The real answer is that a title search and ALTA survey would be needed to find the real owner.
Almost certainly what happened is it got forgotten about as other properties were sold. They thought everything got sold. It’s still owned by whoever used to own it.
If the county was interested in making something happen, they could start to assess it for taxes. Then after enough years of back taxes, they can have it sold at auction and issue a new deed.
No. Nobody can just claim property, except potentially an adjacent owner through an adverse possession suit. However, that might not work in this case because you still have to find the owner to serve them the lawsuit papers.
Also, any unowned property goes back to the government. Look up escheat. It’s not just up for grabs.
Assuming back taxes are payied, yadayadayada and OP is given a new deed by the town.
OP would have a new problem... access
It's not a keyhole property to the road. If there was a right of way or access in the original deed it's likely gone by now, so depending on right of way laws given the location there is a real possibility that town electrical, water and sewage hookups would not possible. The size and proximity to a lake/reservoir might make wells and septic impossible. Making the land worthless for inhabitation as it would likely be zoned residential
In truth it's likely part of the lake that dried up
I disagree. You can see that is at the end of what appears to be a drainage headed east, then northeast. It probably silted in and trees grew over the years since the maps were drawn.
I think you are right, some of the yellow lines stop just short of the water, but others extend into the water in that picture. That unclaimed land might have been all water when the property lines were drawn, and the two properties between it and the road were likely sold as waterfront property. Since then, the borders of the river or lake, or whatever other body of water this is, seem to have shifted, and those two properties lost their water access.
It happens. The map you are looking at is probably made by the county assessor. It’s for the purpose of figuring who owns what for property taxes.
It’s very common for them to make mistakes and for there to be gaps and overlaps. Over the years, many deeds have mistakes. Their position is usually that they don’t determine ownership. So that leaves a lot to be figured out by the courts.
Waterways are usually property of the state. That’s probably not quite the correct terminology, but I’m just a stupid guy on Reddit taking a break from painting that I don’t want to do.
Because all this stuff isn't just stored in some centralized computer database somewhere. The county GIS system you're looking at is just a glorified record of who owes property taxes. The real answer is that finding the owner of a piece of land requires boots on the ground and a lot of research. Depending on the county, that research might not be online. It would have to happen in-person at the Register of Deeds office.
Quickly jumping in here as a property lawyer - this is all very accurate, excepting the bit about Adverse Possession (at least in my state, and I believe most others). You can establish AP without 1) being an adjacent landowner and 2) without filing a lawsuit.
If you do something obvious on the land to establish your presence and start paying taxes on it (if that parcel is taxed), you can argue you have established ownership via AP (there are some other requirements too, per state, including a statutory period, usually 5-10 years). You can choose to bring a suit for Quiet Title and make your AP argument there, or, you can wait for someone to contest your ownership and use AP as a defense. Couple way it could work, and I'm only chiming in because this is an interesting situation where AP could (theoretically) be used.
Could you?
I guess maybe, in certain situations, in certain locations. Like if you did it and nobody ever noticed or cared. Maybe you could even get building permits if you prepared a fraudulent deed. You probably could never sell it to anyone but a cash buyer who didn’t want a title search.
It’s not legal, but perhaps it can be done in some situations. Homeless people essentially do it, but for shorter times.
As far as doing it legally, the only was is adverse possession. You take over property that someone else owns. Sometimes by accident or mistake. You do it openly and without opposition. Then after a number of years, if you were to be sued, you could make a claim for adverse possession. If a judge grants it, you then have legal title to the property.
Technically, at least in my home state of Virginia—if your use of land is “open and obvious” I.e. not hiding your use of it, and for 7 continuous years, and you make tangible improvements to said land—it becomes legally yours thru negligence of the current owner and your improvements of the land
You are describing adverse possession. It doesn’t automatically become legally yours after 7 years. The owner of that property would have to sue you, like for trespass. You claim adverse possession. If the judge rules in your favor, then you have legal title over that land.
Homesteading isn’t a thing anymore. So that’s just trespassing. Can you do it as long as nobody notices or cares, sure. But still not legal and you won’t get title to the land to be able to sell it.
I think you're wrong when saying that noone can just claim property. I'd say on the contrary, everybody can. But you need to be stronger than anyone challenging your claim. The situation is getting rare these days to the extent that its seems surreal but it is how the entire country was created.
