Your Property Is in Your Neighbor’s Yard—What Are Your Rights?

It can happen to anyone. After consulting the Land Registry, it turns out that the fence isn’t on the property line as recorded by the Land Registry. Your neighbors are using part of your yard—or vice versa. In most cases, an agreement can be reached: the fence is moved, or a sum of money is paid.

Sometimes that fence has been there so long that no one ever suspected it was in the wrong place. Often, the fence was already there when the current residents moved in. They didn’t know any better and so essentially “paid for the land” when they bought the property.

In such cases, doubts arise. Is the boundary listed in the Land Registry accurate? Or have the neighbors since become the owners? In this article, we’ll explain how this works legally in the simplest terms possible. For this piece, we’ll use an example scenario in which, following a survey by the Land Registry, it turns out that a strip of your property behind the fence lies within the neighbors’ yard.

Statute of Limitations

Over time, you may lose ownership of the piece of land on the other side of the fence. This process is called prescription. Any claim filed to regain ownership will then be dismissed due to the passage of time.

It is important to emphasize that the general rule is that, once it has been established that the strip of land is registered in the Land Registry as belonging to your parcel, it must, in principle, be returned by the neighbors or taken over by them by mutual agreement.

To invoke the statute of limitations, the neighbors must therefore provide evidence of how the situation stood in the past. Without evidence, the court will simply order them to move the fence.

Usually 20 years

Under general Dutch law, there are two types of statute of limitations. First, there is acquisitive prescription. Article 3:99 of the Civil Code stipulates that a person who, in good faith, has been the possessor of real property for an uninterrupted period of 10 years acquires the (ownership) right to it.

For real property, this situation is generally no longer relevant in the Netherlands today. Case law shows that the court considers a person not to be acting in good faith if they are not listed as the owner in the Basic Land Registry.Voor onroerend goed is deze situatie in Nederland tegenwoordig meestal niet meer relevant. Uit de rechtspraak blijkt namelijk dat de rechter vindt dat je niet te goeder trouw bent als je niet als eigenaar bent aangeduid in de Basisregistratie Kadaster.

Therefore, the other form of statute of limitations remains: the extinctive statute of limitations. This statute of limitations is based on the extinction of the owner’s claim for recovery of possession. In the Netherlands, in the interest of legal certainty, a general 20-year catch-all statute of limitations applies to legal claims. This means that a person who acquires the right to ask a court to intervene must have exercised that right within 20 years at the latest.

How the Statute of Limitations Works

The extinctive statute of limitations works differently. The 20-year period begins to run at the moment the owner loses possession. In our example, this is, in principle, when the fence was erected, thereby preventing you or your legal predecessor, as the owner, from accessing your land. The person who is in possession of the land at the time the twenty years have elapsed—that is, who uses the land in a manner that is outwardly recognizable as their own—becomes the owner. A period of uninterrupted possession is not required.

However, in the case of extinctive prescription, it is also relevant that it may be unlawful to take possession of and retain land while knowing that it does not belong to you. In a 2017 ruling, the Supreme Court determined that compensation must be paid in such cases. In the example, you would likely first contest the statute of limitations in legal proceedings and, alternatively, seek compensation from the neighbors. This often gives the neighbors an additional reason to come to the negotiating table.

Errors in the Land Registry

In addition to the possibility that the strip of land simply must be returned, or that it has become the neighbors’ property due to the statute of limitations, it may also be the case that an error occurred at the Land Registry. The issuance, surveying, and registration of parcels are and remain human endeavors, and errors can be made at any of these stages.

The Land Registry records the boundaries of all parcels of land in the Netherlands. Today, this is done using digital coordinates, which makes it possible to mark the boundaries in space with great precision using GPS.

Rights Drawn in Pencil on Paper

It’s important to realize that we’ve been issuing rights and registering boundaries in the Netherlands for a very long time. Many rights have existed for over 100 years and were originally issued based on paper drawings and boundary lines staked out in the field (wooden stakes with a wire stretched between them). That didn’t always go smoothly.

From my professional experience, I know of several examples of boundaries in the land registry that were incorrect. For example, in a situation where the drawings never matched the actual situation, where perfectly rectangular parcels were issued on a dike that curves.

Archival Research and the Land Registry Process

Identifying such errors requires delving into paper archives—into documents that are several decades, or even more than a century, old. In the Netherlands, municipalities and water boards hold a surprising amount of information, likely including details about your property. In addition to being useful, exploring these archives can also be enjoyable. This way, you can discover exactly how your property and the structures on it came to be.

Inaccuracies in the Land Registry can be reported to the Land Registry using a form. This initiates an administrative procedure. Errors in the Land Registry can also be challenged through civil proceedings. If the situation is more complex and requires further explanation—with more loose ends—then filing a civil lawsuit is certainly worth considering.

Conclusion

If you discover that the property line is located somewhere other than where it should be according to the Land Registry, it is important to act quickly. First, contact your neighbors; often, a satisfactory solution can be found through mutual discussion. Sometimes the situation is too complicated, or you simply cannot resolve it on your own. In that case, call us immediately or fill out the contact form. We’ll review your situation and help you address the matter promptly.Indien u erachter komt dat de erfgrens op een andere plek ligt dan zoals die zou moeten liggen in het kadaster is het zaak snel te handelen. Neem eerst contact op met uw buren, vaak kan er in goed overleg een fijne oplossing worden gevonden. Soms is de situatie te ingewikkeld of komt u er gewoon niet uit. Bel ons dan direct of vul het contactformulier in. Wij bestuderen uw situatie voor u en helpen u de zaak met vaart op te pakken.