Property Lines & Surveys

A property line is the legal boundary of your land, and it is often invisible. Building over it can lead to a dispute with your neighbor or an order to move the fence.

Finding your property lines

• Survey pins: if your property has been surveyed, metal pins or stakes may mark the corners. A metal detector can help find buried pins, but call MISS DIG 811 before digging to expose one, because utility lines can set off a detector too.
• Monumentation survey: the survey to order for a fence. A surveyor places markers on the property corners and lines so the fence can be placed accurately.
• Mortgage survey: shows the property as mortgaged, and is accepted as the plot plan by many communities.
• Other surveys: land (boundary), topographic, as-built and floodplain surveys serve other purposes.

Terms to know

• Setbacks: the minimum distance a structure must be from a property line, sidewalk or street. Each community sets its own; some require fences to sit a few inches off the lot line.
• Easements: rights for others, often utility companies, to use part of your property. A fence in an easement may have to be removed for utility work.
• No-build zones and rights of way: areas where structures are not allowed, or where others have the right to pass through.
• Neighbor agreements: some communities require a neighbor's affidavit or permission to build on a shared lot line.