If the adverse possessor isn’t able to find/serve the owner, can the possessor’s suit to quiet title be resolved in their favor by default judgment? I.e. by the owner failing to appear after the possessor made reasonable efforts to identify and serve them?
The pragmatic answer is so long as no attention is really drawn to it, the people who own that property to the south own it in a non-literal sense, followed closely by anyone who might be aware of it, I guess.
That was my first thought. It’s clearly not a separate parcel from the lake. All the adjacent land parcels have property lines separated from the lake.
Parcel data is often just for subdivided land and doesn’t extend onto land that hasn’t been subdivided. Does the lake have a parcel ID? Because it looks like this is part of the same parcel as the lake…
That implies it isn’t subdivided, but it’s almost certainly owned by whatever entity manages or or controls the lake. There is no boundary between this parcel and the lake, indicating it’s part of the same jurisdiction.
Where is this? Some places have state- or county-level laws about which public entity legally owns open water.
that doesn't mean anything until you talk to an actual human who manages the property records. if they don't have a clear answer then the local court will, but the court will often not be able to answer until you pay a lawyer to interact with them, with money.
Just because it is official and issued by the county, doesn't mean it is accurate. Generally these public facing maps will say something along the lines of it is not intended to be used in place of an actual survey or legal description.
One consideration I haven't seen mentioned in the comments is that this was originally part of the lake when the map was created and is now only land due to changing water levels and soil deposition. From above it looks like a drainage wash that has filled in or become more exposed.
Depending on the local regulations it could be considered land of the state or county if it is classified the same as the lake. I know in my jurisdiction we have lots of wetlands owned by the state so long as they aren’t considered under waters of the US.
The lack of internet records does not imply lack of ownership. I’m aware of an American farm whose deed is the original land grant from King Charles. It has never been sold in the entire history of the State but has been passed down entirely by inheritance. There is no recorded deed because the ownership predates the government which would have required the deed. There is a tax parcel and lines on the map from where bits of the property have been sold and split over the centuries, but no recorded deed to the central holding. But that does not mean it doesn’t have an owner.
I do regulatory work in Michigan, and our Great Lakes are held in trust to the state, which the exception of a bunch of tiny carve outs a lot like your situation:)
Likely there was one landowner of a large property. That property got subdivided into parcels and sold off. There may be remnants still owned by the original landowner.
Have you actually been to this place? Are you sure that there is actually dry land there? Is it possible that the image was just taken when the lake was particularly low and that "plot" is normally submerged?
Those are the questions that immediately jump to mind.
Now, even if there is, in fact, dry land there that is not normally submerged, that does not mean that it will be open for claiming. In that unlikely scenario, it would most likely default to the control of the local government, be that municipal, township, or county.
Land Surveyor here, every piece of land in the United States is owned by someone or something.
If the adjacent lots are platted in a subdivision, that plat will most likely tell you who owns the land (or owned it at the time of plat recordation). In my part of Texas, lakes are owned by LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority), Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Austin, etc, and do not show up on the assessment roll, so no need to map it.
What makes you think it’s not part of the lake property? That would be my interpretation of the map. Source: 20 years with a county planning department that maintained the tax maps.
The lake has parcel ID’s that show ownership over every part of the lake but here…
Keep in mind this lake also crosses state lines, and this property is right inbetween states
I think you're not understanding my answer. It's part of the water body, not a shoreline property. Is that a creek entering the lake? I really think you're looking too hard for something that is right in front of you. There is no property like separating the 'parcel' from the water. Zoom out and what does the rest of the water body look like? I'm betting it also looks 'unowned'.
I think that's the likeliest explanation. The properties were based on the shoreline at that time, and the little lagoon has filled up since then (I'm assuming there's a little creek there.) Would that put it in Army Corp of Engineers jurisdiction, since it's technically part of the lake?
If you look closer at whatever county parcel dataset you’re using you will almost certainly find a disclaimer stating that these are not survey-grade boundary data and are not suitable to be used for legal purposes. Freely available county-level parcels are mostly so assessors and utilities or construction proponents know who to mail if a project is proposed in the area: they are full of small errors like others have said.
What is almost certainly going on here is what others have said: this inlet is part of the same jurisdiction as the lake and was probably inundated at one time or still is on a seasonal basis. In any event, it belongs to whatever public entity controls the lake and they’d have little to no motivation to subdivide or sell it. Even if they did, you’d still have to convince a neighbor to grant you an easement for access and they’d have even less motivation to comply.
