Buying land but neighbors driveway is on mine.

Yes Sir.... I have a survey scheduled just to do the north line .. no need to do anything else.. my west side boarders a tag swamp and south is all swamp and creek.... Nobody is going to be hunting or just walking around in it...the previous owner of the ten has not been up in 8 years...

Yup, you certainly can buy land in Wisconsin without a survey...I did it last year. We bought ours from family based on the legal description from the last time it was surveyed (circa 1950). There was an area discrepancy that the county refused to correct without a new survey of the entire property. They are going to tax me on 28.4 acres and there is only 26.8 acres there per the county GIS website. They acnkowledged that there is a discrepancy, but without having a new survey to replace the old one, they would be using the old one for taxes. Cost of a new CSM (certified survey map) was about $6,000...I would have been spending $6,000 to save about half that on the purchase and the savings in taxes would have never made up the rest of the difference in my lifetime. My wife and I will eventually build a house on this land and will probably have it surveyed at that point anyway, so we figured no point in doing it twice. We bought the land for about 1/3 of market value, so we will never lose on the investment. We did have an attorney handle the paperwork when we purchased the property and we have title insurance, so we should be covered for any issues that arise down the road.

I think the OP is on the right track here...start with a survey and see if this is even an issue. If it is, then try to work it out with the neighbor between the two of them. If the neighbor won't play nice, then the gloves come off and attorneys get involved and things go by the letter of the law. If you go that route and they get mad, you can't say you didn't give them a chance...

EDIT TO ADD: This should not require a full-blown survey of the entire property. They should be able to do a property line locate and mark. They basically shoot the property line and then mark it with stakes/flag tape. Just make sure you use a certified surveyor. This is not where you want to cut corners and use "the guy my buddy knows"...

In Wisconsin you don't need a survey...you can buy land just off county plot lines.. that's the issue I have bought..I have to get a survey done then maybe fight for the driveway on this reverse property law..amy new land is at the bottom..

I didn't know you could buy land with out a survey. How do you know what you own? You have to pay taxes on your land they should have a survey record at the court house.

I know some won't like this but here I go.  This situation is why you hire a "good" realtor.  I'm now retired but none of my clients would have found all these issues after the sale it would have been part of the transaction to either resolve these issues prior to purchase/closing or the purchase price would have reflected these issues.  Sorry if you did use a realtor, I can't say all realtors are respectful of their clients.  I would say that you may now need to hire a good real estate attorney.

Yes I did introduce myself last year when I purchased 30 to the south of the ten I just bought.. the guys were very rude.. Now I have the land that borders his it's going to be funny.. l went up last weekend and looked around... Nobody around... What pizzed me off is all the garbage laying in my woods including old farm/ scrap metal way into my land.. plus a bunch of trees were recently cut down... Nobody lives on the property but now I have seen that another land owner has a path off the main driveway to their land... I have seen why the driveway was built where it is cause it's the only high ground between the two properties.. there is some wet land for the first 150 yards as his land goes into higher .. l have mostly swamp with high ground in the middle of my 40 perfect natural funnel from ag field to a tag swamp.. l am kinda at the bottom of a huge ag field to the north and draining south into my land.
I have a survey scheduled then I will go from there.. need proof before I start problems and if I need a lawyer I will seek one but I think we can work out a deal first.

Hire a professional surveyor if it does not have a legal easement, it's not his. There is no such thing as shared land someone owns it. If yours or their name is not on the deed, it's a SOL situation. Boundaries do not overlap period. Been there done that twice don't learn the hard way. 

I live in a rural area not far from Madison.  And my family has been hear since the 1800's.  Even in my 38 years we've had a lot of "City Folk" move out to the country.  I'll admit that I really don't like, but there's nothing I can do.  Some of the people in my area are almost militant about "City Folk" moving into the area.  But when when I meet someone new in the area I'm always friendly and polite.
I'm sure your neighbor will like you, he just doesn't like the land getting sold to a stranger.  Break bread with the guy.  Offer him a bag of fish or some morels you picked.  If you do this I'm sure he'll warm up to you.  Just like I have warmed up to some of the "City Folk" in my neighborhood.  Starting a war over this will NOT help things.  
We have a saying in my area.  "You'll never get even with a good neighbor."

The place where I deer hunt the neighbor has been making his field closer and closer to the property line and recently is claiming the driveway the land owner drives on to access is his land is actually his!  Problem is, the neighbor's land is in one county, and the land I hunt on is in another county, so, on the GIS maps with aerial the property lines don't line up because both county coordinate systems don't line up...pretty typical! My old boss (who owns the land) originally had it surveyed when he bought the land, but I think he didn't get permanent stakes put in because of the price, but he knows where the property pin is at the county line and approximately where the line is.  He told his neighbor if he wants it surveyed then survey it, he'll just move his access driveway to his land (he has a north and a south parcel, it's the south parcel where the issue is) further onto his property if he has to.

I was a tax assessor in my previous career.  I hate metes and bounds for legal descriptions!

Local atty was the best $ I ever spent when a part of a property acquisition was "murky / unknown". All good, known, and legal afterward with no issues. ?

No offense but only a fool would buy land without having clear and precise dimensions of that land. Including a legal resolution of the disposition of your neighbor's driveway. Then get everything remedied PRIOR to purchase. As far as your neighbors being less than friendly, FK em. It's your land.

Hi, 

I always find it interesting when people shy away from hiring attorneys. You find a good attorney who won’t charge a lot and you’ll be better off than if you do it yourself. Doesn’t mean you couldn’t do the research and check the plat and survey and aerial photos but ultimately you may end up having to file legally binding documents or worse case going to court. Maybe if it is a smaller strip of land it’s not worth the trouble but bear in mind, gentlemen’s agreements and other informal agreements simply are not binding. Neighbor sells his property and you might be screwed.  Think about from this perspective-they are professionals and presumably know what they are doing. No offense to anyone on this forum but if you were arrested on some bogus charges would you call your buddy from work, your plumber, handle your own defense, or a lawyer. My two cents. 

Bruno 

bruno, rattle em up, and utahman have given the best advice so far.  adverse possession is real, and you may be impacted by it.  the neighbor doesn't need to mark it with posts or anything like that, the existence of the driveway itself (and their use of it) may be enough for them to have adversely possessed that sliver.  

here are your steps:
1.  check historical aerial photos to see if you can tell how long the driveway has been there.  sometimes your county gis will have historical aerials as layers in their display.  if it's been there a long time, chances that it's been adversely possessed go up.
2.  have a non-confrontational conversation with the neighbor to coyly try to find out how long he's been using it, and if you can come to a gentleman's agreement.  who cares if he's on there by 10 feet if you're talking about 10 acres?  chalk it up to being a good neighbor and when you text him and ask permission to track your deer onto his place you'll get a kinder response.
3.  see #2 - be a good neighbor and expect them to be the same.  only as a last resort do you want to spend $$$ paying lawyers and surveyors over a driveway's width of land.

approach this with an open mind that you might not be correct as to who's property that sliver really is.

Nothing is free and no one should expect it.

trade the drive for hunting priv's on his other land.  Seems like a fair trade.  there is not such thing as too many options when it comes to stands.  Burn his stuff out and leave yours for rut.  LOL