In this episode, Rob Robinson explains what happens when neighbors disagree about where a property line actually is. If you own property in Sarasota or elsewhere in Southwest Florida, this covers the role of your survey and title insurance, when police can and cannot help, and the steps to take before a boundary dispute ends up in circuit court.
Key Takeaways
- A survey is a critical part of buying property in Florida. Without one, most title insurance policies will not cover a boundary dispute.
- When a fence, driveway, or walkway is in question, your survey and deed are the starting point for resolving it with your neighbor.
- Boundary disputes are civil, not criminal. Police typically step in only when there is trespass or property damage.
- If talks with your neighbor fail, file a claim on your title insurance. If coverage is denied, the dispute moves to circuit court through actions like ejectment, quiet title, or trespass.
- Allow about 90 days for negotiation or a title claim. A circuit court case typically takes 12 to 18 months from filing to trial.
What this video covers
A property line can look simple on paper, but disputes start quickly when a fence goes up or a driveway crosses the line. The best protection begins at purchase. A survey gives an opinion of title with a metes and bounds description of your boundaries, and your title insurance guarantees the title you bought. Without a survey, most title policies will not cover a boundary claim.
Common scenarios Rob sees:
- Existing fences - a new neighbor says a fence that was already there sits on their land.
- New construction - a neighbor plans a fence, walkway, or driveway near the shared boundary.
- Competing surveys - each side has its own survey showing a different line, which often leads to court.
- Setback issues - boundary questions overlap with local limits on what can be built near property lines.
Calling law enforcement rarely resolves anything. Boundary disputes are civil matters, and police only step in when there is underlying criminal conduct like trespass or property damage.
When negotiation fails, Rob's office obtains your title policy and files a claim on your title insurance, which works much like auto insurance and can provide attorneys or surveyors. If coverage is denied, the next step is circuit court, using claims such as ejectment to remove an encroaching fence, quiet title, or trespass with damages.
Timing matters. Allow about 90 days for negotiation or a title claim response. A circuit court case typically runs 12 to 18 months, on deadlines set by the Florida Supreme Court. With more than 35 years handling land use and property disputes in Southwest Florida, Rob can help you understand your options before a fence becomes a lawsuit.
Read Full Transcript
00:00:01.320 — 00:01:03.730
A property line can look simple on a survey, but when two neighbors disagree about where that line actually is. Things can get complicated very quickly. A fence goes up, a driveway crosses a boundary. A neighbor says, that's my property. You say, no, it's mine. So what happens next? Does your insurance cover it?
Can the police get involved? Is it a criminal matter or a civil dispute? And when does a disagreement between neighbors become something that needs to go to court? I'm Rob Robinson, a Florida attorney with more than 35 years of experience helping property owners navigate land use, boundary and property disputes throughout Southwest Florida.
In this podcast, we'll break down the legal issues surrounding the property you own and help you understand your rights, your options, and what steps you can take when a property dispute starts to cross the line. Today we're talking about property boundaries and what you should know before a disagreement with a the neighbor turns into a legal battle.
Let's get started.
00:01:11.410 — 00:09:50.600
So when you're considering buying a piece of property, whether it's residential or commercial, you're going to want to consider, uh, title insurance. One of the things that title insurance does is going to provide information to you about the property. Um, the probably the most important of which is what exactly are you buying?
How many acres? How many feet? Um, and what specifically are the boundaries? Part of that process would also include a survey. Uh, surveys are critical component of purchasing property in the state of Florida. Uh surveys, uh certified surveys will give you an opinion of title, uh, relative to the boundary of a particular piece of property.
Um, and those documents, title insurance, together with your survey will basically provide you with what exactly it is you are buying in terms of real property in the state. It's incredibly important to get a survey at the time you're considering purchasing a piece of property. Most title policies that you're going to purchase will have an exception for coverage if you haven't gotten a survey.
We talked about the fact that the survey is an opinion of title. It's going to give you a metes and bounds description and actually show on a site plan what that boundary looks like for your property. And then if you were to get into a boundary dispute and you went to make a claim on the title policy, because that's insurance that you're buying there, they are guaranteeing the title that's being insured.
That survey is a requirement for the title company to come forward and defend you and your title that you have bought in that piece of property. Oftentimes, you're going to have conversations with neighbors, particularly new neighbors, after you purchase a piece of property. You have your survey. You have your deed.
