Reclaiming a side yard

Factual Questions
1

My neighborhood was originally intended to have zero lot lines, with all the homes up against the eastern edge of their lots, and back yard access on the western side of each house. As built, though, each house is several feet from its eastern lot line. Over time, many neighbors, for various reasons, made informal arrangements to move the fences into the originally-intended positions. The previous owners of my house apparently owned dogs very fond of destructive excavations of cable, telephone, etc. lines which caused our western neighbor to reclaim their side yard from the previous owners of our house, and for our eastern neighbor to successfully request a move of their common fence up to the edge of my house.

I’m planning to get my house re-sided soon, which I think would be a good time to reclaim our eastern side yard, in order to give the workers easier access to that wall. Previous conversations with that neighbor have shown that he’s amenable to it; in fact, he’s the one who let me know the history of the fence, but I’d like to make sure the fence gets put back in the right spot. I suppose I should get a surveyor involved, but should I be asking for a survey, or is there some lesser “where’s this one lot line?” service I should be asking for?

2

Get an actual survey done. They will find the original corner spots or put them in for you. So that you will know the true lines of your property. Once you know it, then you can decide if you need to take action against any of your neighbors, or whether you are actually encroaching on your neighbors property.

3

I actually have a survey that shows the location of the lot lines, house, etc. What I need is to have the position of the lot line marked on the ground. Is a new survey needed to do that?

4

I would think not.

Can you find the corner spots of your lot? They are normally a piece of rebar buried a few inches below the ground. If you can’t find them or they are not there, you may need to hire a survey company to come and find them from the survey you already have. Normally a new survey would not be required. Once the corners are identified. Stakes and string are all you need to mark the lot lines.