What is an encroachment, and what happens when a survey shows one?
An encroachment is something that crosses a line it should not: a fence, building or drive over a property boundary, or an object inside someone else's easement. A land boundary survey plat must show items crossing property lines. Inside an easement, the question is unreasonable interference with the use granted; over a boundary, it is whether possession of the strip could ripen into title.
A survey shows the crossing; the line it crosses sets the question
Most owners meet the word on a survey plat. Virginia's land boundary survey regulation requires the plat to show items crossing any property lines, such as physical improvements and evidence of easements like utilities. So when a new plat comes back with a fence drawn a few feet over the line, or a shed that straddles it, the surveyor has not made an accusation. The regulation told the surveyor to draw it.
No Virginia statute defines encroachment in general terms. The word is used in its ordinary sense, and the courts and the survey rules show what it covers. The glossary entry for encroachment gives the one-paragraph definition. This page is about the next step: before asking what can be done, ask which line the thing crosses.
| What is crossed | Example on a plat | The legal question | Who answers it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The edge of an easement on your land, or on land you have an easement over | A fence, wall or plantings inside a recorded right of way | Whether it unreasonably interferes with the easement holder's enjoyment of the easement | An attorney, reading the deed that created the easement; a court if it comes to that |
| The boundary between two parcels | A drive, shed or fence built partly on the neighbor's side | Whether possession of that strip is the kind that, over the statutory period, could ripen into title | An attorney, with a land surveyor fixing where the line is |
A physical improvements survey has fence rules of its own. On a parcel or lot under two acres, that survey must locate fences in near proximity to the boundary lines and other fences that may reflect lines of occupancy or possession, and must identify and dimension every physical improvement, including fences, that crosses a property line. The difference between that survey and a full boundary survey matters here, because a boundary survey is the one whose work is establishing the correct boundaries an encroachment is measured from.
Inside an easement, the test is interference, not mere presence
An object inside an easement is not automatically unlawful. Under Va. Code 55.1-305, unless the easement's terms provide otherwise, the owner of the land an easement crosses may not engage in an activity or keep objects on or immediately next to the burdened land that unreasonably interfere with the easement holder's enjoyment of it, and for that section a fence, electric fence, cattle guard, gate or division fence adjacent to the easement is not an object. The word doing the work is unreasonably.
In Thibault Enterprises, LLC v. Yost in 2026, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a landowner is not automatically required to clear every object from an easement of a defined width, and told courts to read the deed for the easement's purpose before asking whether the interference is unreasonable.
How that test plays out when a neighbor narrows or obstructs a way, including the older cases where objects did stop passage, is set out in full in whether a neighbor can block your easement.
Over a boundary, time and openness change what the fence means
A fence or drive on the wrong side of a boundary raises a different question, and it is about time. In Virginia, a claimant can gain title by adverse possession only by proving actual, hostile, exclusive, visible and continuous possession, under a claim of right, for 15 years. Possession is visible when it is so obvious that the true owner may be presumed to know of it, and continuous only if it goes on without interruption for the whole period.
Improvements that have stood across a line for many years are the raw material of those cases, and the facts of one of them are described in adverse possession, the basics.
Whether any particular fence or building has been there long enough, openly enough, to matter is a court's decision, and the elements themselves are laid out in what adverse possession is and how long it takes in Virginia. Settling where the line is, by agreement between neighbors or by a boundary action, is covered in boundary disputes, the basics.
An encroachment is something a survey finds on the ground. Items recorded in the land records that affect ownership are a separate list, covered in what a cloud on title is.
A fence, building or drive that crosses a line?
Send the county and what the plat shows sitting over the line, and Lowell will read the plat with you and say what a buyer is likely to ask about the crossing. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions this raises
What if the surveyor finds more wrong with the lines than one fence?
On a physical improvements survey, Virginia's standard says that when the professional finds discrepancies of sufficient magnitude to warrant, in the professional's opinion, a land boundary survey, the professional must tell the client or the client's agent that such a survey is deemed warranted as a requisite to completing the physical improvements survey. Where the line actually runs is then a boundary survey question.
Who has to prove an encroachment on an easement?
The person asking for relief. The Supreme Court of Virginia describes an injunction to prevent encroachment within the boundaries of an easement as an equitable remedy, and the person seeking it bears the burden of proving facts establishing the easement and the need for the relief sought. Whether a particular case meets that burden is for an attorney to assess.
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.
- 18VAC10-20-370: minimum standards and procedures for land boundary surveying practice Virginia Administrative Code
- 18VAC10-20-380: minimum standards for surveys determining the location of physical improvements Virginia Administrative Code
- Va. Code 55.1-305: unreasonable interference with an easement Virginia General Assembly
- Thibault Enterprises, LLC v. Yost (April 9, 2026) Supreme Court of Virginia
- Quatannens v. Tyrrell (2004) Supreme Court of Virginia