Richard Snyder got the call about a year or two ago, he estimates.

A man trying to buy part of his property had stumbled across a problem.

"You need to call the county," he told Snyder. "They say it's illegal."

By it, he meant Snyder's property. Not the property itself, actually, but the manner in which Snyder had split it into two parcels in the mid-1990s.

After building his home on the forested land just outside Hayden, Snyder had used a quit claim deed to divide the 130-plus acres into a parcel for his homestead and a parcel for his timber business.

According to the county, however, the land wasn't zoned to allow for such a division.

The parcels were illegal - making it illegal to build anything on them.

"I got upset for a little while when they told me everything was illegal," Snyder said.

Correcting it isn't easy. Or quick.

After lengthy discussions with the county, Snyder and his wife Sharron are looking at a couple of years and at least $4,000 worth of county hearings, applications and agency reviews for a zone change and another land division to correct the 15-year-old mistake, he said.

"I don't hold any grudges against anybody," the 65-year-old said. "It's just the frustration of going through the bureaucracy."

He isn't alone, according to Cindy Espe with Advanced Technology and Engineering, who Snyder has hired to help him through the process.

Many Kootenai County folks discover property was subdivided illegally and must be corrected to allow construction, she said.

"Unfortunately, all the time," Espe said of how often she sees such situations.

It can get complicated, she added, and very expensive.

Snyder, a Rathdrum native, stands by his memory that county staff had told him how to split his property so many years ago.

But he can't prove it.

"I wouldn't have invested money in the house, if I knew it was illegal," he said.

He could do nothing, Espe said.

"But if he ever needed to build onto his home, or if it burned down, he would not be eligible to rebuild it," Espe said.

To remedy the mistake, Snyder has to apply through the county to change the zoning on his property to agricultural-suburban, and then apply to subdivide the property again, into the two parcels that it already has been for years.

"It's probably $3,000 or $3,000 just for the zone change," said Snyder, a retired forester. "I'm not sure about the minor subdivision."

The county had been taxing Snyder for the two parcels all these years, Espe said.

"The tax records show it as two parcels, but the Planning Department downstairs does not consider the two as legal, buildable parcels," she said. "Upstairs and downstairs can be very different at the county."

Espe sees this kind of dilemma often, she said.

Like instances where parents quit claimed some acreage to their children, without going through the county's subdivision process.

"That would get recorded, and upstairs, they would give it a parcel number and tax it separately," Espe said. "It was fine, until more recently, when the Planning Department started checking (property history) when someone comes in for a building permit."

The situation happens more often than the county would like to see, said Scott Clark, director of the Building and Planning Department.

"I wouldn't say its an everyday occurrence, but it's not uncommon," Clark said. "I'm sure the folks who find themselves in this position are definitely in a surprised state."

He sometimes sees cases where folks have purchased property, intending to build on it, without researching how the previous owners divided the land.

"When you're excited about a purchase, it's easy to not do exhaustive research," he said. "Idaho is a buyer beware state. It's really incumbent upon folks who are interested in purchasing land that they do their due diligence."

Correcting illegal subdivisions varies per case, he said, but rezoning and re-subdividing is sometimes involved.

Clark said he wasn't familiar with the history of Snyder's case.

He suspects, however, that Snyder was advised by the county shortly before a new subdivision law was enacted in November 1995.

He might have divided the land afterward, not knowing the law had changed.

"When you get advice and then you rely on it some time later, it's a good idea to come back and check in to see if it's the same answer," Clark said. "It's not uncommon for the laws to change."

The expenses pile up fast to correct an illegal subdivision, Espe said.

Multiple agencies have to review the property, all of which charge for the process.

On top of that are application fees, and the cost of hiring a surveyor to look at the plat.

"Then all of those agencies can ask for specific improvements to be done, which (the property owner) also has to pay for," Espe said. "It can be very expensive just to create two lots."

In Snyder's case, she added, the highway district could require him to improve his driveway to meet highway standards.

"That costs $100 a foot, which could stop him from being able to subdivide," she said.

Snyder said the issue is frustrating, but he has no regrets of the peaceful 13 years he and his wife have lived in their quiet, rural abode.

"It's a beautiful place. We're three miles from town and we have basically no neighbors, which is nice," Snyder said. "This will work out, sooner or later."

Clark suggested folks take advantage of the county Building and Planning Department, which can help research a property's history before it is purchased.

"Please come in and see us," he said. "We can research it and get them answers before they make that commitment."