Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Illinois

In general, yes. Without a written easement that has been recorded with the neighbors' land, a person such as yourself has no right to maintain a fence on their land. It sounds like all you have is a verbal permission, which is revocable at any time. Even if you had their written permission, which you do not, you still would only have a license, and that is still revocable at any time by the neighbor. If you try to sell the property without moving the fence, the neighbor could remove the fence after you sell and move out; the fence is after all on his property. If that happens, and you have not told your buyer of that possibility, the buyer might sue you for loss of the fence.

This response is provided as a general public service and does create an attorney/client relationship or privilege. You should consult a local attorney experienced in real estate to obtain legal advice based on a complete understanding of the facts.

PS if you don't remove it now and then contract to sell and you have to give a survey (most likely), the survey if done properly should show your fence encroaching onto the neighbor's property and title insurance companies do not cover things like this so you might be put into a corner (no pun intended) at that point -- better to deal with it now if you are going to market since if you have a broker help the broker's listing agreement usually calls for you to provide a copy of the survey you have (and if the one you have doesn't show the fence tie-in many standard forms of real estate contracts today call for an update that is no more than 6 months old as of the time of closing). If the cost of doing what the neighbor is suggesting is more than it would cost to try to arrange for a recorded easement and your neighbor is willing, however, the easement can protect you and your neighbor. Since you'll probably have an attorney represent you for the contract and closing anyhow, you might want to choose that person now and run this by him/her......