Property and land, from the deed up.

Third-party delinquent tax cases

When a Kentucky property tax bill goes unpaid, it becomes a certificate of delinquency, and the county clerk holds a yearly sale where third-party purchasers can buy those certificates. The certificate is a lien on the property, generally for eleven years after the taxes became delinquent, and it can include interest, fees and collection costs.

A third-party purchaser has to send the property owner, and any mortgage holder, notices by certified mail, including one at least 45 days before filing suit. After one year from the date the taxes became delinquent, and within eleven years, the purchaser can sue to collect the amount due, to enforce the lien against the property, or both. A lien case can end in a court-ordered sale. We handle these cases.

Source: KRS 134.420; KRS 134.490; KRS 134.546; 103 KAR 5:180; Kentucky Department of Revenue

Quiet title actions

A quiet title action asks the court to settle who owns a piece of land. Under Kentucky's statute, a person who has both legal title and possession can sue in the circuit court of the county where the land, or part of it, lies, against anyone setting up a claim to it. If the owner proves title, the court orders the other side to release the claim.

Title gets clouded by unclear deed descriptions, family land never sorted out, a tax sale, or a competing claim. Who has possession affects what kind of case can be brought.

Source: KRS 411.120

Trespass: timber, mineral, and more

Trespass cases come up when someone goes onto land, cuts timber, or takes minerals without the right to. Kentucky has a timber trespass statute. When someone cuts timber on another person's land without legal right or color of title, the statute generally makes them pay three times the stumpage value of the timber, three times the cost of damage to the property, and the owner's legal costs.

The statute limits that to the timber's reasonable value and actual damages in some situations, such as when the cutter got signed statements from the believed owner and gave adjoining owners the required written notice first, or when a residential or farm owner clearing a fence row cuts a neighbor's timber by a good-faith mistake about an unmarked line. Mineral trespass, taking coal, oil, gas or other minerals that belong to someone else, raises its own questions about title and damages.

Source: KRS 364.130

Boundary line disputes

Boundary disputes often start with a fence, a tree line, or a new survey that two neighbors read differently. They turn on the deeds, the surveys, and how the land has been used. Some are worked out by agreement; others are decided by the circuit court.

Source: Kentucky Court of Justice, Circuit Court

State right-of-way disputes

These are disputes with the state over highway right-of-way: where the state's right-of-way ends and your land begins, whether a road project takes or damages part of your property, and what you're owed when it does. Kentucky's Constitution requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use.

Condemnation cases under Kentucky's Eminent Domain Act are heard in circuit court. Compensation is generally measured by the difference between the fair market value of the whole tract immediately before the taking and the value of what's left immediately after.

Source: Ky. Const. § 13; KRS 416.540; KRS 416.660

Oil and gas

We have extensive experience in oil and gas litigation and title review. In Kentucky, unmined coal, oil and gas can be owned and assessed separately from the surface, so the paper trail for the minerals under a tract can be different from the one for the land on top. That's why title review matters before anyone leases, sells, drills, or sues.

Source: KRS 134.490(3)(b)