Encroachment And You: Being A Good Industrial Neighbor
Expanding your business should be an exciting time, but it's also fraught with peril if you aren't quite sure of your property's boundary lines. That's not unusual; sometimes aboveground fences and markings are misplaced and don't really match up with actual boundary lines. Worse, sometimes there are just no markings at all. This might not be an issue if you and your neighbors aren't doing anything with the land in between your buildings, but once you start expanding and planning structures close to the edge, encroachment emerges front and center.
Hire an Independent Engineering Service
Always start off by hiring an independent engineering services firm to do some field engineering, in which they take a look at property lines, resource rights, traffic right-of-way, and other location factors. This inspection will show whether any of your plans actually violate true property boundaries or if there are extra problems that you didn't foresee.
Notify Neighbors
If you need, for example, a driveway to cross over a small part of your neighbor's property, or if the best plan for your property involves sharing a neighbor's existing driveway, you need that neighbor's permission. Always tell your neighbors what you want to do and talk specifically with those whose properties could be impacted. If your plans require encroachment onto city or county land, have the city or county's engineering office do their own inspection to ensure that your encroachment is allowable.
A couple of problems can arise here. If you don't have permission, or if your new plans would adversely impact someone else's property, you can't really move forward until you redo the plans. Do not try to proceed with building anyway. That will only get you fined and possibly sued, and either action would hold up your expansion plans.
If you run into a situation where your preferred plans are not allowable, you can go back to the engineering firm to see if there are alternative ways to accomplish what you want to do. Maybe there is another area where a driveway would be easy to put in, or maybe a little regrading in one section would allow you to expand there instead of onto city land.
Engineering firms can work with you from start to finish on your project to ensure that what you're doing is in line with city, county, state, and federal regulations. They can help you create plans that do not unnecessarily encroach on others' property, which makes your company's expansion journey much smoother. For more information, contact companies like East Coast Engineering Inc.
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