“Our neighbor built a block wall and crossed our property line in 2 places. We paid to have a survey done by a registered surveyor. We showed the drawings to our neighbor and told him we wanted him to remove the wall from our property. He said he wanted to get his own surveyor to verify the property line. It has been one year, eight months since we showed him the results of the survey. He has not provided any information to dispute our survey, nor has he moved his wall. What is our next action? The survey cost several hundred dollars and we are wondering how much additional expense we will have to incur to get his wall off our property. Do we have to file a civil suit? If so, can we recover the cost of the survey and the cost of filing the suit?”

Filing a civil suit is certainly one option. Whether you can recover your costs of suit will depend on your local law, so you should ask a local real estate attorney about that.

What other options you have will also depend on local law. Some jurisdictions allow for “self help” in some situations, but I wouldn’t even think of doing that before consulting with an attorney to find out the risks.

In many cases, getting a letter from an attorney will prompt someone who is dragging their feet to respond. Even if you just find out your options and decide to do nothing, the cost of a brief consultation is probably worth putting your mind at ease.


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State laws vary, and the above is intended as general advice, and not direct legal advice regarding any one particular situation in any one state. For direct personal legal advice related to your own situation you should consult an attorney familiar with the laws of your state and with your situation.