If you’re a homeowner, it’s a pretty good bet that at some time you’ve wondered if your neighbor is overstepping their property lines. Possibly with a new fence, or garden, or even simply mowing a bit too far over into your space. Unless you have very clear property lines that are easy to see, the distinction between your property and theirs can get fuzzy very quickly. Most of the time that’s not a problem, as most people are very forgiving and ware willing to help out and not rock the boat. Sometimes, however, neighbors are very protective of their property boundaries and won’t hesitate to confront you or call the authorities in to check on a perceived violation of zoning laws. This guide is here to help you avoid these potentially awful circumstances.
Do you know exactly where your property ends and begins? Can you identify your property corner stakes? Could you tell me the exact dimensions of your plot? Most people would answer “No” to all three of those questions unless they’ve had a very recent land survey or have a new home. Fortunately, finding the approximate property lines is more than sufficient in nearly all cases when it comes to building your shed. Unlike a pool or addition, a shed can be moved if a serious problem arises and the only solution to the problem is to scoot the shed over a few feet. Unless you have no idea where a single property marker is, you can probably conduct your own survey of your property with just a little leg work, intuitive thinking, and some common tools.
To begin, get out your mortgage and see if your have a mortgage survey included with it. The survey should show your plot, where your house is located on it, your plot’s dimensions it’s location in respect to the road, streams, and other permanent landmarks. You should also see the lengths of each leg of your property lines, the orientation of your property in respect to a compass, and angles between each line length. If you can’t find your mortgage survey, then you need to take a trip to your county recorder’s office and ask them where to locate your plot’s survey. Your survey will provide you with a general overview of your property and you’ll be able to purchase a copy to bring home and use.
If you can find a property pin or other identifying landmark, its very easy to begin your own property survey. Just use a reliable compass and a long tape measure and use the property survey records to guide you to each corner of your property. If you’re having trouble locating any property stakes, your neighbor might be of great help in helping you find them. Many times, a neighbor that has lived there longer than you will know where property stakes are. Have a long roll of string with you to stretch from corner marker to corner marker so you’ll be able to see your proper line easily. Buy a can of ground marking paint and use it to temporarily mark your property’s boundaries along the string line, especially your corner pins or stakes. If you get to where a stake should be but can’t find one, just use a tall wooden stake pounded into the ground and marked with bright paint as a temporary stake. It’s very helpful to use a taller wooden stake so you can see it from the opposite end of your property. Keep repeating this around your property until you’ve returned to your original corner marker and you’ll have completed your own property survey! You can be sure that your neighbors will be interested in seeing your survey (and they’ll be impressed too). Once you have them outside to see your property line, tell them about your plans to build a shed and talk to them about where you plan to put it, taking in to account property setback laws, which leads us into that discussion.
Your county has laws governing how closely to your property lines a new structure may be placed (older structures might be closer to the line than currently allowed, but would be grandfathered in). This protects your neighborhood’s property values and helps make happy neighbors. If these laws weren’t in place, houses and other structures might be built right on top of property lines which would not allow for utility workers and surveyors to do their jobs. It would also look very tacky to have a house or other structure built right to the property lines with no space between neighboring structures. Allowing space between structure opens up the views from the street and makes the neighborhood more pleasant.
Most communities have setback laws requiring new structures to be set back three to six feet from the property lines on all sides. Your specific community might be more or less than this, so be sure to check with your local building department. This means if you’re building a shed in a corner of your property, you need to maintain the setback from the back property line as well as the side property line. No part of the shed should encroach into the setback distance, so if your shed has a large overhang, the edge of the overhang needs to be counted as the point which needs to be set back from the property line, not the base.