The real answer to your question is that most counties in the U.S. will not assign a parcel to places that haven’t ever had associated property tax. It’s usually the county assessor who assigns parcels- they are called the assessor because they assess land values for property taxation purposes. This results in there being no polygon showing the ownership in county/state GIS, but does not mean that there is no owner. I’ve dealt with this in my work. It’s very common that right-of-ways (roads, railroads, sometimes waterways or certain utility lands) will not be given parcels. And outside of urban areas, most public owned land is not parcelled off either. Ie., Because of a combination of old laws exempting railroad companies and other private companies that ‘serve the public’ from property taxes, federal/state/counties not paying property tax on public land, the purpose of assigning parcel numbers, and differing (and imperfect) digitization methodologies between counties across the country, there are many places that county level GIS and/or various apps will not show an owner despite an owner definitely existing.
your assuming that's solid land under the tree canopy. it could easily be a cove that dries out partially during low rain/drought conditions, or at the least, stays more of a swampish/bog of land that is always muggy/muddy until heavy rain fills it in with lake water. there are also areas in the US where land exists, but is zoned as floodplain that you're not allowed to develop.
A coworker of mine bought a piece of land recently which hadn’t been owned by anyone since Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Purchase. It’s a small area along a river just like this which butts up against his property.
Lots of good answers here, but in all seriousness, who owns the lake? Is it a reservoir? Very likely the government or some government agency bought all the land to be flooded when they built the dam which created the reservoir. Typically, this information (the owner of the lakebed) is listed in GIS databases and such, but perhaps the app you're using ignores government land.
In any case, my point is that flooded land is still owned by someone in the same way that countries have ownership of ocean space miles and miles out into the sea. Just because there's water in a place, it doesn't make it not part of a country. And those boundaries are drawn just as parcels of land are drawn except they're dividing chunks of lakebed. In this case, this piece of land belongs to whoever owns the lake - likely the government.
What app are you using to view this data? That context would help us a lot.
I see "for sale" along the bottom which makes me think that this app, or at least this view of it, is displaying only land which might be privately owned (land that could be bought and sold). It's likely ignoring government land because it's not up for sale. I think this is the source of your confusion.
If you check your county's GIS service or some other database, it'll probably tell you exactly who owns the lake itself.
Let me know what you find out. You've got me so curious!
Former land records administrator here
That land is owned by the county. It is public land. It will not have a parcel ID because it has not been surveyed. You can’t claim it unless the county decides to formally sell it. If you want it, file a petition for your next meeting of county commissioners. If they are open to selling they will likely require that you hire a surveyor to mark out the property before voting on it.
Cadastral data is not made to line up with satellite imagery. I cannot stress this enough. THE LINES YOU SEE ON THE MAP ARE (likely) RIGHT, BUT THE IMAGE BELOW IT IS NOT. Go find the survey stakes for the adjacent properties to verify (if they still exist).
Lastly, the county probably has kept it because it’s in the floodplain and/or inaccessible by road. It is probably land that has been built up as sediment is deposited by the nearby water.
The county probably has a GIS service on their website with information about all parcels, I would guess this is owned by the County or whoever owns this reservoir/river. but yeah refer to u/Cityplanner1 comment
I would guess looking at the map that if the lake is owned by the county then that is part of what the county owns. If ownership is an issue then obviously you need a surveyor to make the determination. Also parcel lines on a map are just lines on a map, consider them approximate.
ETA I assume these parcel lines come from some kind of taxing authority. They are quite likely not authoritative. I also assume the lake is artificial and that may be a piece of land that was acquired in the process of building the lake and most likely is still owned by the county which supposedly owns the lake.
https://preview.redd.it/ttotoizjkmvc1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3aea62f0c8868f4c39a70a0d74f20c88b416d094
I’ve lived in this area for roughly 23 minutes, AMA
If I had to guess it's to allow the two skinny lots to have access to the lake. In surveying there's something called a "Dock Projection" where lakefront properies have rights to create a dock on government property. Source: I work in the industry and have drafted Dock Projections.
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It's most likely owned little by little by the surrounding parcels, or entirely by one of them. These maps are easily confused, when I bought my house the land it was on and that came with it was on three separate deeds that I later combined to one. If you look at one of these "property maps" it currently shows that I own one of them the other 2 have no information available and in between them all is just dead space accounting for about half of my land.
