What If Your Neighbor Builds On Your Property

Let’s say your neighbor puts up a fence and part of it sticks into your yard. As a nice neighbor you might not say anything because it’s not really a big deal, but that’s actually a tremendous mistake that may bite you down the road. What could possibly happen over a little fence?

Title insurance refuses to issue insurance. If you try to sell, a title insurance company may not be willing to issue title insurance to the buyer because of this seemingly minor encroachment. This is because you didn’t do anything about your neighbor using your land and thus the neighbor may have a claim on that part of the property. It’s not that the issue can’t be resolved, it’s that what was an open and shut case is now something far more annoying (think: lawyers and paperwork) that the title insurance company doesn’t want to deal with.

Neighbor could have claims on your land! Depending on the statutes in your area, if your neighbor builds on your land and uses it for a long enough period of time, they actually get ownership of that land. On one hand, I understand if that makes total sense. If I accidentally build an extension of my house onto a foot of my neighbor’s property and they never told me, it’s unfair of them to force me to rip down that property right? They were there when I was building, if they knew then they should’ve said something. If they didn’t know, then its their fault! On the other hand, it’s understandable if someone gets upset because someone else essentially stole their property. It’s an ugly situation so clear it up early if you discover it.

What if you tell your neighbor and they still continue?

• Step 1: Make sure you’re right! You may have wrong information just as easily as they may have the wrong information. Double check your records and discuss it with your neighbor. If he or she still disagrees, escalate it.
• Step 2: Hire an attorney to write a letter demanding that construction stops. If your neighbor continues, unfortuantely you have to go to Step 3.
• Step 3: Sue. Unfortunately you have no choice after this, you must bring the issue to court and have the judge issue a temporary stop or halt on construction until you can file a civil suit for trespassing.

It’s very important that you ensure you’re in the right before you proceed, it would be silly to go through all that effort and money just to find out you had incorrect information!