My fence is on my property line, isn't it?
Can I use my survey to locate where my fence should go?
How do I locate where my boundary is so I can build my fence?
If I find a boundary marker in the ground, can I use that to put up my fence?
I want to put a fence post where a boundary marker is. What can I do?
A fence is the most visible and most common way that we mark our
territory. It says to everyone that what is on this side is mine and
what is on that side is yours.
When you look at a piece of property that you are interested in buying,
it is common to assume that you will own the land right up to the fence.
However, the fence might not be on the property line. It happens more often than many people realize.
When the fence was originally built, the landowner may have decided
to build the fence inside the property line. Or the landowner may not
have had the boundary accurately located and built the fence off the
property line.
A property line has no width to it but a fence certainly does. A
wooden fence post can be many inches or centimeters wide. For this
reason, an Alberta Land Surveyor, when preparing a real property report
can show a fence that is within 0.2 metres of the property line as
being on the line.
Fences more than 0.2 metres from the property line shall be
dimensioned. Fences shall not be indicated as encroaching unless the
encroachment is onto public lands. To avoid confusion and conflict,
fence ownership should not be inferred.
In rural real property reports, fences are shown at the Alberta Land Surveyor’s discretion.
Can I use my survey to locate where my fence should go?
The real property report should not be used to establish boundaries
due to the risk of misinterpretation or measurement error by the user.
Landowners may want to get out a tape measure and mark off the
distance shown on their real property report. However, factors such as
slope, the starting point of where you are measuring, the angle coming
off the starting point and even the accuracy of the tape measure can
all have a significant impact when trying to determine where the fence
should be located.
How do I locate where my boundary is so I can build my fence?
Retain the services of an Alberta Land Surveyor to have your
property line accurately located. This type of survey is often called a
fence-line survey and an Alberta Land Surveyor will locate your
boundary and physically mark the boundary on the ground so you know
where you can build your fence.
If there is a question or dispute in the future about the location
of the boundary, the Alberta Land Surveyor will take responsibility for
the work done.
If I find a boundary marker in the ground, can I use that to put up my fence?
First, do not remove or destroy or alter the boundary marker. It is a crime to do so.
Boundary markers are placed by Alberta Land Surveyors for many
reasons. The boundary marker you find, for example, may be evidence of
a right-of-way boundary but not the boundary of your property. One must
also be careful that they have, in fact, found a boundary marker and
not something else.
Evaluating and assessing survey evidence is one of the reasons that
Alberta Land Surveyors must have a university education along with
several years of practical experience before being granted their
professional commission.
Even though you think you have found the boundary marker, it is
best to retain the services of an Alberta Land Surveyor to have your
property line accurately located.
I want to put a fence post where a boundary marker is. What can I do?
If the boundary marker is just where that fence post should be — please
build around it. The cost of replacing a marker could be as much as the
cost of the fence, driveway or landscaping in the first place. |
