what's called a quick claim deed, which says that I'm giving you whatever title I have. In other words, there's no warranties in it. Generally when you buy property you get what's called a warranty deed, and there's certain things that are promised to you in that deed, proof that the person giving it you actually owns what it is that they're deeding to you. And you're really probably going to be better off using a warranty deed, especially if you're paying any money for this property that you're getting from the neighbor. But you can do it with a quick claim agreement as well. This is something where you're best off getting some legal advice. But if you think about it, what are you going to put in that deed? That deed's got to describe the property that you're giving to the neighbor and if you're getting a deed from them, that deed's got to describe the property you're getting from the neighbor. You are not competent yourself to put in the legal description of that property. You're going to have to get a surveryor to tell you how that legal description must read. And then you have issues when you sell the property, the person buying it's going to want to know what they're getting. They may want to know that your title company approved this and that somebody's looked at it, either a lawyer or a title company or both, so you're best off talking to a title company, paying whatever premium's necessary to get insurance for the property you're now getting from the neighbor, and of course mention the issue about the lender because your lender could use an excuse to accelerate your loan, and if you got your loan when the interest rates were five percent and they're now seven percent, the last thing you want to see is your lender calling your loan, and you having to get a loan at a much higher interest rate with all the associated costs.
