What is a boundary line agreement, and when does Virginia law allow one?
A boundary line agreement settles a bona fide dispute between adjacent owners over their common line. Virginia's subdivision law does not block one that moves the line no more than 250 feet from the center of the current platted line, changes neither parcel's acreage by more than five percent of the smaller parcel, and adds no lot, no street frontage and no interference with a recorded easement, among other limits.
A genuine dispute over the line, or two owners who want it somewhere else
The statute opens its protection with a gate, and many situations are sorted by it before any measurement is taken. A boundary line agreement is only for resolving a bona fide property line dispute. Two neighbors who disagree about where their common line is may be able to use one. Two neighbors who agree on where the line is, and simply want it moved, are asking a different question.
Nothing in this definition, section, nor any ordinance adopted pursuant to ยง 15.2-2240 shall preclude different owners of adjacent parcels from entering into a valid and enforceable boundary line agreement with one another so long as such agreement is only used to resolve a bona fide property line dispute
Va. Code 15.2-2201 (definitions)
That sentence sits in the definitions section of Virginia's subdivision and zoning law, and it says that neither that section nor a local subdivision ordinance precludes an agreement that stays inside its terms. The boundary line agreement glossary entry gives the short definition. Whether a given disagreement is bona fide is a question for the owners' attorneys.
The dispute can start on paper. A new survey comes back and the plat does not match the deed, or does not match the neighbor's deed, and each owner reads the gap differently. How that kind of gap arises and the ways it is settled are covered in what happens when the survey and the deed disagree.
Where there is no dispute, a locality's subdivision ordinance may offer other routes, by plat or by deed, for moving or vacating a lot line. Selling a strip to the owner next door is walked through in how to sell land to a neighbor. Setting a family burial ground apart from the rest of a tract is not a line dispute either, and that question is taken up in selling land with a family cemetery.
Every limit the agreement has to clear, and who checks each one
A bona fide dispute gets an agreement through the gate. It still has to fit inside the rest of Va. Code 15.2-2201, and the statute's limits are specific. Reading them as a checklist is the fastest way to see whether a situation fits.
| Condition | What it rules out | Who answers it |
|---|---|---|
| Only to resolve a bona fide property line dispute | Moving a line two owners do not actually disagree about | The owners' attorneys |
| The adjustment moves no more than 250 feet from the center of the current platted line | A line pushed farther than that | A land surveyor measures it; the attorneys apply it |
| Neither parcel's resultant acreage changes by more than five percent of the smaller parcel's size | A larger shift of acreage, measured against the smaller parcel | A land surveyor computes it; the attorneys apply it |
| No additional lot | Using the agreement to create a new parcel | The attorneys; the county subdivision agent for any division |
| No change to the existing boundary lines of localities | An agreement that moves a county or town line | The attorneys |
| No greater street frontage | Gaining road frontage for either parcel | The attorneys, with the surveyor's plat |
| No interference with a recorded easement | A new line that cuts across a recorded easement's use | The attorneys, reading the recorded easement |
| No nonconformity with local ordinances and health department regulations | A result that leaves either parcel out of step with those rules | The locality and the health department |
| Notice to the zoning administrator of the locality where the parcels lie, for review | Settling the line without that notice | The owners' attorneys; ask the county which office receives it |
Two of the limits are numbers, and both need measuring. The 250-foot figure runs from the center of the current platted line, and the five percent figure is taken against the smaller parcel, so a small parcel beside a large one has less room than the larger acreage suggests. Those measurements are a surveyor's work, which is where a boundary survey comes into the conversation. How plats fix lines in the record, and how they differ from parcel numbers, is set out in plats and GPINs.
The county can still have a say. Carroll County's posted 2014 subdivision ordinance has a boundary line adjustment, which it says is not a subdivision but whose plat must be reviewed and approved by the Agent before recordation. The county's current Land Use and Planning page, for its part, says any division of a lot or parcel of land is considered a subdivision. Neither the statute nor the posted ordinance says how the two routes fit together, so whether the county also wants an adjustment plat is a question for the county's subdivision agent, and the current rule in Carroll County goes to Land Use and Planning.
When an agreement cannot carry the line, a plat or a court can
A situation that fails the test is not stuck. If the owners agree on a new line but have no real dispute, the plat and deed routes a locality's subdivision ordinance allows are the ones to ask about, and each has its own limits on streets and easements.
If the owners cannot agree at all, a boundary action lets a court ascertain and designate the true boundary line. The whole path of a dispute, from the first survey to that recorded judgment, is laid out in boundary disputes, the basics.
A division fence agreement has its own successor rule in the fence statutes. No statute quoted here says whether or how a boundary line agreement itself must be recorded, and that is a question for the attorney drafting it.
A disputed line you and a neighbor want to settle?
Send the county, both parcels' acreage and where each of you puts the line, and Lowell will come back with what a settled line means for a sale and who takes each step. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions this raises
Can a boundary line agreement give my parcel more road frontage?
No. Va. Code 15.2-2201 protects a boundary line agreement only where it does not result in greater street frontage, along with other limits that include no more than 250 feet from the center of the current platted line, no change to either parcel's acreage of more than five percent of the smaller parcel, no additional lot and no interference with a recorded easement. Whether frontage can be gained some other way is a question for the county's subdivision agent.
Is the five percent limit measured against each parcel's own acreage?
No. Va. Code 15.2-2201 says the adjustment may not alter either parcel's resultant acreage by more than five percent of the smaller parcel size. The smaller parcel sets the yardstick for both parcels. A land surveyor computes the acreage; whether a given agreement fits the limit is for the owners' attorneys.
Who gets notice when neighbors sign a boundary line agreement?
Va. Code 15.2-2201 says notice shall be provided to the zoning administrator of the locality in which the parcels are located, for review. The same provision says the agreement must not result in any nonconformity with local ordinances and health department regulations. Which office receives that notice in a particular county is a question to put to the county.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 15.2-2201: definitions, including the boundary line agreement proviso Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 15.2-2275: vacating, relocating or altering lot lines by plat or deed Virginia General Assembly
- Subdivision Ordinance, posted April 14, 2014 (boundary line adjustment) Carroll County, Virginia
- Code of Virginia, Title 8.01, Chapter 3, Article 16: Establishing Boundaries to Land Virginia General Assembly
- Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 28: Trespasses; Fences (division fences) Virginia General Assembly
- Land Use and Planning (subdivision of land) Carroll County, Virginia