Sometimes property lines are obvious,but they aren't always.
I recently had a surveyor come out to my home to install property pins. The surveyor is from the same company that surveyed our property when our home was first built nearly seven years ago.
But despite having the survey, I've never known for sure where our property ended. (I am one of those people who doesn't read a map very well.) Unlike a conventional square plot of land, our property is more like a pizza slice -- it's narrower in the front, but much wider in the back.
With the cost being only $400 to get the property pins (if we needed a survey, it could cost as much as $5,000), I am glad we got them. I now know for sure where our property ends, and if we were to install a fence (as a privacy screen for our new patio) in the future, I can avoid running into any property disputes.
Serious arguments can arise between neighbors when feel their property has been infringed. Take, for instance, this outrageous incident that happened in California about two years ago -- a man shot and killed his neighbors over a longstanding property dispute. The amount of property in question was just a "few feet of land," according to this report.
Of course, these kind of disputes are much less common, but say, perhaps if you were to put up a fence without properly checking your property lines, you could be forced to remove it at some point.
You also need to check out something called "setbacks" before making any changes to your property -- many towns stipulate that you can't put a fence, etc., right on your property line -- you have to set it back a little from your property's actual borders.
Although my neighbors are the nicest around, I'll be sure to recheck my property's boundaries and look into any setbacks before installing a fence -- I wouldn't want to step on anybody's toes.—Lauren Baier Kim