Legal Question in Real Estate Law in South Carolina
property encroachment
a friend has had a fence on his neighbors property for the past 35 years and nothing has been said about it. Can he be made to move the fence after all these years without a complaint?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: property encroachment
Perhaps not. You need to tell your friend to see a local real estate atty about this one. He may have obtained the property by "Adverse Possession" or prescriptive title. However, the details associated with how he went into possession of the land or built the fence in 1965 are going to be important. If everyone understood that the fence was merely for convenience and that your friend didn't own the land, then he may have to move the fence. If in 1965 he THOUGHT that was the correct boundry, then by operation of law, it now probably is the real boundry -- regardless of whatever the new survey says.
Good Luck