From actual personal experience, I would have to say the rural dwellers potentially face very unique and challenging legal issues relative to their urban condo dwelling cousins. If you are the type that is comfortable with turning everything over to an attorney to handle, read no further. This page is not for you. If you want to control your own destiny, however, and be able to fully understand the necessary decisions and actions, this page might be for you. If you own or are considering buying rural land, the perils of ignorance can be severe. First, I'm not an attorney and I won't charge you between $200 - $400/hr. for simple legal advice. I am retired after working for 35+ years for a major corporation that had it's own legal department. One of my job responsibilities required me to generate the technical side of major RFQ's and contracts and then review the documents, in their entirety, with the corporate legal department. In my experiences and from a legal standpoint, there are major differences between what happens in a big buck, high pressure corporate environment and normal, everyday, civilian living. This page attempts to highlight those differences to the benefit of average rural dwellers.

As with the doctors, attorneys need to be registered to legally practice law in Colorado. To check the status of an attorney go to this site. To view a rather dark and nasty side of the Colorado legal profession go to this site. Click on any of the actions listed to get a brief explanation of what the action entailed. Attorneys are not angels. In my experience, they are in it for the fee (money) and little else. My advice is to know who and what you are dealing with.

Public Internet access to legal statutes is largely in the hands of an organization known as ""Michie's Legal Resources". Like obedient sheep, Colorado has fallen in behind most other states in using this service to provide public Internet access to legal statutes. Site programming is virtually 100% Javascript and makes extensive use of "Frames" in the presentation of the data. Bar none, it is one of the worst sites I visit on a regular basis. At this point I would say get use to using this site. The alternative is to go back to a stone age and expensive paper subscription or worse, have the State provide the necessary software, server capacity and I.T. maintenance function.

As mentioned above, when employed, my legal writing efforts were carried out under the watchful eye and guidance of a corporate legal department. Dealing with legal issues in a rural environment has now proven to be a culture shock as well as frustrating. The following is meant to be practical guidance for those trying to legally protect themselves and do things otherwise correctly in a rural environment.

Who really owns the land and structures to be sold? If you are purchasing out of an estate or from a long established and extensive local family, the answer may be anything but simple. Attorneys typically offer verbal assurances of legal right to sell and generally offer a title guarantee policy as alleged proof of same. The policy typically protects the interests of a bank making a purchase loan but may do little if anything for the buyer. If you are going to hand someone a large amount of cash for a piece of property, your top priority should be to establish if that person is legally able to sell same without legal challenge. In my experience, county property records are notorious for being both incomplete and inaccurate. It's also my experience that most attorneys either do not or will not verify the seller legally owns the land/structures and simply offers some type of title policy in lieu of proper legal work (my opinion). There are legal means to clear up any question as to ownership of land. You just need to ask good questions of your attorney. If you don't get good answers back, find a new attorney. My advise is to read carefully the terms of a typical warranty deed and determine who is guaranteeing what to whom. In my view, there is lots of room/ways to lose your money.

Is there some type of irrigation ditch, road, trail, power line or other utility type structure that crosses the property but nothing appears on the deed? The American Bar Association website hosts an excellent writeup on how "easements are created by implication, acquiescence or prescription" for irrigation ditches but in nearly every case without the knowledge or permission of the land owner. I'm quite sure this type of legal doctrine easily extends into other areas including rural power lines. The land owner ends up paying property taxes on the land and in some cases is deprived use of the land as a result of the easement. Another major downside to these types of easements is that there is no written terms and conditions as to maintenance and repair activities associated with the easement as there often is with written easements. It also is unclear in my mind at what point use of a stealth easement turns into a case of Adverse Possession

Virtually all attorneys use a library of common forms when engaged in legal activities. In terms of the courts and county court houses, it's important to have things as standardized and organized as possible. In the state of Colorado, Bradford Publishing is a major supplier of legal forms to attorneys state wide. Links are to the right and include links to several common legal forms. If you are engaged in legal activities involving lots of money, it would be my advise to obtain the proper legal form and carefully review it. Make notes on anything that is not clear and ask questions of your attorney. Legal forms can, as appropriate, be shortened/modified to fit the situation at hand.

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