You generally know what you've bought there, but there was a fence there that existed prior to the time that you bought the property, and your neighbor has contacted you and said, you know, I don't think that fence is in the right spot. I think it's too far onto my property. That's where the documents you have your survey are going to be terribly important here to help determine where the property line is relative to issues such as fences and driveways, etc. and these are the things that we're going to use to hopefully resolve those issues with your neighbor.
You may need to get another survey. For example, if you didn't get a survey when you purchased the property. So that that survey again is an opinion of title that is going to tell you where your boundaries should be and therefore where the fence should be. Oftentimes we see neighbors with battling surveys.
So each side has their own survey. Um, and again their opinions of title um, and that what those types of disputes are the ones that may lead us into circuit court. We've talked a little bit about, um, the fence was already there. Another scenario that we see quite often from clients is, uh, complaints relative to new construction.
Uh, my neighbor is about to build a fence or a walkway or even a driveway. And I have some concerns about, uh, that that new construction as it relates to the boundary that exists between our two properties, oftentimes boundary disputes will also involve setback issues. So setbacks are government imposed restrictions on what can happen within so many feet of your front yard, your side yard, or your rear yard.
And oftentimes we see those two issues boundary and setbacks, interplay all the more important reason to consult with us in order to help you sort through not only the boundary issues, but also set back issues involving landscape and other things. One question we get often from clients, particularly with regard to boundary disputes, is should I just call law enforcement?
Won't they solve this issue for me? Well, boundary disputes are not criminal in nature unless there's some underlying criminal activity going on, whether that's property destruction or trespass. The types of things that law enforcement deal with. Most of the time, if you contact law enforcement about a typical boundary dispute, they're going to come out one time and they're going to tell you that it's a civil dispute, and that's the last time you're going to see them again relative to this issue.
So boundary disputes are by their nature, civil, unless there's some underlying conduct by the neighbor that would make parts of it criminal, not the boundary dispute itself, but just the neighbors activities. You've been contacted by your neighbor. We've tried to work this out with them. We've shown them our survey.
They've shown us their survey. If we get to a point that there is a genuine disagreement as to the boundary or maybe the the location or use of an easement. The next step we're going to undertake would be to obtain a copy of the client's title policy. And on their behalf, we are going to make a claim on their title insurance.
Title insurance is just like any other insurance, like auto insurance. For example, if you have an auto accident, you expect your insurance company to step forward and pay any claims, repair the car, etc. title insurance works the same way. We're going to submit that claim. Hopefully there are no exceptions or exemptions from coverage here.
The most common of which we see is the client doesn't get a survey at the time the property is purchased, but if they did, then the title insurance company is going to step forward and provide whatever is necessary, whether that be attorneys or surveyors, to help get this issue resolved with your neighbor.
So if we've made the claim on title insurance, and we've gotten the unfortunate answer that there is no coverage here, for whatever the reason, the next step that we often take is we file an action in circuit court. Um, the actions that we would file can be anything from ejectment, uh, which is an effort to eject someone from your property.
Uh, say they had a fence that was on your side. We use ejectment to get the fence off. Uh, we can also use, uh, parts of Florida statutes concerning quiet title. Uh, we also can set forth claims for trespass, including damages, in the event that somehow the erection of of a fence or a driveway has damaged your property.
There are other causes of action we can include with that, but circuit court is the the the next step. If we haven't been able to resolve this amicably with the neighbor title insurance has not stepped in to help you with this situation. How do we get it resolved for you? We're going to take this issue to a circuit court judge and have them hopefully resolve this in our favor.
So another question we get is how long is this going to take? Typically, if we're trying to resolve this amicably with the neighbor or we're filing a title claim and we need to get a response from that, that process, usually I would give it 90 days. And if you haven't gotten a resolution or you haven't gotten an affirmative coverage representation from your title insurance company, that's probably the point that we're going to consider going to circuit court circuit court actions from the time we file them through the trial of those cases, or the end is typically somewhere between 12 to 18 months.
Those deadlines are set by the Florida Supreme Court. Lawyers don't have a great deal of control over that. But you can. You can figure a year to 18 months if you were going to actually try this. Boundary dispute in the circuit court. Property disputes don't always start with a lawsuit. Sometimes they start with a fence.
A disagreement over a property line can quickly raise questions about insurance, police involvement, civil claims, and whether it's time to take the matter to court. The important thing is to understand your rights and your options before a small dispute becomes a much bigger problem. I'm Rob Robinson, and I hope this episode gave you a better understanding of what you can do when a property boundary dispute crosses the line.
If you're dealing with a property or land dispute and aren't sure what your next step should be. Visit Rob Robinson Law to learn more and find out how we may be able to help. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.
