An encroachment is when something belonging to a neighbouring property — a fence, shed, deck or building foundation — physically sits on your land, or vice versa, without any registered right to be there. “Something of theirs is on your land” is how treadstonelaw.ca puts the core problem.
It’s a boundary problem, not a title problem — the paperwork can be perfectly clean while a structure still crosses the actual line on the ground, because most sellers, and most agents, have never seen a current survey of the property they’re listing.
The first step is never legal: “Start with a survey, not a lawyer’s letter”. Without a current survey from an Ontario Land Surveyor confirming exactly where the boundary sits and how far the structure crosses it, neither side can meaningfully negotiate a fix. Buyers and sellers should also “Check your title insurance policy before you spend”, since many policies cover boundary issues that already existed at purchase.
Ontario land registered under the Land Titles Act is largely protected from a neighbour quietly acquiring your land by encroaching on it for years: “no new adverse title can be acquired against a registered owner”. Older claims can still exist under the Real Property Limitations Act, which requires “ten continuous years of possession that is open, notorious, peaceful, exclusive, actual and inconsistent with the true owner’s intended use” — a high bar, and one that predates most current Land Titles conversions.
Resolution isn’t automatic removal. Courts have discretion under the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act to award a lien for the increase in value, or let the encroacher keep the land on payment of compensation, where they made lasting improvements to land in the honest belief it was their own — rather than order demolition, and a permanent fix sometimes runs through the Planning Act process for transferring the affected strip of land between the two owners.
A seller’s garage was built eighteen inches over the side property line forty years ago; neither owner noticed until a new survey was ordered for the sale. The buyer’s lawyer flags it during due diligence. Rather than remove the garage, the two neighbours register an encroachment agreement confirming it may remain, in exchange for a small one-time payment — cheaper and faster than moving a structural wall, and it clears the issue for every future sale of both properties.
See also: easements, restrictive covenants and minor variances.
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