A Fence on the Property Line Starts With the Corners

A fence on the property line is only on the line when the corners say so. The boards already standing, the hedge, and the line you trace on a satellite photo are clues. They are not the deed. Denver's survey office marks city right-of-way and leaves private property lines to a professional land surveyor. Colorado Springs says the city does not survey private property either. This page is how those two cities, and Colorado's boundary statutes, tell a homeowner to find the line before the posts go in. It is not a survey, and it is not legal advice. Confirm the lot with a licensed surveyor and with the city before anyone digs.

Where a fence on the property line actually sits

Denver's survey FAQ defines a boundary as any natural or artificial separation that marks the border of two adjacent properties. A river is a natural boundary. A line written in a deed, a subdivision plat, or the public land survey is an artificial one. Most boundaries, the page says, come from written documents such as warranty deeds or quitclaim deeds. Property rights can also grow from long physical occupation. A professional land surveyor is the person who researches both and says how they affect your lot.

A monument is the object that marks a corner or an angle point. Denver lists natural monuments, such as the center of a creek or a tree, and man-made ones: an iron pin, rebar, a pipe, a nail. Colorado Springs describes the mark you are most likely to find on a newer lot: rebar with a surveyor's cap inscribed with a license number and sometimes a company name. Older corners may be only a rebar, an iron pipe, a fence post, or a chiseled boundary stone. If that search fails, Colorado Springs says the surveyor sets a new rebar and cap from the plat and the legal description, then files a land survey plat with the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder.

Colorado law, as Denver's FAQ states it, requires a licensed land surveyor to take legal responsibility for a land survey. The Division of Professions and Occupations lists Professional Land Surveyor with architects and engineers. Look the person up in the license verification search before you hire. Denver's City Surveyor's Office marks city right-of-way lines only. Colorado Springs tells you to call a licensed surveyor.

Hand that surveyor the property description, plus any title report, earlier survey, and corner you have already found. Denver's FAQ lists those papers. Say the work is for a fence, and let the surveyor name the product. In Denver and Colorado Springs, that conversation happens before the lumber order.

The old fence is a clue, not the deed

People treat the fence they inherited as the line because it has been there as long as they have. Denver's survey FAQ separates two ideas. A survey before you buy shows the relationship between the lines of possession and the deeded property lines. Possession is where people have been acting as if they own. The deed is the written parcel. A fence is often where those two disagree.

Colorado Springs lets a surveyor use fence lines, hedge lines, marked trees, and anything else the maps or field notes mention while hunting for a corner. Using a fence to find a lost pin is a search method. It does not declare the fence to be the boundary. The surveyor is still tying the corner back to the plat or the legal description. If the corner cannot be found, the surveyor sets a new one.

Colorado does have a path for a boundary neighbors have lived with for a long time. Section 38-44-109 says corners finally established by a court under that article bind the parties, their heirs, and their assigns. If the court finds the corners were recognized and acquiesced in for twenty years, those corners are permanently established, and the order is recorded. The annotation, from Cronk v. Bowers, says the claimant has to show mutual acquiescence that the physical barrier is the boundary, for twenty years or more. A court makes that finding. A talk over the gate does not. The same note, from Salazar v. Terry, says common ownership of two tracts extinguishes earlier acquiescence unless the deed adopts those lines. Hand the surveyor the deed history.

If a neighbor's surveyor set pins in your yard and called them the neighbor's corners, Denver's FAQ is direct. Hire your own surveyor to check that work. Leave the pins where they are until that check is done.

The survey a fence actually needs

Denver's FAQ asks what type of survey you need to build a fence. A fence is a relatively permanent structure, so the lines should be located before construction. Some agencies will issue a building permit, when one is required, on an improvement location certificate. The page says that certificate should not be relied on to establish any permanent structure. Locate the existing corners and have a surveyor verify the monuments. If you cannot find them, a surveyor may recover them with a magnetic locator and a cloth tape. If they are still missing, you may need a monumented land survey and possibly a land survey plat.

