Neighbor Encroaching on Your Property in California? Surveys and Next Steps

What counts as an encroachment in California?

An encroachment is anything a neighbor builds, places or keeps on your land without a right to do so. Civil Code section 829 gives a landowner the right to the surface and to everything permanently situated beneath or above it, so an encroachment can be at ground level, underground or overhead.

• Fences, block walls and retaining walls built over the line.
• Patios, driveways, sheds, decks and pool equipment.
• Roof eaves, gutters and upper-story overhangs.
• Planters, irrigation lines and buried utility runs.
• Regular use, such as a neighbor driving across a corner of your lot to reach their garage.

Branches and roots follow their own rules; see our guide to neighbor tree disputes for those.

Why does a survey come before the letter?

A survey tells you where the line actually runs. An old fence, a hedge, or the neighbor's memory of where a prior owner put stakes is not the boundary.

Hire a licensed land surveyor, ask for a written survey or marked corners, and photograph the stakes with the encroachment in frame. If the neighbor produces their own survey showing a different line, the disagreement between the two surveys becomes the real issue, and your letter should say so.

Can a neighbor take your land by adverse possession in California?

Only under strict conditions. Adverse possession lets someone gain title by occupying land openly and against the owner's rights for a set period. Code of Civil Procedure section 325 requires that the land have been occupied and claimed for five years continuously, and that the claimant and their predecessors timely paid all state, county or municipal taxes levied and assessed on the land during those five years.

When the claim is not based on a deed or other written instrument, the land counts as possessed only if it was protected by a substantial enclosure, or was usually cultivated or improved. Tax payment must be shown by certified records of the county tax collector.

That tax rule matters in a backyard dispute. A strip along your side of the line is normally assessed to you as part of your parcel, so a neighbor who has used it for years may argue for a prescriptive easement instead, which is a narrower right with different requirements.

What is a prescriptive easement, and how do you prevent one?

A prescriptive easement is a right to keep using another person's land in a specific way, such as a path or a shared driveway, earned through long use rather than granted by deed. Civil Code section 1007 recognizes title by prescription after occupancy for the period that bars recovery under the Code of Civil Procedure, and section 321 of that code uses a five-year period for real property.

Permission defeats both claims, because permissive use is not adverse. California gives owners two formal tools:

• Signs. Under Civil Code section 1008, no use ripens into a prescriptive easement if the owner posts, at each entrance or at intervals of no more than 200 feet along the boundary, a sign reading substantially: "Right to pass by permission, and subject to control, of owner: Section 1008, Civil Code."
• A recorded notice. Civil Code section 813 lets the record owner record a notice that use of the land is by permission. For use by anyone other than the general public, the notice must also be served on the user by registered mail to be effective, and recording does not affect rights that already vested.

A letter giving written, revocable permission for one specific use can serve a similar purpose between neighbors. Have a lawyer word it, since a loosely drafted permission letter can read like a grant of rights.

What can you ask an encroaching neighbor to do?

You can ask the neighbor to remove the encroachment, to sign a written agreement that recognizes your ownership, to buy the strip, or to compensate you.

• Remove it. Move the fence, cut back the eave or relocate the shed by a set date.
• An encroachment agreement or license. The structure stays for now, but the neighbor acknowledges your title and that it remains by your permission.
• Sell or adjust the line. A sale of the strip, or a lot line adjustment through your city or county, typically with a new survey and recorded documents.
• Compensation. Civil Code section 3334 counts the value of the use of the land for up to five years before suit, the reasonable cost of restoring it, and the costs of recovering possession. When the occupation came from a mistake of fact, the value of use is the reasonable rental value.

A neighbor who built in good faith, believing the land was theirs, may ask a court for relief as a good faith improver under Code of Civil Procedure section 871.1 and the sections that follow. That possibility is one reason to consider a negotiated solution when the mistake looks honest.

Steps when a neighbor's structure crosses the line

1. Get a survey from a licensed land surveyor and photograph the marked line with the encroachment.
2. Pull your deed, title policy and any recorded easements, and ask your title insurer whether your policy covers boundary issues.
3. Write down how long the encroachment has existed and any conversations about permission.
4. Decide which outcome you want: removal, a written agreement, a sale, or payment.
5. Send a letter with the survey attached and a reasonable response date.
6. If the neighbor uses part of your land, document permission in writing or use the section 1008 sign or section 813 notice.
7. If no agreement is possible, talk to a real estate lawyer about a quiet title or trespass case.

What if the neighbor refuses to move the encroachment?

If the neighbor refuses, the dispute generally moves to superior court. Code of Civil Procedure section 760.020 allows an action to quiet title, which asks the court to establish title against adverse claims to real property. Trespass and ejectment claims can ask for removal and damages.

Small claims court decides money claims up to $12,500 for individuals and can grant an injunction only where a statute expressly allows it, so ownership and removal disputes generally belong in superior court.

Timing matters. A lawsuit for trespass upon or injury to real property generally carries a three-year deadline (Code of Civil Procedure section 338(b)), and adverse possession and prescription both run on five-year periods. A dated letter is one clear record of when you objected. If the neighbor's use also involves people crossing your land, our guide to a cease and desist letter for trespassing covers that side.

Why boundary letters benefit from a lawyer's drafting

Boundary letters can later be read by title companies, surveyors, lenders and future buyers as well as the neighbor, so the wording about permission and ownership matters. Having a lawyer draft it makes sense when the encroachment is a permanent structure, when the neighbor says the land is theirs, when an easement or old agreement appears in the record, or when you want to allow a use without giving up rights.

Through Talk to My Lawyer, a licensed California attorney writes your letter from your survey, deed and photos, and sends it on your behalf. For advice on quiet title or a recorded agreement, talk to a real estate lawyer about your facts.