Encroachments are one of those things that can look completely ordinary until they’re not. A fence a few tenths off the line. A concrete pad that bleeds past the property line. A garage addition that crept a little too close to the property or setback line or a roof overhang extended a bit too far.
For the untrained eye, it’s just a driveway. For you, it’s a potential legal issue that needs to be documented with precision, clarity, and defensibility.
The good news? Most encroachment situations aren’t complex; in fact, they may not even be a problem—they just require a consistent field-to-plat workflow. Get that right, and you’ve got documentation that holds up whether it’s reviewed by a title underwriter, an attorney, or a board of registration.
Here’s how to build that workflow from the ground up.
What Counts as an Encroachment?
Before you can document it properly, you need to recognize it. An encroachment is any improvement or physical feature that crosses a property line—either from the subject property onto an adjacent parcel or right-of-way, or from a neighboring property onto the subject.
It can also refer to a structure protruding over a building or other setback restriction line on the property. This is why a title commitment (report) is an essential part of your diligence when preparing a survey.
Common culprits include:
- Fences and walls – The classics. They shift or settle, changing their relationship to the boundary or setback lines. They follow lines invisible to the naked eye. They rarely get surveyed when built, unless they are in place when the as-built survey is performed.
- Driveways and paved pads – Concrete and asphalt don’t respect lot lines. Widened aprons, shared drives, and poured extensions are frequent offenders.
- Building overhangs and additions – A bump-out addition (think bay window) or cantilevered roof overhang can push past the boundary or building setback line without the owner ever knowing.
- Sheds, outbuildings, and garages – Accessory structures often get placed informally, which means their relationship to the property line, building setback line, or easement line is anyone’s guess until it’s measured.
- Retaining walls and steps – These often straddle lines or bear loads on adjacent property without any formal easement in place.
Under most state minimum standards—including those in Alabama, West Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Massachusetts—visible encroachments onto or from adjoining property must be located, noted, described, and clearly shown on the plat or drawing, along with the extent of the encroachment.
What Is a “Visible” Encroachment?
The term “visible” can be interpreted in several ways, so it should not be considered a blanket defense for a surveyor who is not through in their investigation of site conditions.
For example, a subsurface encroachment—such as a bell footing on a foundation piling—is not visible above the surface. However, the evidence of the encroachment—the piling visible adjacent to the property line—is prima facia evidence that a subsurface intrusion may exist.
Consultation with a construction professional in the area, or at least a note on the survey indicating the possibility of an incursion, is a wise course of action.
Regardless of what state in which the survey is located, an encroachment, protrusion, or extension across any property line, in either direction, is a fact that should be shown and noted on your survey plat or drawing and the surveyor’s report.
Step 1: Do Your Research Before You Go to the Field
The best field crews don’t discover encroachments cold—they go in with an expectation of what might be there.
Before mobilizing, pull:
- The subject deed and any referenced plats
- Adjacent owner deeds (particularly useful for shared fences, walls, and driveways)
- Prior surveys of record, if available
- Platted easements and setback lines
- Aerial maps or photographs of the area (be sure to note the date of the images)
Cross-reference the deed description with any existing sketch or plat. Flag areas where improvements are likely to cluster near boundaries—side yards, rear corners, and anywhere the lot is narrow. These are your high-probability encroachment zones.
Some states, like Rhode Island and Massachusetts, specifically require you to review abutting property descriptions as part of your boundary research. Even where it’s not mandated, it’s good surveying practice: knowing what the neighbor’s deed says can help you evaluate a fence line that sits right on (or near) a called-for boundary.
Step 2: Capture the Right Data in the Field
Locate the Improvement Fully
Don’t just pick up a corner of the fence or a single shot on the edge of the driveway. You need enough data to define the feature’s geometry and its relationship to the boundary.
For fences and walls, locate at least:
- Both ends of each run
- Any change of direction
- The face of the fence (or center, if documented consistently) relative to the boundary
For buildings and structures, locate:
- All corners of the improvement
- Overhangs, if visible and measurable
- Foundation type – slab, pier and beam, elevated on blocks, etc.
For driveways and slabs:
- Edge shots along the full run, particularly where the improvement approaches or crosses the line
- Note the material type (concrete, asphalt, gravel, pavers) and thickness, if possible, as it may be relevant to extent and remediation
Dimension to the Boundary
This is where a lot of surveyors leave work on the table. Showing the feature on the plat is one thing; dimensioning its relationship to the boundary is what makes the document useful and defensible. Depending on the size and scale of the plat, a drawing can get cluttered and difficult to read. In complex areas, a prudent surveyor should utilize enlarged detail inserts to ensure clarity and understanding of the conditions reported—even if it requires additional sheets or utilizing a larger paper size for adequate room.
