Property line disputes between adjacent property owners give rise to many issues including the parties’ respective rights regarding trespass and nuisance claims. The first issue that often must be explored is whether the encroachment is temporary or permanent in nature as California law distinguishes between the two. This article focuses on the statute of limitations with respect to a permanent encroachment as our Los Angeles Real Estate Attorneys have been asked recently to explore this very issue.
First, where an encroachment is permanent in nature, it is a trespass and not a nuisance. See Field-Escandon v. Demann, (1988) 204 Cal. App. 3d 228, 233. Second, California Courts have held that the encroachment of buildings, walls, foundations, pipes and vents erected on another’s property are permanent in nature and a cause of action for trespass would have accrued as of the date of completion of construction. Id; see also Castelletto v. Bendon, (1961) 193 Cal. App. 2d 64, 65 (“We are satisfied that where, as in this case, the location of the buildings was quite apparent, the failure of the owner of the property upon which the buildings trespassed to know that his line ran under the buildings, affords no reason for saying that the cause of action for trespass did not begin to run until he was aware that is was his property, in part, upon which the buildings stood.”); see also Troeger v. Fink, (1958) 166 Cal. App. 2d 22, 26 (“Under well settled California law plaintiffs’ causes of action for damages and for an injunction to compel removal of the allegedly encroaching structures are barred by the provisions of section 338, subdivision 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which require that ‘An action for trespass upon or injury to real property’ must be brought within three years after the accrual of the cause of action. Where one party so constructs a permanent building that it encroaches upon the land of another, the trespass is regarded as permanent in nature; causes of action for damages and for injunctive relief accrue when the trespass is committed and are barred three years thereafter.”).
Thus, under California law, where the encroachment is permanent in nature, the 3 year statute of limitations begins to run when the construction is completed on the encroachment. If you have a property line dispute or an encroachment dispute, contact one of our Real Estate Attorneys today for a free consultation and case evaluation.