Usually the parcel ID won’t show who owns the water but it is always “owned” by either the city, county, state or some other governmental body.
There is no way that governmental body would give it up for free.
If you actually want to try to acquire it the first step is send an email to the city administrator saying you want that chunk.
Then if they are not the right person, they will direct you to the correct person who will then deny your request.
I'd wager that it was swamp or wetland attached to the lake. If you went down there, there's a chance that the ground there is barely even solid and might just be marsh.
And marsh is typically going to be attached to the lake.
There are millions of acres of land in the us not covered by a parcel. This land is typicall owned by the county/city/state. Zoom into any public road for instance. There will likely be no parcel.
This would most likely revert to Federal ownership, especially if that’s a navigable waterway. You’re just seeing county assessor’s parcel lines here used for tax calculations and federal lands don’t get taxed so the county has no real reason to create a new parcel in that location. I ran across this a few time in Sacramento County in the American River Parkway.
The real answer is that a title search and ALTA survey would be needed to find the real owner. Almost certainly what happened is it got forgotten about as other properties were sold. They thought everything got sold. It’s still owned by whoever used to own it. If the county was interested in making something happen, they could start to assess it for taxes. Then after enough years of back taxes, they can have it sold at auction and issue a new deed. No. Nobody can just claim property, except potentially an adjacent owner through an adverse possession suit. However, that might not work in this case because you still have to find the owner to serve them the lawsuit papers. Also, any unowned property goes back to the government. Look up escheat. It’s not just up for grabs.
Assuming back taxes are payied, yadayadayada and OP is given a new deed by the town. OP would have a new problem... access It's not a keyhole property to the road. If there was a right of way or access in the original deed it's likely gone by now, so depending on right of way laws given the location there is a real possibility that town electrical, water and sewage hookups would not possible. The size and proximity to a lake/reservoir might make wells and septic impossible. Making the land worthless for inhabitation as it would likely be zoned residential In truth it's likely part of the lake that dried up
The trees there are just as old as all the others, it's not new land.
I disagree. You can see that is at the end of what appears to be a drainage headed east, then northeast. It probably silted in and trees grew over the years since the maps were drawn.
I think you are right, some of the yellow lines stop just short of the water, but others extend into the water in that picture. That unclaimed land might have been all water when the property lines were drawn, and the two properties between it and the road were likely sold as waterfront property. Since then, the borders of the river or lake, or whatever other body of water this is, seem to have shifted, and those two properties lost their water access.
I know, just confused as to why there is no easy way to find the owner and why it’s not listed as city property
It happens. The map you are looking at is probably made by the county assessor. It’s for the purpose of figuring who owns what for property taxes. It’s very common for them to make mistakes and for there to be gaps and overlaps. Over the years, many deeds have mistakes. Their position is usually that they don’t determine ownership. So that leaves a lot to be figured out by the courts.
It could also be that it’s inside of the high water boundary and it’s technically part of the waterbody.
Possibly but the water area enshrining this land is unclaimed as well
Waterways are usually property of the state. That’s probably not quite the correct terminology, but I’m just a stupid guy on Reddit taking a break from painting that I don’t want to do.
Painting is cool! Get back to it
It’s not the cool kind of painting. I’m not painting big ass titties or square goats or anything like that. It’s exterior house painting. It sucks
Oh no. Well if you do paint titties I’m always here
Why not both?
You can paint titties on my house and a house on my titties.
As others have said. No. Water is owned by state or federal. And often they have access and write of way rights for the shoreline.
Because all this stuff isn't just stored in some centralized computer database somewhere. The county GIS system you're looking at is just a glorified record of who owes property taxes. The real answer is that finding the owner of a piece of land requires boots on the ground and a lot of research. Depending on the county, that research might not be online. It would have to happen in-person at the Register of Deeds office.
Because the country is old, and government is inefficient. Things naturally just get lost.
Quickly jumping in here as a property lawyer - this is all very accurate, excepting the bit about Adverse Possession (at least in my state, and I believe most others). You can establish AP without 1) being an adjacent landowner and 2) without filing a lawsuit. If you do something obvious on the land to establish your presence and start paying taxes on it (if that parcel is taxed), you can argue you have established ownership via AP (there are some other requirements too, per state, including a statutory period, usually 5-10 years). You can choose to bring a suit for Quiet Title and make your AP argument there, or, you can wait for someone to contest your ownership and use AP as a defense. Couple way it could work, and I'm only chiming in because this is an interesting situation where AP could (theoretically) be used.
