Property encroachment is a situation in real estate where an owner violates the property rights of his neighbour by building on or extending a structure to the neighbour’s land or property.
Encroachment can be a problem along disputed property lines where a person intentionally chooses to violate his neighbour’s boundaries. Or when a property owner is not aware of his property boundaries.
Understanding Property Encroachment
Property encroachment brings about a violation of the property rights of the affected property owner. When a property owner trespasses on to their neighbour’s property, they are said to be encroaching on the neighbour’s property.
Trespassing occurs when the property owner enters the grounds of the neighbour or builds a structure that extends past the lawful boundaries that separate both properties. For example, building a fence or retaining wall that crosses property lines, or having a hedge overgrow or a tree limb extend beyond property limits could be seen as encroachment.
Structural encroachment also occurs when a property owner builds or extends a structure onto the public domain such as sidewalks or roads.
In most case, sidewalks and residential streets are public property owned by the municipal government. Hence, a property owner who builds a driveway or erects landscape components (such as trees and flowers) that encroach on the public property, may have the structures removed by the government.
Furthermore, the property owner may not be compensated for any damages to the property that occurs from tearing down his or her structures.
Avoiding Potential Property Encroachment Issues
Potential homebuyers are advised to avoid properties with encroachment issues. As a homebuyer, you can use existing surveys on the area where the property is located. Property surveys contain information about a property; information which includes directions, public roads, buildings, improvements made to surrounding property, etc.
The surveys also disclose whether there are any encroachments on the home for sale or on the neighbour’s home. If as a home buyer you don’t want to rely on the existing survey information, you can obtain the services of a surveyor to conduct new measurements on the home premises.
You may encroach upon your neighbour’s property in an unintentional or intentional manner. A lot of times, unintentional encroachment happens when you are either not aware of valid property lines or have wrong information concerning the extent to which your property lies within legal limits.
If the property survey carried out on the home is used by you to carry out building renovations and extensions are invalid, you may unintentionally encroach on your neighbour’s home or land.
Since a property survey outlines the physical layouts of a property including the measurement of metes and bounds, wrong information contained in the survey may lead to a physical intrusion on a neighbour’s land.
Unintentional encroachment problems are sometimes resolved with a simple conversation between both parties. However, if the disagreement on whether someone’s property right was violated persists, the issue may be taken to court for a resolution.
Encroachment vs. Easement
An encroachment is sometimes confused with the easement. An easement is similar to encroachment in that the activities of a property owner extends to his or her neighbour’s property.
However, easements are agreed upon by both parties and compensation is often involved, whereas encroachment is unauthorized use of the neighbour’s property.
An example of an easement can be seen when a property owner, formally or informally, explicitly gives a neighbour permission to access a nearby beach through his property.
While encroachment may occur without the knowledge of the violator, property owners should carry out due diligence before erecting any structures that may fall close to the boundary that separates their property from another.
Property owners wishing to make changes near their property lines may want to talk to their neighbours and/or have a land survey done to make sure the work falls within their own property’s boundaries.