Determining where property lines are is not as simple as it may seem. You cannot merely look to where an old fence happens to sit to figure it out. To know exactly where your property ends and your neighbour’s begins, you must look to the registered title and survey plans of your property.

How boundaries are legally determined 

Land registered with the Land Title and Survey Authority (“LTSA”) will have a legal description and survey plans, which set out the exact boundaries of your property. Information about these records can easily be accessed through the LTSA website. Encroachments, meaning physical objects put on your property by your neighbour, don’t create ownership rights in BC. Adverse possession is when a person acquires rights to a piece of land by using it openly for a given amount of time, without the legal owner stopping them. This is NOT the law in BC, although it may be elsewhere. BC abolished adverse possession against registered titleholders long ago.

The role of a BC Land Surveyor 

If there is a dispute about where a property line is, the first professional you should contact is a surveyor, not a lawyer. A surveyor will be able to determine the boundaries of your property. If the surveyor is unable to determine the existing boundaries, they will investigate and establish where the property lines should be.

Encroachments 

BC’s Property Law Act governs what should happen to land which is subject to an encroachment. If your neighbour has put a fence, shed, or driveway on your side of the property line, there are a few different things which may happen. The court can order, on application, that the owner of the land has an easement on the land encroached, vest title to the land encroached on in the owner of the land encroaching (on making the compensation that the court determines), or order the owner to remove the encroachment or the fence so that it no longer encroaches on any part of the adjoining land.

Trees and Fences

A landowner has the right to trim branches and roots that cross onto their property up to the property line, given that they do not enter onto their neighbour’s land or trim branches or roots on their neighbour’s property. When a tree is growing on the boundary line it is considered jointly owned between the neighbours. Due to this joint ownership, one neighbour cannot remove or destroy the tree without the consent of the other neighbour or legal grounds to do so. There is no general BC statute forcing cost-sharing of boundary fences (unlike some other provinces), so fences typically come down to an agreement between the neighbours or local bylaws.