Encroachments and Boundary Lines When Buying a Davie, FL Home

What should you do if a survey finds an encroachment on a Davie home?

If your survey shows a fence, shed, or driveway crossing the property line, do not close until you know which way it runs and who owns the improvement. Ask your title company whether it will insure over the encroachment, get the seller to resolve it or document it in writing, and confirm your survey contingency is still open. An encroachment is a title problem to solve, not automatically a deal you walk from.

Here is what I tell buyers who get a survey back with a line drawn through a neighbor’s fence. It is common, it is fixable, and it is far cheaper to handle now than after you own it.

What an encroachment actually is

An encroachment is any physical improvement that sits across a property line. It runs both directions. The seller’s shed might extend two feet onto the neighbor’s lot, or the neighbor’s driveway, fence, or pool deck might cross onto the parcel you are buying. Either way, something built is standing where the deed says it should not be.

This is different from an easement, which is a recorded right to use land. An easement is on paper. An encroachment is a fact on the ground that usually is not on any recording at all, which is exactly why a title search alone will not catch it. The title company reads documents. Only a current boundary survey reads the dirt. That gap is why an encroachment is one of the quieter risks inside the larger buyer process in Davie, and it hides most often on older lots where fences and structures went up decades before anyone pulled a survey.

Why surveys catch what title searches miss

Buyers assume a clean title commitment means clean boundaries. It does not. Your title search confirms the seller can sell and lists recorded liens and easements. It says nothing about where the fence actually sits, because a fence two feet over the line is rarely recorded anywhere.

The Broward County Property Appraiser parcel map is the tool most buyers reach for, and it is useful for orientation, but its lines are approximate and it carries a disclaimer to that effect. It is not a boundary survey and will not hold up as one. To know where the line runs on the ground you order a current boundary survey from a licensed Florida surveyor during your inspection period. The surveyor sets the corners, measures the improvements, and marks anything that crosses. On a Davie home this matters most on the larger western lots. If you are buying on acreage in Davie, you have more fence line, older paddock and driveway placement, and more room for a structure to have crept over the line unnoticed.

Where encroachments show up most in Davie

Davie splits into two very different building patterns, and encroachments favor one of them. The dense platted subdivisions east of the equestrian areas have tighter lots and more recent surveys on file, so the surprises are smaller. The larger parcels to the west, the horse country lots and older acreage in communities like Long Lake Ranches (33330) and Hawkes Bluff (33330), are where boundary issues concentrate.

The reason is time and space. A four foot fence, a barn, a well house, or a long private driveway placed thirty years ago on a five acre parcel had no reason to match a survey nobody ordered. Trees grew, owners changed, and the fence became the assumed line. When you finally order a survey, the assumed line and the deed line can be several feet apart. This is also why lot geometry matters before you build anything. What you can add to a property depends on setbacks measured from the true line, not the fence, which ties directly into what your Davie lot size lets you build.

What an encroachment does to your title insurance

This is the part that decides your next move. A standard Florida owner’s title policy contains a survey exception. In plain terms, the policy excludes any matter that an accurate survey would show, which means an unresolved encroachment may not be covered at all unless you act.

You have real standing here if you use it. When you provide a current, acceptable survey to the title company, you can ask them to remove or modify that survey exception, and in some cases to add survey coverage. If the title company reviews the encroachment and agrees to insure over it, your risk drops substantially, because the insurer is now standing behind the boundary. If the title company refuses to insure over it, that refusal is your signal that the encroachment is serious, not cosmetic. Do not paper over a problem your own title insurer will not touch. Make removing the survey exception part of the deal, and treat the answer as real information either way.

How Florida law treats a boundary that has drifted

Two doctrines explain why a fence in the wrong place is more than an eyesore, and both should make you resolve the line before you close rather than after.

First, adverse possession. Under Florida Statute 95.18, a person who openly occupies and encloses land that is not theirs, and pays the taxes on it, can over a seven year period gain a claim to it without color of title. A neighbor’s fence that has sat two feet onto the parcel for many years is the textbook fact pattern. Buy without resolving it and you may be buying a shrunk lot.

