Fences and Boundary Disputes

Where one property ends and the next one begins can be important to your everyday enjoyment of your property -- and takes on particular significance when it's time to sell. Fences can, by themselves, be the subject of major neighbor disputes -- when to repair them, who pays, where exactly they go, and so on. But even if you and a neighbor don't really care about whether the fence is in exactly the right place, or who planted a few extra vegetables on which side of an unmarked property line, a new owner might want to know exactly how much land he or she will be getting. At that point, things might get ugly, with legal arguments arising over whether one owner has managed to lay claim to a piece of another's property through "adverse possession." Learn more about laws regarding fences and boundary lines, and how to protect your rights well before going to court, here.