Couple Paid $4,000 to Confirm Their Neighbor’s Fence Was 20 Feet Over the Line and Chose to Be Kind About It and Now Two Years of Inaction May Have Put Their Ownership at Risk
They noticed something was off before they even finished closing on the house. The neighbor’s fence didn’t look right, and rather than ignore the instinct, they paid for a property survey to find out exactly where the lines fell. The survey cost them just over $4,000 and confirmed what they suspected. The fence wasn’t sitting a few inches over the line. It was 20 feet onto their property.
When they brought it up with the neighbors, the explanation was a verbal arrangement with the previous owner. They’d been allowed to extend their fenced area onto the adjacent lot to give their pets more space. Nothing was written down, nothing was recorded, and the new owners had no knowledge of any such arrangement when they bought the house.
What They Decided to Do
They chose the neighborly path. Rather than demanding the fence come down immediately, they told the neighbors they’d leave things as they were for the time being but reserved the right to move the fence in the future. It was a gesture of goodwill meant to preserve the relationship while keeping their options open. That was two years ago, and the fence is still exactly where the survey said it shouldn’t be.
The surveyor’s advice when they asked whether to share the survey results was blunt. They’d spent a lot of money for that document and the neighbors could get their own copy if they wanted one. They shared it anyway, in the spirit of transparency, and the neighbors responded by continuing to use 20 feet of someone else’s property for their pet enclosure.
Why Two Years of Waiting Creates a Problem
Time is not a neutral factor in property disputes. Most states recognize the concept of adverse possession, which allows someone who openly and continuously uses another person’s land for a statutory period to potentially claim legal ownership of it. The required timeframe varies by state but commonly ranges from five to twenty years. A fence that’s been sitting 20 feet over a property line for years, with the knowledge and tacit permission of the current owners, is exactly the kind of situation adverse possession was built around.
The agreement they made to leave things as they are, without any written documentation establishing that the arrangement is temporary and that they retain full ownership rights, works against them as time passes. A verbal statement that they reserve the right to move the fence in the future doesn’t create a legal record. It creates a memory that can be disputed.
What They Should Do Before More Time Passes
The most protective step at this point is a written license agreement, sometimes called a revocable license or encroachment agreement, signed by both parties and ideally recorded with the county. This document would formally establish that the fence sits on their property, that the neighbors have permission to maintain it temporarily, that no permanent rights are being granted, and that the arrangement can be revoked with reasonable notice. It stops the adverse possession clock because the use of the land is now documented as permissive rather than hostile.
Without that documentation, every additional year of inaction strengthens the neighbors’ practical position and potentially their legal one. A real estate attorney can draft the agreement for a modest fee, and having it signed and recorded is significantly cheaper than litigating a boundary dispute later.
The Neighbor Relationship Question
They’ve handled this thoughtfully and with genuine consideration for the people next door. The instinct to preserve a good neighborly relationship is reasonable, and two years of peaceful coexistence suggests the neighbors aren’t bad people. They made an arrangement with a previous owner and have been operating under it without apparent bad faith.
But the neighbors also haven’t offered to move the fence, haven’t offered any compensation for the use of the land, and haven’t taken any steps to formalize the arrangement on their end. Asking them to sign a written license agreement isn’t an aggressive move. It’s a fair one that protects both parties by making the terms of the arrangement explicit and preventing any future dispute about what was agreed to and when.
What 20 Feet Actually Represents
Twenty feet of property isn’t a trivial encroachment. Depending on the size and shape of the lot, it could represent a meaningful percentage of their usable yard. It affects what they can build, where they can landscape, and what the property is worth if they ever sell. A future buyer will want a clean title, and an unresolved encroachment sitting on the survey will be a problem at that closing table whether or not the fence is still standing.
They did everything right when they bought the house. They trusted their instincts, paid for the survey, and found the problem before it became someone else’s gift to them. Protecting that investment now means getting the encroachment documented before more time passes and the neighbors’ position gets any stronger.
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