Second, boundary by acquiescence. Florida common law holds that when neighbors treat a fixed line as the boundary for a long period, and there was uncertainty or dispute about the true line, that treated line can become the legal boundary. Again the clock favors whoever has been using the land. If a boundary is genuinely clouded, the tool to clear it is a quiet title action under Florida Statutes Chapter 65, which asks a court to establish who owns what. That is a last resort, and the point of catching an encroachment during due diligence is to never need it. Broward County records, searchable through the county records division, will show recorded agreements and prior actions, but a live encroachment usually lives outside the record until someone surveys it.

The paths to resolve it before closing

You do not have to accept an encroachment and you rarely have to walk from the whole deal over one. Once the survey lands, there are four honest paths, and the right one depends on which way the encroachment runs and how serious the title company treats it.

• Have the seller remove or relocate the improvement before closing, then confirm with an updated survey that the line is now clear.
• Record a boundary line agreement between the seller and the neighbor that fixes the line in writing, so you take title with the boundary settled.
• Have the title company insure over a minor encroachment after reviewing the survey, so the risk transfers to the insurer.
• If the encroachment is large, contested, or the title company will not insure over it, use your survey contingency to renegotiate or to cancel and keep your deposit.

Which path fits is a read on that specific line, that specific neighbor, and that specific title commitment. That is the conversation I walk buyers through the day the survey comes back, because the strategy is built from the facts of the parcel, not a template. It is the same disciplined due diligence that drives my flood zone review in Davie: find it early, price it, and decide with the contingency still open.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still close on a Davie home if the survey shows an encroachment?

Usually yes. Most encroachments are minor and resolvable. You can have the seller remove the improvement, record a boundary line agreement, or ask the title company to insure over it after reviewing the survey. Close only once you understand which way the encroachment runs and whether your title policy will cover it. If it is large or contested, your survey contingency lets you renegotiate or cancel.

Does a title search find boundary encroachments?

No. A title search reviews recorded documents and confirms the seller can sell, but a fence or shed over the line is rarely recorded anywhere. Only a current boundary survey from a licensed Florida surveyor shows where improvements sit relative to the true line. Order the survey during your inspection period so an encroachment surfaces while you still have contingencies.

Who is responsible for an encroachment, the buyer or the seller?

Responsibility is negotiated before closing, not fixed by the contract. As the buyer you can require the seller to remove the improvement, resolve it with the neighbor through a recorded boundary line agreement, or credit you to handle it. Once you close without addressing it, the problem and the future dispute become yours, which is why you resolve it while you still hold the stronger position.

Can a neighbor claim part of a Davie lot because of an old fence?

It is possible under Florida law. Adverse possession under Florida Statute 95.18 and the doctrine of boundary by acquiescence can, over a seven year period of open use, shift a boundary in favor of whoever has occupied the land. A long standing fence over the line is the classic setup, which is exactly why you resolve an encroachment before buying rather than inheriting the clock.

Is the Broward County Property Appraiser map good enough to check a boundary?

No. The Broward County Property Appraiser parcel map is useful for orientation, but its lines are approximate and it carries a disclaimer saying so. It is not a boundary survey and will not remove the survey exception on your title policy. For an accurate line you need a current survey from a licensed Florida surveyor.

Talk to a Davie Real Estate Expert

If your survey came back with a line drawn through a fence or a driveway and you are not sure whether that is a shrug or a stop, that is a conversation worth having before your contingency runs out. You can pull the parcel map yourself. What you cannot pull up is how to read the encroachment, decide whether to press the seller or the title company, and protect your deposit on that specific lot. Schedule a strategy call and we will walk through your next move together.

Anthony Spitaleri

Living in Davie Florida

954-235-5783

Davie, Florida

livingindavieflorida.com

Written by Anthony Spitaleri, Broker Associate with Coldwell Banker and a Davie native. More about Anthony