What is an Encroachment?

How can an encroachment on my survey affect the sale of my home?

Encroachments can cause some issue's when trying to sell your home. By basic definition, an encroachment is a structure that belongs to a neighbor that crosses your property line or vice versa. Encroachments can be fences, driveways, sheds, garages, porches, etc.

Encroachments mainly affect the Title Insurance Commitment and/or Policy during the closing process. The Title Insurance Commitment and Policy is what insures a buyer that there is clean and free title to the property. Below is an example that may give you a bit more clarity.

Brian is selling his home. His neighbor, Robert, has a shed that encroaches or crosses the property line by 6 feet. When the title company gets the survey back and notices the encroachment they have 2 options.

1.) Insure through or take responsibility if Brian wants the shed removed from his property.

OR

2.) Create an exception on the policy basically saying.....the title company will insure the transaction EXCEPT for the shed Encroachment we found on the survey.

In most cases, encroachments are easily resolved.