Fence post centre of property one

Hello! 

Great question and one that gets neighbours into hot water quite often.

Without your neighbour's consent you can build a fence up to the property line on your side. However when we say "fence" we mean posts and cement footing as well. Often people build the fence portion on the property line not realizing that the fence posts or the footings are encroaching several inches onto the neighbour's property. A litigious neighbour could take you to task (lawyers) on the fact that that while your fence is on the property line, your posts and/or footings encroach onto their property.

If you do not have your neighbour's consent to build a fence, then your best process is as follows:

1. Get a boundary stakeout from a local surveyor (we do them for around $800). This will give you the exact location of the boundary certified by and Ontario Land Surveyor. This is a crucial step...most people are incorrect about where they believe their property line actually is, and it's rarely where an existing fence is!

2. Build your fence so that the furthest protrusion on your neighbours side (posts, cement footing etc) is up against the property line but not crossing it. Yes, that means the fence itself will be a few inches on your side of the property line. However, none of the elements of the fence construction will encroach. You'll lose a few inches of useable space (you won't lose the right to that land), but you will have absolute ownership of the fence and can build it without your neighbour's consent.

Whether or not the cement footing is considered an encroachment is a hotly debated issue. The location of the fence is not something the City of Toronto has jurisdiction over. They care about height, materials used and how it protrudes towards the street. Nor is it a criminal matter that the police would get involved in. Any recourse that your neighbour would want to take against you would have to happen through legal action. This means that ultimately a court would have to decide whether or not a footing was an encroachment or not.

I hope this helps.

Regards;