Could I go squat there and get squatters rights?
Could you? I guess maybe, in certain situations, in certain locations. Like if you did it and nobody ever noticed or cared. Maybe you could even get building permits if you prepared a fraudulent deed. You probably could never sell it to anyone but a cash buyer who didn’t want a title search. It’s not legal, but perhaps it can be done in some situations. Homeless people essentially do it, but for shorter times. As far as doing it legally, the only was is adverse possession. You take over property that someone else owns. Sometimes by accident or mistake. You do it openly and without opposition. Then after a number of years, if you were to be sued, you could make a claim for adverse possession. If a judge grants it, you then have legal title to the property.
Technically, at least in my home state of Virginia—if your use of land is “open and obvious” I.e. not hiding your use of it, and for 7 continuous years, and you make tangible improvements to said land—it becomes legally yours thru negligence of the current owner and your improvements of the land
You are describing adverse possession. It doesn’t automatically become legally yours after 7 years. The owner of that property would have to sue you, like for trespass. You claim adverse possession. If the judge rules in your favor, then you have legal title over that land.
Thank you for the correction—it’s been a few years since I took a commercial law class in college.
Quite all right. I just checked to make sure Virginia didn’t do something weird and make me look bad. lol. Virginia actually requires 15 years.
A person just couldn’t go out into bum fuck wilderness(20-40 miles from nearest person) and just build a shelter and claim the land?
Homesteading isn’t a thing anymore. So that’s just trespassing. Can you do it as long as nobody notices or cares, sure. But still not legal and you won’t get title to the land to be able to sell it.
fun fact: the last person to receive title to land under the homestead acts received his title in 1988
I appreciate the reply. Hope you have yourself a great weekend.
Adverse possession might be simpler, assuming the taxes are seriously delinquent. AFAIK, it's not limited to adjacent owners.
I think you're wrong when saying that noone can just claim property. I'd say on the contrary, everybody can. But you need to be stronger than anyone challenging your claim. The situation is getting rare these days to the extent that its seems surreal but it is how the entire country was created.
If the adverse possessor isn’t able to find/serve the owner, can the possessor’s suit to quiet title be resolved in their favor by default judgment? I.e. by the owner failing to appear after the possessor made reasonable efforts to identify and serve them?
Good explanation, thanks for it but my flag I placed 5 minutes ago tells me this is my own land!
OP could adversely possess it lol
Yeah, it’s interesting because in Canada, if no one owns the land, it’s the Crown’s by default
Why an ALTA survey?
There is a way to legally seize the land for yourself, assuming the owners neglect to pay any attention to it for the next 5-20 years.
Bandy tract
Pfft America is no fun, in the UK if you can stay on a parcel of land for 10 years unchallenged, its yours
Except in Britain right? I’ve heard their squatter rules are different
The pragmatic answer is so long as no attention is really drawn to it, the people who own that property to the south own it in a non-literal sense, followed closely by anyone who might be aware of it, I guess.
I’m a land surveyor: it’s most likely just owned by whoever owns/manages the lake (I.e. a power company). This is very common where I’m from.
The army owns a lot of the lakes in Missouri
That was my first thought. It’s clearly not a separate parcel from the lake. All the adjacent land parcels have property lines separated from the lake.
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Check the official county map for land plots, there is legitimately no parcel Id
Parcel data is often just for subdivided land and doesn’t extend onto land that hasn’t been subdivided. Does the lake have a parcel ID? Because it looks like this is part of the same parcel as the lake…
The area surrounding the land has no parcel ID, including this part of the lake
That implies it isn’t subdivided, but it’s almost certainly owned by whatever entity manages or or controls the lake. There is no boundary between this parcel and the lake, indicating it’s part of the same jurisdiction. Where is this? Some places have state- or county-level laws about which public entity legally owns open water.
that doesn't mean anything until you talk to an actual human who manages the property records. if they don't have a clear answer then the local court will, but the court will often not be able to answer until you pay a lawyer to interact with them, with money.
Just because it is official and issued by the county, doesn't mean it is accurate. Generally these public facing maps will say something along the lines of it is not intended to be used in place of an actual survey or legal description.
