Summary: A
reader asks about gifting land to enable a corporate relocation. Some
corporate relocations may be limited to land acreage of a certain
amount. Ilyce and Sam suggest the reader ask to waive the land acreage
requirement so that the corporate relocation can proceed.
Q:
We need to reduce our 5.1 acre property to less than 5 acres in order
to qualify for my husband's employer's relocation program. It's been
suggested that we gift 0.2 acres to one of our adjacent neighbors. Are
there any other options we should consider? If not, how do we begin the
process?
A:
It seems like the best and easiest solution would be to see if your
employer's relocation program manager would waive the "less than 5
acre" requirement for you. But if they won't, you have some options,
some of which can be complicated, expensive and time consuming.
As
you indicated, one of your options might be to reduce the size of your
property. However, in some cases this might be impossible. Some local
municipalities have minimum lot size requirements. If your town or
county has a minimum lot size of 5 acres, you'd be out of luck.
If
you're able to reduce the acreage of your lot you may have other legal
challenges. Of the many legal obstacles you may encounter, a big one
might be subdivision ordinances and subdivision requirements. In an
effort to regulate local land uses, many municipalities have ordinances
that require owners of land to obtain accurate surveys of their land,
along with water flow studies, before they permit the subdivision of
large lots. In some cases these local requirements might even include
the review of what you propose and their approval of your division.
If
you're able to overcome these obstacles or they don't exist in your
area, you could transfer that land to your neighbor. Your attorney
could obtain a legal description from your surveyor to convey to your
neighbor the necessary acreage. You, in turn, would need to make sure
that the local real estate taxing authority thereafter taxes your
neighbor for that acreage.
In
a nutshell if you can't get your husband's employer to waive the
requirement, seek out a real estate attorney in your area to guide you
through the process.
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