Per Alabama standards and reinforced by regulations across multiple states: dimensions sufficient to show the relationship to the boundary line(s) must be shown.
That means:
- Offsets perpendicular to straight boundary lines for improvements running roughly parallel to the line
- Offsets radial to curved boundary lines where applicable
- Direction and distance to purported property corners as an alternative dimensioning method
If the encroachment is marginal, document it anyway. Some jurisdictions, including Kansas, require that when the level of certainty of dimensions to possible encroachments isn’t sufficient for a positive determination, a boundary survey must be recommended.
Note that in your field book, your plat notes, and your surveyor’s report (if provided).
Don’t Neglect Access
Means of access—including driveways, shared drives, walkways, and access points—must be shown clearly and graphically under most state standards. Note whether access is exclusive or shared, and flag any shared driveways that may straddle a property line. These can be encroachments in themselves or evidence of an unrecorded easement.
Step 3: Write Notes That Are Factual and Defensible
This is where surveyors sometimes get into trouble. The goal is a factual description, not a legal conclusion. You observe, you measure, you depict.
You don’t determine who owns what or whether a prescriptive easement or other legal rights may have formed or expired. Those decisions are for attorneys and courts to determine.
Here’s what good encroachment notes look like:
Weak: “Fence appears to encroach on neighbor’s property.”
Better: “Wood privacy fence observed along west line; west face of fence located approximately 0.4 ft. easterly of the westerly boundary as surveyed hereon. Location of encroachment shown graphically.”
The better version includes:
- Type of improvement (wood privacy fence)
- Location (along west line)
- Measured offset (0.4 ft. easterly of the surveyed boundary)
- Reference to graphic depiction (shown graphically)
Avoid terms like “illegal,” “unauthorized,” or “belongs to.” Stick to what you observed and what you measured. Your note should read the same way whether a friendly title officer or an opposing attorney is looking at it.
In some locations or jurisdictions, the term “encroachment” itself can sometimes have prejudicial connotations. You might wish to use the term “extends,” “protrudes,” “intruded,” or, in the case of roofs or other elevated items, “overhangs.”
For boundary conflicts, many state standards require that conflicting boundary information be both clearly shown on the drawing and reported to the client in writing. Build that into your delivery workflow—scope, schedule, and fee.
In many states, a written, but unrecorded, agreement between the landowners can have the full legal weight and effect of a recorded document. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” so report the facts and leave the legal conclusions to the courts.
Step 4: Show It Clearly on the Plat
A well-documented encroachment should be impossible to miss on the final drawing and should be detailed in your surveyor’s report.
Here’s your plat checklist:
- Graphically show the encroaching feature using a distinct line type or symbol, differentiated from boundary lines and improvements that don’t cross the line.
- Dimension the offset from the improvement to the nearest boundary line, using the standard methods previously listed. Include a notation as to what point on the improvement—center, edge, corner—to which the dimension refers. Include a detail if necessary for clarity.
- Label the feature clearly—”wood fence,” “concrete driveway,” “metal shed,” “roof overhang” instead of just “fence” or “structure.”
- Add a note in the general notes block referencing the encroachment and its extent.
- Note both directions if applicable: does the subject encroach on the neighbor, does the neighbor encroach on the subject, or both?
- Take photographs. With the advent of digital photography, site photographs should be a standard part of your field procedure. Whether for your records, added to the survey plat, or included in the surveyor’s report, in this instance a picture truly is worth a thousand words.
North Dakota’s minimum standards are instructive here: visible encroachments must be depicted, with potential encroachments shown without expressing a legal opinion as to ownership or nature. That “no legal opinion” caveat is your protection—and your professional obligation.
Regardless of the jurisdiction in which the site is located, the ALTA/NSPS survey standards are an excellent starting point for addressing encroachments. However, you must, as a prudent professional, be familiar with the state and local standards for addressing these situations and acting accordingly.
Addressing an encroachment is every bit as important as accurately reconstructing the boundary or precisely locating easements.
If you’re working on a mortgage inspection rather than a full boundary survey, include the appropriate disclaimer on the plat, and if your field methods didn’t produce sufficient certainty to determine whether an encroachment exists, recommend a boundary survey in writing.
Building the Habit: Consistency is Key
The surveyors who handle encroachments most effectively are the ones with the most consistent process. When every crew member knows what to collect, how to dimension it, and how to label it, the final product is reliable regardless of who was in the field.
Build an encroachment protocol into your crew training, your field note templates, and your CAD standards. Set expectations for when to flag a “possible” encroachment vs. a confirmed one, and create a standard note format that every tech on your team can use without guessing.
That consistency is what keeps a plat defensible five years after the fact, when the fence has been moved and everyone has a different memory of what was there.
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