An encroachment is a structure or improvement that intrudes onto a neighboring parcel or an easement without the right to occupy that ground. Common examples include a building corner, driveway, fence, canopy, or utility overhang that crosses a boundary line. An encroachment clouds title, limits marketability, and can trigger a title exception.
How an Encroachment Works
An encroachment works as a physical trespass that becomes a legal defect once it is documented on a survey. It is discovered by an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey, which locates improvements against the record boundary. When the surveyor plots a structure across the line, the title company lists it as an exception and declines to insure over it until it is cured.
The controlling standard is the ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey, effective February 23, 2021 in its current edition, published jointly by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors. Under those standards the surveyor locates improvements within five feet of each side of the boundary lines and shows encroachments onto adjoining parcels, streets, and easements. This is the record that converts a suspicion into a documented defect.
A cure removes the exception from the title policy. There are three standard paths: physical removal of the intruding improvement, a written agreement such as an easement or license from the affected owner, or an underwriting decision by the title insurer to issue an endorsement insuring over the encroachment. The law firm Starfield & Smith describes the general survey exception as the carve-out a lender inherits when no acceptable survey exists, since it excepts any state of facts an accurate survey and inspection would show.
Why an Encroachment Matters
An encroachment matters because it attacks the three things a lender and buyer underwrite: marketable title, financeability, and value. A structure sitting on a neighbor's land cannot be conveyed free and clear, so a buyer either accepts a title exception or walks. Institutional lenders routinely condition funding on a clean survey and removal of the survey exception.
The cost of a cure is rarely trivial. Removing a masonry wall, re-pouring a driveway apron, or negotiating a boundary-line easement can run from a few thousand dollars to well into six figures on a commercial site, and the negotiation gives the adjoining owner leverage over timing. Left unresolved, the defect suppresses value, because the next buyer discounts for the same exposure the current owner failed to clear.
The quotable point: an encroachment is not a problem until a survey names it, and once named it does not disappear until it is removed, licensed, or insured over.
Example
The table below shows common encroachment types and the remedy typically used to clear each. Costs are representative ranges, not fixed figures, and vary by jurisdiction and scope.
Encroachment type | Typical remedy | Representative cost range |
|---|---|---|
Fence a few feet over the line | Boundary-line agreement or relocation | $1,000 to $8,000 |
Driveway apron onto neighbor | License or recorded easement | $2,000 to $15,000 |
Building corner across line | Title endorsement or partial demolition | $10,000 to six figures |
Roof eave or canopy overhang | Encroachment easement | $1,500 to $10,000 |
Utility pole crossmember overhang | Utility easement confirmation | Often absorbed by utility |
Worked case: a buyer of a $4,000,000 flex-industrial building receives an ALTA survey showing the loading canopy overhangs the rear parcel by two feet. The title company adds a survey exception. The buyer negotiates a recorded encroachment easement from the neighbor for $12,000, delivers it to the underwriter, and the exception is removed. The lender funds, and the $4,000,000 value holds because the defect is cured of record rather than carried forward.
Variations and Edge Cases
An encroachment carries a hidden clock: if it stands long enough, open and continuous, it can ripen into a prescriptive easement or support an adverse-possession claim. Per PropertyMetrics, a prescriptive easement matures over a statutory period that commonly runs 5 to 20 years depending on the state, granting the intruder a legal right to keep using the ground. A minor overhang ignored for a decade can become a permanent, court-enforceable burden on the servient parcel, which is why operators clear encroachments at acquisition rather than deferring them.
Encroachment vs Easement
An encroachment is often confused with an easement. An encroachment is an unauthorized physical intrusion of one owner's improvement onto another's land, a defect that clouds title. An easement is a granted or acquired legal right to use another's land for a defined purpose, a permission that is part of title. The distinction is consent: an easement exists by agreement or law, an encroachment exists in violation of the boundary. A common cure for an encroachment is to convert it into an easement so the intrusion becomes authorized.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is an encroachment discovered? An encroachment is discovered by an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey that plots improvements against the record boundary. The title company then lists it as an exception in the title commitment until it is cured.
Can you get title insurance with an encroachment? Yes, in many cases. The title insurer can issue an endorsement insuring over a minor encroachment, or the parties can record an easement or remove the improvement to clear the exception entirely.
Does an encroachment ever become permanent? It can. If an encroachment stands open and continuous for the statutory period, commonly 5 to 20 years by state, it may ripen into a prescriptive easement or an adverse-possession claim.