The county assessor's map showed my fence was 4 feet over the line

I was about to pour concrete for a new shop slab out back and figured I'd pull up the county GIS map on my phone, just to be safe. Turned out my existing fence, the one I'd been trimming bushes against for 6 years, sat 4 feet onto the neighbor's parcel. The survey marker was buried under a dead juniper and the assessor's aerial lines showed it clear as day. If I'd poured that slab without checking, I'd have built a permanent structure on someone else's property and probably opened myself up to a lawsuit. Spent $480 on a licensed surveyor to triple check the digital map, and he confirmed the fence was wrong but the slab line I planned was fine. Now I'm stuck deciding whether to move the fence, knock on the neighbor's door, or just leave it and hope nobody ever sells that lot. Has anyone else caught a property line mistake this way, and what did you do about the physical fence that's already there?

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olivia_bailey19d agoMost Upvoted

Whoa, that's a rough spot to be in! My buddy had almost the exact same thing happen a few years back, except it was a giant oak tree he and his wife had been landscaping around for like a decade. Turned out the trunk was smack on the property line, and the new neighbors who bought the place wanted it gone. He spent a ton of money on a surveyor too, and in the end he just split the cost of moving the fence with the new guy, which saved a lot of headaches. The tree still stands, but they both get to enjoy the shade, so it worked out weirdly okay. I'd say knock on the door before you do anything, people are usually chill if you're upfront about a mistake. Leaving it is a total gamble, cause the next buyer might not be as nice about it.