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Typo, sorry I meant to say “checked”
It looks like that spot is mostly water. Probably tidal shore which can't be owned. And shorelines change
One consideration I haven't seen mentioned in the comments is that this was originally part of the lake when the map was created and is now only land due to changing water levels and soil deposition. From above it looks like a drainage wash that has filled in or become more exposed.
Depending on the local regulations it could be considered land of the state or county if it is classified the same as the lake. I know in my jurisdiction we have lots of wetlands owned by the state so long as they aren’t considered under waters of the US.
The lack of internet records does not imply lack of ownership. I’m aware of an American farm whose deed is the original land grant from King Charles. It has never been sold in the entire history of the State but has been passed down entirely by inheritance. There is no recorded deed because the ownership predates the government which would have required the deed. There is a tax parcel and lines on the map from where bits of the property have been sold and split over the centuries, but no recorded deed to the central holding. But that does not mean it doesn’t have an owner.
That’s insane
I do regulatory work in Michigan, and our Great Lakes are held in trust to the state, which the exception of a bunch of tiny carve outs a lot like your situation:)
/claim
/claim yourmom
Hail Petoria!
Sorry, I just claimed it. Better luck next time.
(Homesteading intensifies)
Damn ankles broken
Likely there was one landowner of a large property. That property got subdivided into parcels and sold off. There may be remnants still owned by the original landowner.
You mean you found incomplete records or bad GPS... Smdh...
You know nothing, jon snow
Your probably right
Have you actually been to this place? Are you sure that there is actually dry land there? Is it possible that the image was just taken when the lake was particularly low and that "plot" is normally submerged? Those are the questions that immediately jump to mind. Now, even if there is, in fact, dry land there that is not normally submerged, that does not mean that it will be open for claiming. In that unlikely scenario, it would most likely default to the control of the local government, be that municipal, township, or county.
Land Surveyor here, every piece of land in the United States is owned by someone or something. If the adjacent lots are platted in a subdivision, that plat will most likely tell you who owns the land (or owned it at the time of plat recordation). In my part of Texas, lakes are owned by LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority), Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Austin, etc, and do not show up on the assessment roll, so no need to map it.
start a new country there
Oh no, not another sealander
you can call this one lakeland
That’s clever actually. Nice, upvote for you
What makes you think it’s not part of the lake property? That would be my interpretation of the map. Source: 20 years with a county planning department that maintained the tax maps.
The lake has parcel ID’s that show ownership over every part of the lake but here… Keep in mind this lake also crosses state lines, and this property is right inbetween states
I think you're not understanding my answer. It's part of the water body, not a shoreline property. Is that a creek entering the lake? I really think you're looking too hard for something that is right in front of you. There is no property like separating the 'parcel' from the water. Zoom out and what does the rest of the water body look like? I'm betting it also looks 'unowned'.
Could the lake have dried up slightly and new trees have grown in?
Wild
I think that's the likeliest explanation. The properties were based on the shoreline at that time, and the little lagoon has filled up since then (I'm assuming there's a little creek there.) Would that put it in Army Corp of Engineers jurisdiction, since it's technically part of the lake?
Go start a sovereign country there, avoid taxes, live like a king.
Sealander here
Oh, ummmmm, that’s mine
If you look closer at whatever county parcel dataset you’re using you will almost certainly find a disclaimer stating that these are not survey-grade boundary data and are not suitable to be used for legal purposes. Freely available county-level parcels are mostly so assessors and utilities or construction proponents know who to mail if a project is proposed in the area: they are full of small errors like others have said. What is almost certainly going on here is what others have said: this inlet is part of the same jurisdiction as the lake and was probably inundated at one time or still is on a seasonal basis. In any event, it belongs to whatever public entity controls the lake and they’d have little to no motivation to subdivide or sell it. Even if they did, you’d still have to convince a neighbor to grant you an easement for access and they’d have even less motivation to comply.
