How does property/real estate ownership work in this case? Seeing the land shift so clearly by several feet makes me wonder.
What was on your property is now on my property!
What was on your property is now on my property!
Straight borders might become crooked if they cross the crack though.
There, it even explains some history and methodology for defining the borders. Mostly, they are defined by physical markers that hopefully the original surveryors left on the ground. I found a couple around my property (which is on hills so it's likely difficult to mark properly on a map from above) and it seems the borders are actually almost correct. As my fences have been up for over 20 years in the same location, I believe they also count now as de-facto borders now!
In more densely populated areas, there will be a local coordinate system, where each property is defined in terms of the neighbouring ones. This also applies to newly formed properties in old areas.
The property borders on digital maps are machine approximations of the mapping from the local coordinate system onto an absolute global coordinate system. This mapping can never be perfect, and it is often much less perfect than it could have been.
When the physical markers are missing or suspected of having moved from their original location (happens all the time for all sorts of reasons), Lantmäteriet will review the original documents of your and any number of neighbouring properties and deduce where the markers ought to be.
Regarding your fence, 20 years is very far from enough to establish "urminnes hävd". I suggest you wait another 100 years before you start assuming that they could act as facts on the ground in a property disputes! :-) And even then I wouldn't bet on it, unless the national archives are all destroyed...
You can still use it, but then you must prove that the property right was an established ancient custom already before 1970. Anything that started after that will never qualify, no matter how much time passes.
I was thinking of adverse possession, for which the time limits are 20 years or even 10 years in some cases:
https://jdc-definitions.wikibase.wiki/wiki/Adverse_Possessio...
Original Swedish text: https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/sven...
Simply making uncontested use of the land is not enough.
I guess it is something that can happen quite easily in rural settings with very old property lines. Farmer 1 and 2 agree to some deal and a while later farmer 3 turns up and says "hey that's my land".
You could alternatively just deal with your new jagged plot.
Worst case scenario, you're now the owner of the new Turkish Canyon.
Essentially one affected party comes up with a proposed solution, files paperwork with the court, and then all the rest of the affected parties get together (under court supervision) to make whatever changes are necessary until the solution is fair. If the court agrees that it is a fair solution, it becomes final.
https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-ccp/part-2/titl...
Land area does in a subduction zone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subduction#/media/File:Global_...