I Found Out My Neighbor's Fence Is on My Property (Missouri)

The one thing you should not do is nothing. Missouri law rewards owners who act and quietly punishes those who wait. If a neighbor's fence stands well onto your land, unchallenged, for ten years, that strip can legally become theirs. So this guide is about moving deliberately — confirm the line, understand the clock, and pick the calmest option that protects your property.

First, confirm where the line actually is

Before you knock on a door or send a letter, get the facts. A fence, an old hedge, or "where the previous owner said it was" proves nothing about the legal boundary.

• Order a current survey. Hire a licensed Missouri land surveyor to locate your deed description on the ground, find or set the corner monuments, and mark the line. A stamped survey is the single most persuasive document you can have — in a conversation, in mediation, or in court.
• Pull both deeds. Read the legal description in your recorded deed (and, if you can, your neighbor's). The survey turns that written description into stakes you can see.
• Photograph and date everything. Once the line is flagged, photograph the fence relative to the stakes. Note the date. This record matters later if the clock ever becomes an issue.

Do not assume the fence is wrong, either. Surveys sometimes show the fence is fine, or that your improvement crosses their line. Get the answer before you act on it.

Why a fence on your land is a problem

An encroaching fence is more than an annoyance — it creates legal risk that grows the longer it sits.

It's a trespass on your title

The strip under and beside that fence is your land. The neighbor occupying it is, in legal terms, trespassing on it, and you can generally insist the encroachment be removed. The fence may also block your full use of the strip, complicate a future sale, or cloud your title when a buyer's surveyor catches it.

Time can hand the strip to your neighbor

This is the part that makes inaction dangerous. Under Missouri's ten-year limitations rule (RSMo § 516.010), someone who possesses another's land in a way that is open, notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous for ten years can acquire title to it through adverse possession. A fence maintained well onto your side, with the neighbor mowing and using that strip as their own for a decade, is a textbook adverse-possession claim.

A related risk is a prescriptive easement — if the neighbor doesn't claim ownership but uses the strip (a path, a parking spot) openly and adversely for roughly the same ten years, they can gain a permanent right to keep using it even though you still hold title.

The reassuring flip side: if even one of those elements is missing for the full ten years, the claim usually fails. That is exactly why acting now, and documenting it, is so powerful.

How granting permission stops the clock

Of all five adverse-possession elements, hostile is the easiest to defeat — and "hostile" doesn't mean angry. It means without the owner's permission. If you give the neighbor written permission to keep the fence where it is for now, their use becomes permissive, not hostile, and the adverse-possession (and prescriptive-easement) clock cannot run while that permission stands.

A short, dated, signed letter granting revocable permission to keep the fence where it is — making clear it is not a transfer of any property right — can neutralize a years-long threat in a single page. Keep a copy. Permission is often the gentlest tool you have: it preserves the friendship and protects your title.

Your options, from friendliest to firmest

You rarely need to jump straight to a lawsuit. Match the response to the situation and the relationship.

• Have the conversation — with the survey in hand. Most neighbors don't know the fence is over the line. Approach it as a shared problem to solve, not an accusation. Show them the stakes. Many disputes end right here.
• Sign a written boundary-line agreement. If you and the neighbor are genuinely uncertain or simply want certainty, you can agree on the line in writing and record it with the county recorder. A recorded agreement binds future owners too; an unrecorded handshake protects no one once either house sells.
• Grant written permission. If you're fine with the fence staying for now but want to stop any clock, the permission letter above does that without forcing a confrontation.
• Demand removal in writing. If the neighbor won't cooperate, send a dated written demand that they remove the encroaching fence. Even if they ignore it, that letter helps interrupt the "hostile" or "continuous" element and protects you.
• Sue if you must. Missouri offers a quiet title action (RSMo § 527.150) to have a court declare the true boundary and confirm the strip is yours, often paired with an ejectment/trespass action to recover possession and have the fence removed. This is the last resort — slower and costlier — but it's there when nothing else works.

How to resolve it without a lawsuit

A courtroom is expensive and hard on a relationship you'll live next to for years. Most of these disputes settle, and a little structure helps.

• Lead with the survey, not emotion. A professional line takes the argument out of "he said, she said."
• Offer options. Maybe they move the fence; maybe you record a boundary agreement; maybe you sell or grant a small easement for a permanent structure that's wasteful to tear down. Flexibility gets to "yes."
• Try mediation. A neutral mediator can resolve a boundary dispute in a single sitting for a fraction of litigation's cost — and the relationship usually survives it.
• Put the result in writing and record it. Whatever you agree, reduce it to a signed, recorded document so it sticks with the land.
• Mind the calendar. Keep your written demand or permission letter on file, and don't let years drift by unaddressed. Asserting your rights early is what keeps your options open.

Frequently Asked Questions