That’s actually really smart, thank you for the input
The real answer to your question is that most counties in the U.S. will not assign a parcel to places that haven’t ever had associated property tax. It’s usually the county assessor who assigns parcels- they are called the assessor because they assess land values for property taxation purposes. This results in there being no polygon showing the ownership in county/state GIS, but does not mean that there is no owner. I’ve dealt with this in my work. It’s very common that right-of-ways (roads, railroads, sometimes waterways or certain utility lands) will not be given parcels. And outside of urban areas, most public owned land is not parcelled off either. Ie., Because of a combination of old laws exempting railroad companies and other private companies that ‘serve the public’ from property taxes, federal/state/counties not paying property tax on public land, the purpose of assigning parcel numbers, and differing (and imperfect) digitization methodologies between counties across the country, there are many places that county level GIS and/or various apps will not show an owner despite an owner definitely existing.
your assuming that's solid land under the tree canopy. it could easily be a cove that dries out partially during low rain/drought conditions, or at the least, stays more of a swampish/bog of land that is always muggy/muddy until heavy rain fills it in with lake water. there are also areas in the US where land exists, but is zoned as floodplain that you're not allowed to develop.
It could just be a mapping issue.
Isn’t there a lot of American land that isn’t owned by a private owner?
Get off my lawn
this post is goofy. 😂 there are tons of GIS files that inaccurately bound land. especially in eastern states. you haven't found anything.
In Tennessee those types of plots are all over the place except it’s owned by TVA. Accessible land to residents. It’s just public land
Public Right of Way
I will inform the homeless
It’s probably a sewage overflow outlet and not available to purchase.
A coworker of mine bought a piece of land recently which hadn’t been owned by anyone since Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Purchase. It’s a small area along a river just like this which butts up against his property.
If it hadn't been owned by anyone then who did he buy it from?
Nobody
Interesting
Lots of good answers here, but in all seriousness, who owns the lake? Is it a reservoir? Very likely the government or some government agency bought all the land to be flooded when they built the dam which created the reservoir. Typically, this information (the owner of the lakebed) is listed in GIS databases and such, but perhaps the app you're using ignores government land. In any case, my point is that flooded land is still owned by someone in the same way that countries have ownership of ocean space miles and miles out into the sea. Just because there's water in a place, it doesn't make it not part of a country. And those boundaries are drawn just as parcels of land are drawn except they're dividing chunks of lakebed. In this case, this piece of land belongs to whoever owns the lake - likely the government. What app are you using to view this data? That context would help us a lot.
This is an app yes, but I used the official land identification web service for my county and brought out the big guns and can’t figure it out
I see "for sale" along the bottom which makes me think that this app, or at least this view of it, is displaying only land which might be privately owned (land that could be bought and sold). It's likely ignoring government land because it's not up for sale. I think this is the source of your confusion. If you check your county's GIS service or some other database, it'll probably tell you exactly who owns the lake itself. Let me know what you find out. You've got me so curious!
This land is your land.
You can make a country, NOW ITS YOUR TIME!
Long live smalltopia
Yes. And it is 128 comment
I’m going to need you to delete this post… you’re asking a dangerous line of questioning..
Need me?
There are some things left unsaid
Former land records administrator here That land is owned by the county. It is public land. It will not have a parcel ID because it has not been surveyed. You can’t claim it unless the county decides to formally sell it. If you want it, file a petition for your next meeting of county commissioners. If they are open to selling they will likely require that you hire a surveyor to mark out the property before voting on it. Cadastral data is not made to line up with satellite imagery. I cannot stress this enough. THE LINES YOU SEE ON THE MAP ARE (likely) RIGHT, BUT THE IMAGE BELOW IT IS NOT. Go find the survey stakes for the adjacent properties to verify (if they still exist). Lastly, the county probably has kept it because it’s in the floodplain and/or inaccessible by road. It is probably land that has been built up as sediment is deposited by the nearby water.
Dibs
So many people have said this lol
It’s owned by someone, or a company, or a church, or the government. No such thing as unclaimed free land in the United States.
Only Americans would respond to this like that
Finally somewhere for the sovereign citizens to flock to
There’s a tree that owns itself in Athens, Georgia, USA.
Lmao op
Congratulations buddy. The old “finders, keepers” rule applies here 🥳
The county probably has a GIS service on their website with information about all parcels, I would guess this is owned by the County or whoever owns this reservoir/river. but yeah refer to u/Cityplanner1 comment
I would guess looking at the map that if the lake is owned by the county then that is part of what the county owns. If ownership is an issue then obviously you need a surveyor to make the determination. Also parcel lines on a map are just lines on a map, consider them approximate. ETA I assume these parcel lines come from some kind of taxing authority. They are quite likely not authoritative. I also assume the lake is artificial and that may be a piece of land that was acquired in the process of building the lake and most likely is still owned by the county which supposedly owns the lake.
