DESPERATE How To Find Original Developer/platter Diagrams?
I bought some lots in a really nice rural where all the lots are divided into 1.1acre and 1.25acre parcels and each lot has an address with easements on the back and front for streets.
When I researched the properties prior to buying I spoke to the property appraiser and was told that vacant residential zoned A-2 mean that the lots have to be at least an acre for me to build house on them. Unforunately I did not get that in writing.
Today I found out I might not be able to build on the lots because in this county in Florida A-2 zoning mean that lots must be 5 acres or more.
They allow building on the "non-confroming" lots if you can show that it was a non-conforming lot before a specific date.
I found the original grant that converted so cattle land into lots and I all the original documents that the I got the lots from received at closing. There were no other owners between the original cattle company and the people I bought from. To me that means that the original owner divided them into the 1.1 and 1.25 acre parcels.
I spoke to zoning and planning and was told that if I could provide the "original handwritten contract from 1969" I would be able to build on the lots. The problem is that the seller I got them from bought them in 1977 and they did not get any handwritten contracts. I have copies of the deeds and the deeds show the original easements that created streets between each block of lots. Those easements were repealed in 1981 for some reason.
Currently there are a couple of houses in the area. The people ended up getting 4 lots and combined them to 1 address but the lots are still taxed separately. and still have individual parcel IDs. Plus from seeing the permitting for one of the residences I see that they only had 2 lots when they built in the area. There are about 4 people that own many lots in that area and is starting to run power and such so I am sure some building will occur but from what I can tell what he is doing is building around folks who own isolated lots so they end up with inaccessible lots.
Plus some of the lots are 1.1acres because of some canals, That means that in certain areas even if you have all 4 lots in that sector you will never get 5 acres because the sector only has 4.4 acres.
Can anyone suggest a way I can research to find out how the lots were in 1961. I checked with the clerk of court for records from then but they do not have any. How can I find some sort of diagram or description of how the original cattle company divided up the area?
The county charges a hefty fee for you to apply to see if they will accept documents you present and I cannot afford any rejections.
Thanks
[ Edited by linny on Date 06/11/2004 ]
Contact a local title company and explain your situation to them. Have them run title searches on your lots to go back in the "chain in title" to when the cattle company bought the land. Ask them for copies of the deeds transferring title to the cattle company plus any documents that are referred to in those deeds. Ask the zoning and planning people where the records are kept of subdivisions done at that time (late 1960's-1970's).
Linny,
Something to keep in mind...
It may turn out that you just do not have the money to take the correct actions to prove the situation. Searches and other such things might cost money and you seem to be unable to take the risk that the results will be negative.
Explore alternatives that do not cost money but if the above is true...
1. Sit on the investment until your situation changes.
2. Find a partner who is better capitalized or has the needed skills to do the investigation. Come up with a split deal where if the project moves forward they get a percentage of the profits. Decide if you would want to split the costs if successful.
3. Sell an option to someone with a clear statement that if the lots can be developed then you will sell for X but that no guarantee is provided that they can be developed. Similar to number 2 but you have to do a clear deal here.
If the person fails in their attempt then you will have the option money and know the answer. If they fail but it is not because the facts were made clear (they lost interest) you might now have the money to do your own search.
Potentially you bought lemons and you now need to find a way to make lemonade.
John
[addsig]
how many lots did you buy?
how many are in the subdivision?
I have 10 with options on 75. I did try to contact the folks that own other large number of lots but they are asking for prices like $35,000 per lot. It is an area with only one home at this time and the county assess each lot at $800. There are something like 210 lots in this sectior. I wondered if it is an unrecorded subdivision.
I did have a title company do a search before I bought it and what they found was the original deed for the cattle company and then the deed for purchase the seller made in the 1970's. There was nothing between the two events. I had them go back and redo the search and it came back with the same response. I spoke to the county again and was told that the seller had to have bought the lot prior to the late 1960's as they are using that as the date the lot was parceled out. My position is that it was parcelled out before because at the time cattle company did the use conversion they parcelled it out and the lots were numbered, surveyed, assigned addresses and had easements.
In the property appraiser office they told me that some now defunct corporation bought it in the late 60's and parcelled it out. Neither myself nor the title company has found anything related to another company owning that area between the original cattle company and the seller I bought the lots from.
I did searches on lots that were owned before the cutoff date the county imposed and their deeds are identical to the one on record for my sellers. Same company selling it, same size, etc.
There are lightpoles going up so I think one of the holders of a lot fo parcels is doing something in that area however, in searching I have only found 3 owners out of 198 who has 4 contiguous parcels. I could not find any easements to the power company to see who is having the poles put in and I could not find any permits or anything in zoning and planning that showed anything.
This county is always talking about increasing it's tax base yet it seems to me that they are preventing building. I just found out that there are 5 other sectors that are now being affected by this.
I was thinking of contacting other owners of single or double lots and seeing if there is anyway to form some sort of association to get the szoning changed. I think that is a long shot as a lot of people tend to not want to shell out any money to get things accomplish but they are happy to reap the benefits.
Depending on your town's master plan you may have luck simply getting the city to change the zoning from R2 to R1. This is easier said than done as it is more of a political game than one of mechanics.
i am having this same problem in brevard. I have to pay $698 to apply for a zoning change which takes 2 hearings and about a 3 month process. I am trying to do this BEFORE I buy though. There are NO roads or utilties or anything right now. But they want either 5 acres or proof of a deed filed before 1976, neither of which the lots I am looking at have. :cry:
thechangingtable,
There are no utilities and only tarred over rooad (1 road) in the area I am interested in. The rest have the little grassy tracts where roads should be. I was recently contacted by the county because they want an easement to extend the main road so that the other tracts are accessible from that side.
I am of the opinion that all the tract owners should band together to force the county to rezone but when I contacted the 3 largest owners (together they own about 70%) they were not interested in doing anything because right now they can sell the lots at outrageous prices to folks who need the 3 lots to make 5 acres. As a result may people are abandoning the lots by not paying taxes.
I plan to call zoning again as I cannot see how they can make it 5acres requirement when in some areas all the tracts added together do not reach 5 acres.
How about we keep each other posted maybe we can help each other out.
thechangingtable:
Check if they have a "fast track". Several citys here for a couple 100 and you development idea, will give you a 95+ confidence that the project would or wouldn't be approve.
linny2:
Check the city/county planning/zoning depts. depending where you are and find out exactly what can be done.
It's doesn't sound like these were the non-conforming dribbling, that were left over from the subdivision, but parcel that were meant to be this size.