Asking for one pin does not shrink that job. Denver says the surveyor is responsible for the accepted evidence, and enough work has to be done to be sure those monuments are your boundary. A crew may walk the whole block because every deed and plat nearby has to be read, or an old error can land on your line.

Colorado Springs splits the product by what you are building. A building can call for a site plan or plot plan. A fence that does not need that drawing can be a property line locate. The city tells you to ask the surveyor which one you need.

The line between the corners is usually straight. Colorado Springs names the exception: a curve, usually along a curved stretch of street right-of-way. The surveyor sets the radius point and temporary stakes so you can see the arc. A string pulled corner to corner misses that curve. Say so if your front run follows a bent street.

Recorded surveys are still incomplete. Denver says that before 1987 there was no requirement to record or deposit surveys. Surveys after 1987 may have been deposited with the city and can be copied at the DES Survey office in the Webb Building at 201 W. Colfax Ave. The survey FAQ also points to an online land survey search. A missing file does not mean the lot was never surveyed.

When the neighbors do not agree on the line

If the line is uncertain and in dispute, Colorado lets the owners settle it on paper. Section 38-44-112 says an uncertain line, corner, or boundary of a parcel already in the county records may be permanently established by a written agreement of all parties affected. Each person signs and acknowledges it the way a conveyance is signed. The agreement designates the line, includes a map or plat, and is recorded. It binds heirs, successors, and assigns. If a licensed professional land surveyor prepares the map, monuments shall be set for any line or corner in the agreement. Every affected owner signs. One email does not move a deeded corner.

A different statute covers a different kind of land. Section 35-46-112 sits in the agriculture fence law. Where agricultural or grazing lands adjoin, whether or not they are currently farmed or grazed, each owner builds one half of the line fence, and that fence is a lawful fence as the section describes. When a lawful fence is already there and the neighbor occupies the adjoining agricultural or grazing land, that neighbor pays one half of the fence's cash value. The section says agricultural or grazing land. A city lot is not what it is written for. Read it yourself, and talk with a lawyer, before you treat it as a bill for a backyard fence.

An association can still limit where the fence sits, what it is made of, and how tall it is. HOA fence approval is that packet. The city permit is another one.

Call 811 before the posts go in

The corners tell you where the lot ends. They do not tell you what is buried. Colorado 811 says you are legally required to contact them at least three full business days before you dig, whatever the size of the project. The ticket covers public underground lines: gas, electricity, water, sewer, and communication. Privately owned utilities are not part of the service. A sprinkler line, a private line to a shed, and a gas line a previous owner ran are still yours to find.

Wait for the ticket. Utilities answer with paint or flags. Colorado 811 says to keep those marks visible and to dig with hand tools within 18 inches of a mark or flag. A survey stake and a utility flag are different objects. A boundary survey from the spring does not replace a locate you still request before the install.

The city still reviews the fence you put on that line

Finding the line does not approve the fence. When a Denver fence permit applies covers the zoning permit, including a landmark, a historic district, and a designated parkway. Other cities write their own pages. Read the plat notes for easements. A drainage easement, a trail, or an irrigation ditch can hold the fence off a line the deed otherwise allows. The neighbor's fence is not proof the easement is gone.

The style is a separate choice from the line. A split rail fence is the open look many acreage lines use, and the photo on this page is that fence in a pasture. A craftsman cedar privacy fence, a wood picket fence, and galvanized chain link can all follow the same surveyed line. The material does not move the corner. What changes is the post, the gate, the digging, and whether an association or a landmark district allows that material. Mark which run sits on the line and which run holds back for an easement.

How FenceOwl works is the order: the address, the line you trace, the style, and a price after you say where to send it. Contractors on FenceOwl are vetted, insured, and family-owned. The visit is where that crew checks the corners, the grade, and the gates against the line you drew. Bring the survey if you have one.

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