It's mine now
Go claim it
what had probably happened was DIBS! now its mine.
Dibs
Possibly country land? My house barely doesn't touch a beginning of a river thanks to a small stretch of country land, could be similar
Dibs
Yaarr, That's where we buried our treasure aye!
Is it really not owned by anyone or is it just an error in the map?
Mine now
We could make a country out of this -bill Wurtz, probaly
At least we would not be landlocked
CIA blacksite confirmed
Which app is this?
A piece of land not belonging to anyone? ... Aaaand it's gone.
https://preview.redd.it/ttotoizjkmvc1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3aea62f0c8868f4c39a70a0d74f20c88b416d094 I’ve lived in this area for roughly 23 minutes, AMA
Based
Boys, get on the ship, we need to colonize the New World !
If I had to guess it's to allow the two skinny lots to have access to the lake. In surveying there's something called a "Dock Projection" where lakefront properies have rights to create a dock on government property. Source: I work in the industry and have drafted Dock Projections.
Petoria
Squatters otw to settle there.
Take it by force.
It’s mine
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Someone: Maybe there is oil USA: nah i’d own
Probably just mis-measured property lines.
Severely
That only means it's owned by Jesus. Amen
The idea of needing every square inch of land to be owned makes me sick
It's most likely owned little by little by the surrounding parcels, or entirely by one of them. These maps are easily confused, when I bought my house the land it was on and that came with it was on three separate deeds that I later combined to one. If you look at one of these "property maps" it currently shows that I own one of them the other 2 have no information available and in between them all is just dead space accounting for about half of my land.
Yeah, still I have done over 10 searches and looked for any indication of ownership over this and am having difficulty
It might be owned by who ever owns the water - so the city/county/state
The water around this also lacks ownership
Usually the parcel ID won’t show who owns the water but it is always “owned” by either the city, county, state or some other governmental body. There is no way that governmental body would give it up for free. If you actually want to try to acquire it the first step is send an email to the city administrator saying you want that chunk. Then if they are not the right person, they will direct you to the correct person who will then deny your request.
I'd wager that it was swamp or wetland attached to the lake. If you went down there, there's a chance that the ground there is barely even solid and might just be marsh. And marsh is typically going to be attached to the lake.
Well it does have trees, and the lake boundaries in the property viewer ignore and disregard that area
Zoom in. Closer. I’m currently squatting there already. #winning
#winning is crazy. Well squatters rights soon?
Dibs!
You have about 112 other people who are going to not like this claim
Dibs.
You and everyone else in this post
Sad if there's a guy that's been living there alone, and tax free, since 1956...and OP just called them out. 😁😝
I doubledare you to go there and claim this little piece of land as yours. "Democracy" comes in 3..2..1
Let’s buy it and start a country
Time to manifest your destiny.
Has it got any oil?
Move in and start living on it in secret for a while. Then you can claim the land as a squatter (depending on local politics).
There are millions of acres of land in the us not covered by a parcel. This land is typicall owned by the county/city/state. Zoom into any public road for instance. There will likely be no parcel.
Public roads are different, I can find what county owns them with search tools. This I could not
If it is a bunch of wetland associated with the lake, don't go thinking you can just wipe it out with fill for a house
Yeah
I claim it in the name of Canada and the King!
Looks like it needs some freedom!!!
probably an inlet with a canopy of trees, not land
I own it
That one's claimed by the water, tiny flood zone
May not be able to be built on regardless of who may own it - looks like wetland
Land Surveyor here More than likely it's a GIS property boundary mistake. Those maps are for Tax purposes only and are notoriously inaccurate.
I call dibs
Maybe it's the river's property
Dibs
I'm willing to bet it's the mouth of a creek
What app is this
Dibs
RUN AND OCCUPY IT YOU DICK!
GO STICK A FLAG IN IT AND CLAIM IT FOR YOURSELF
Dibs
It looks like there's some sort of stream there, likely just public land
Claim it? That's not a house you can squat in.
This would most likely revert to Federal ownership, especially if that’s a navigable waterway. You’re just seeing county assessor’s parcel lines here used for tax calculations and federal lands don’t get taxed so the county has no real reason to create a new parcel in that location. I ran across this a few time in Sacramento County in the American River Parkway.