Boundary line agreement
A boundary line agreement is an agreement between the owners of adjacent parcels that resolves a bona fide dispute over the line between them. The definition of subdivision in Va. Code 15.2-2201 keeps local subdivision ordinances from precluding one, within set limits on distance, acreage, new lots, locality lines, street frontage and recorded easements.
A dispute being settled, or a line simply being moved
The term has a twin that sounds almost the same: the boundary line adjustment. The difference turns on why the line is changing. The statute protects an agreement only when it is used to resolve a bona fide dispute about where the line is. An adjustment, as Carroll County's posted ordinance defines it, changes the boundaries of adjoining parcels, and its definition says nothing about a dispute.
Carroll County's posted 2014 subdivision ordinance defines the adjustment as "a division of a parcel of land solely to change the boundaries of adjoining parcels and not for the purpose of building or the construction of improvements." Land is added to one existing parcel and subtracted from the other, no parcel may be reduced below the acreage the ordinance requires, and the previous lot lines are vacated. The ordinance says an adjustment is not a subdivision, but its plat must be reviewed and approved by the Agent before it is recorded. Carroll's current Land Use and Planning page instead counts every division of a parcel as a subdivision, so the current rule is a question for the county.
| Boundary line agreement | Boundary line adjustment (Carroll County's posted ordinance) | |
|---|---|---|
| Why the line changes | Only to resolve a bona fide property line dispute | Solely to change the boundaries of adjoining parcels, not for building |
| Where the rule is written | Va. Code 15.2-2201, in the definition of subdivision | Carroll County Subdivision Ordinance, April 14, 2014 |
| Who looks at it | Notice goes to the locality's zoning administrator for review | The Agent reviews and approves the plat before recordation |
An adjustment is recorded by plat. For a subdivision, Carroll's posted ordinance sets requirements for both a preliminary plat and a final plat, and the final plat shows the locations of monuments and property markers. How plats and the parcel numbers attached to them fit together in the county record is laid out in plats and GPINs. A sale of a strip to the neighbor with no dispute behind it is a different transaction again, covered in how to sell land to a neighbor.
A shield with limits, and a notice to the zoning administrator
The statute's wording works as a shield: nothing in the definition, and no subdivision ordinance, precludes adjacent owners from a valid and enforceable boundary line agreement, as long as the agreement stays inside its terms.
so long as such agreement is only used to resolve a bona fide property line dispute, the boundary adjustment does not move by more than 250 feet from the center of the current platted line or alter either parcel's resultant acreage by more than five percent of the smaller parcel size
Va. Code 15.2-2201
The same sentence also rules out an additional lot, a change to locality lines, greater street frontage and interference with a recorded easement. The agreement "shall not result in any nonconformity with local ordinances and health department regulations," and the statute sends notice of it to the locality's zoning administrator for review. Carroll, Wythe and Floyd have no county zoning ordinance, so which office takes that notice there is a question to put to the county.
Whether a given disagreement is bona fide, and whether a proposed line stays inside those distance and acreage limits, belongs to the answer on when Virginia law allows a boundary line agreement.
The drafting attorney, the county agent, and the court that can fix a line
Agreeing on a line is the start. Making the agreement hold for the next owner is paperwork, and the paperwork belongs to professionals.
How a boundary line agreement is drafted, and whether and how it is recorded so that later owners are bound by it, is a question for the Virginia attorney who drafts it.
The county may still have a say. Carroll's posted ordinance requires the Agent to approve an adjustment plat before recordation, while the statute shields an agreement from subdivision ordinances, and the two texts do not say how they fit together. How the county handles a line changed by agreement is a question for the county subdivision agent, asked before anything is signed.
When neighbors cannot agree, the Code of Virginia provides a circuit court action that fixes the true line, and that whole path is set out in boundary disputes, the basics. A strip one neighbor has fenced and treated as his own for years raises a separate question, how possession can become title, covered in adverse possession basics.
Working out a boundary line agreement with an adjoining owner?
Send both addresses and any plat that shows the disputed line, and Lowell will lay out how an unsettled line affects a sale and who settles it from here. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions about this term
Can a boundary line agreement change an easement along the old line?
Not under the protection Va. Code 15.2-2201 gives it, which covers only an agreement that does not interfere with a recorded easement. When a locality lets lot lines be moved by plat under Va. Code 15.2-2275, easements and utility rights-of-way also stay where they are unless every person holding an interest in them expressly consents. An attorney reads the specific easement.
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 in the definition of subdivision Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 15.2-2275: vacating, relocating or altering lot boundary lines by plat or deed Code of Virginia
- Subdivision Ordinance, April 14, 2014 (boundary line adjustment, plat contents and monuments) Carroll County, Virginia
- Title 8.01, Chapter 3, Article 16: establishing boundary lines by motion for judgment Code of Virginia
- Land Use and Planning (subdivision of land) Carroll County, Virginia