Do Good Neighbours Make Good Fences? A Property Survey Shows Otherwise

What if your neighbor said a fence you built six months ago was 2 feet inside your property line? Your neighbor is kind enough to point out that he's got possession of 2 feet of your land. What a wonderful neighbor! And the timing couldn't be better, you're going to sell the house in 1 week.

So you diligently dig up the old fence, bore new fence posts and hammer in everything into the new location pointed out by your neighbor - all during a rainy weekend.

Afterwords, your wife reminds you to order a Surveyors' Real Property Report (RPR) to complete the upcoming real estate transaction.

The surveyor shows up, and later the RPR indicates the fence you moved was actually in the right spot. Worse still, another fence you thought was in the right spot is actually 2 feet into another neighbor's property. You've moved the wrong fence!

The fence a neighbor said to move

Unfortunately, this situation happened to a recent client in the southeast community of New Brighton. The client was an engineer and was no stranger to numbers and measurements. However, like many new subdivisions, his lot is defined by a giant curve which tapers slightly inward towards the back of the property. Even for an experienced surveyor, simply eyeballing the correct location of a boundary is very difficult.

Next time you think about building a fence, give a surveyor a call. A surveyor has the training and tools to correctly locate a boundary. It might save you a rainy weekend worth of trouble.