Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Fence laws?

In this state the fence line is the legal boundary regardless of what a survey shows, if the fence has been in place for more than 15 years. Its called adverse possession.

I hate to disagree, but that's just not so.

15 years may be the duration of a hostile adverse possession claim, but usually the time period starts upon discovery... Which usually happens when one party or the other has a legal survey done.

Owning a surveying business for 25 years, licensed in 5 states helps me clarify some of these things.

Barry is right in just about every state I ever looked at . Adverse possession has to be adverse to the owner without his permission, if I built a fence 15 feet inside the line those 15 feet are still mine and adverse possession doesn’t apply as I’m the one that put up the fence

Here the clock starts when the fence is built. Someone has to complain within 15 years to restart the clock. I know of two Court cases in the last ten years in my county where land sold and a survey was done by the new landowner. Survey showed that the line should be over onto the adjoining property. Adjoining landowner would not agree to moving the fence. Both times the new landowner lost in court and the boundary was established by the Court where the fence had been in place for more than 15 years without anyone complaining. It did not matter who had owned the land previously. Both cases were decided on how long the fence had been in place without anyone complaining. Most of the time adjoining landowners will agree to put the fence on the line and split the cost. But that does not work when the they won't agree. It normally happens when one buys land that the other wanted.

I don't see anything that's much different in Kansas law than any other state.

Most differences are with the amount of time. 10 years, 15 years.. etc.

Usually a lawsuit has to settle the dispute.


Just because someone has had a fence over the property line for or beyond the 15 years doesn't mean they have clear title to it, or you lose title to it. Adverse possession claims are always on a clouded title as well. Most title companies won't guarantee title to a property that adversely claims property without a warranty deed. A quit-claim deed is not much good legally.

I agree. In both of these cases it cost WAY!!! more in legal fees than the disputed land was worth. They both came about because the parties did not like each other. So the Court had to establish the boundary.

I see both cases were new land owners as well.

Lawsuits involving parties that have been there awhile can be different.

If I was buying land and the survey revealed an encroachment like that, I'd make the seller resolve it, or not buy the property.

Around here Ag land is seldom sold with a survey. Most times the sale bill will state crop acreages are based on FSA info. The sale bill and deed on a section would say 640 acres more or less. Surveys are normally done after purchase by the new land owner. Most times they are never done. I have never had one done an any of the land I have bought in the last 35 years. The fences are still where the were when I bought the ground, it's all grassland. I get along with my neighbors.

The first place i bought after i got out of the army, was a repo I bought from the bank was South. of Jackson, Wyo. it had a log house and a shop, both about 90% finished but never lived in also had an old trappers cabin that was in not to good shape, no fences 160 acres plot map. no survey, after finishing the house and shop and building a barn.
I started staking out my corners to build fence, I had a old guy that lived in a nice small
log house to the East, and the Snake river on the north and the Hoback river West, National forest to the South, after studying my plot map I went to do my East corner and here comes the old man and his son that wouldn't wave or say hello and he started raising hell and hollering I was on his land,I tried to show him my plot map and he slipped it out of my hand.

He said he was going to call a survey guy he knew and have it surveyed to prove my plot map was wrong, then I would have to move my corner to where it belonged, I said That was ok with me. about a week later here came a survey crew, they were shooting a line from the North to the South East, turned my out my line was about 5" from his front door on his porch and cut threw his bed room and yard and garden, about 1/4 of his house was on my land and 1/2 his big garden was mine to. They set a corner at the national forest line.about 150' up the hill. they drove a 10 penny nail with a flag in his porch right if the front door. The old man was really pissed off and started hollering at everyone that could see he was going to sue everyone it got a little crazy there for a couple of day's, I asked the survey guy how much of my land is his house and yard on? he said about 1/3 of an acre. so I asked him to survey it off, and I went to the old man and told him I would give it to him if he let me be. it worked out but he hated me anyway.

Rio7 P.S. kinda long winded but I made it as short as i could hard to type with a broken hand.---- get a survey!

Rio, I've seen stuff like that quite a bit through the years. Some of it was REALLY bad. It was good of you to resolve it as you did. Most don't.

Ignorance. Willful ignorance too.

Had guys pull guns on me, follow me around while surveying, shouting threats, even had one guy keep tearing out a property corner I was resetting back to the plat of record.

First, he put the corner where he wanted it. The second time he just threw it out in the yard of the neighbor. Third time, he tore the rebar and cap out, and left a note "To the surveyor" that if he caught me resetting that corner again, he was going to shoot me...

I got the sheriff out there and made a believer of him. Can you imagine actually writing out a terroristic death threat?

He was a real dumbass.

I've heard this referenced in numerous conversations over the years, but have never read any legal language about this here in WI, so I've never been able to establish fact from fiction.

rockinbbar,I owned that place for 4 years,, sold it to a money guy from Calif. for over 10 times what I paid for it, now it's a housing development, you tube has a camera on the bridge and you can see the old man's cabin, I check it every once in awhile just see what else is going on, but have never regreted selling out. Iv'e owned 11 ranch's since then surveyed them all or had a survey, title ins. and all the other B.S. that goes with owning land. I learned clear title and survey are a must or no deal. Rio7

Without question, the only way to buy land. Period.


I got called in by a title company to go check a tract of land the title company had closed and the buyer built a house on. A rather expensive one... Over $500k.

Of course the title company required a survey for the closing. The buyer didn't want to pay for it. The buyer's lawyer even drew up a document absolving the title company from any claims resulting from future disclosures a survey may reveal. So, the title co. excluded coverage on boundaries or anything else survey related.

About 9 months later, the BLM contacted the buyer and asked him why he'd built his fancy new home on BLM land?

What did the guy do? He ran down to the title company and filed a claim saying they should have told him that land was BLM...

Last I heard, the title company said "Sorry. No cigar." Plus the BLM had him served with papers considering him in trespass, and ordering him to remove the house and restore the land back as it was.

In MO , if fence has been in place XX years without dispute it stays there.

actually in Missouri you can make the neighbor pay for half of fence if they also have cattle running against it. Now I don't know about a super fancy high-dollar fence making somebody pay for half of it that would be a little a****** leash. But if only one person runs cattle against the Border fence that person is solely responsible legally

They use Roman Numerals in MO?.....

Lol thought I fixed that. Its 10 years .I put xx till i looked it up to double check the time frame