My suggestion is to be certain your property indeed is "straight" across the front of your property,and if it is,follow the property line.Do NOT follow the curve of road..You could wind up placing the fence in the right-of-way, and risk the expense of moving it back to its proper/legal position..
Also, i doubt a fence installer would place a fence without the property being 1st surveyed and staked..And, i doubt the town would issue a permit without a survey either..Then they might ask for an as-built survey,or visibly inspect the fence themselves..

Even if you follow the "property line", check with the city for "right of way" easements. Many owners don't know about them.

We will have a new, freshly baked survey courtesy of a re-fi if we can ever decide when to lock our rate :) before we fence. The line is very clear from our survey 2 years ago when we bought the property & is actually still marked, so we're covered.

We want to build the fence INSIDE our line following the curve of the road & working with some trees, etc. that we don't want to cut. So, technically some of our property would be well outside of our fence.

Do you know if we could "lose" it by not including it under fence?

This may be a moot point since it's not fenced now & is ours. Maybe the fence makes no difference.

Thanks!

no, you will not lose any property not "inside" your fence, and any post about "adverse possession" should be dismissed.Having worked for a civil engineering/land surveying firm for 20+ years, NEVER did an adverse possession" case get anywhere.They do happen on a rare occassion,but don't concern yourself about it..

Bernie's point about ROW easements has some merit,but i know of thousands of homes with fences in "row" easements,the bigger concern would be sheds,etc..Read your deed/legal description to see if you have such and any easments and any restrictions on them

"Bernie's point about ROW easements has some merit,"
Working on a $1.2 bil. project right now as a ROW agent, you'll be surprised how many owners are not aware of ROW's and as usually is the case, we require temporary and permanent easement in order to do our work (and some partial and complete takings). With a project such as ours, adverse possession is a daily reality, but as long as you have the correct documentation authorizing you to locate the fence where you want it, I don't see a problem for you.

The biggest issues i ran into in regards to ROW easments, were when people installed semi-permanent things(sheds/mammoth swingsets,patios,etc..Most of the easements were for drainage/utility/sewer..Homeowners were NOT happy when they had to remove these items so the contractors could do their work...

"The biggest issues i ran into in regards to ROW easments, were when people installed semi-permanent things(sheds/mammoth swingsets,patios,etc..Most of the easements were for drainage/utility/sewer..Homeowners were NOT happy when they had to remove these items so the contractors could do their work..."

I guess we have something in common, I spend 23 years in Civ. Eng. before getting into real estate in 1990.
A couple of years ago I was working on the widening of a major road and an intersection here. A number of businesses from Insurance companies to beauty shops, paint store, dunkin donuts and gas stations, with business signs, owners made extra wide curb cuts for entry to parking, planted trees and bushes in the city right of way, retaining walls etc.; most without city authorization, because of the belief that it was on their property.
In some instances, ordinances have changed and the city would relocate the sign without charge, in others owners just had to live with the design change the city wanted.
One ILC the owner (a dentist office) relied upon for property lines, was way off, but he was lucky, his sign was inches from having to be moved, however he lost a number of trees, some of which we paid for and some we didn't.

Great point about ROW. We live well outside the city limit. We'll be sure to check with the county for the permit or permisssion to build. Is that the right way to go about it?

"Is that the right way to go about it?"

Absolutely, cross all your "T's" and dot your "I's".
Forewarned is forearmed.

Feel free to take legal advice from gdognj about adverse possession, but unless he is an attorney, good luck. Adverse possession laws vary from state to state and if you have a neighbor on the side of the property where the fence cuts off part of your land, there may well be an issue. Adverse possession takes a long time to develop, however, when it comes time to sell, the potential that you are out of possession of the land outside the fence will be noted and a title company will raise the issue. In my 15+ years as a real estate attorney, I also have never had an adverse possession claim go anywhere, that is because most people are reasonable, but I have had to expend my clients time and money getting affidavits and agreements about out of possession land to satisfy title companies.

I'm not telling you not to do it, but I am telling you not to dismiss the idea as easily as gdognj does.

HGLI, Esq.

HGLI- We'll probably start the fence at each corner point of the property,then curve inward to follow the curve of the road. The only land outside the fence would be along the road - no neighbors. I really think that if we fence on the property line we will probably be within the road easement. Since there is a curve, our property actually comes pretty close to the road in the "arc". Way closer than I would want to put a fence.

I guess we will talk to fencers, talk to the county about their easement & then decide where to put it. SOund like a good plan?

Find out if you can put even part of your fence ON the property line or if it has to be inside the property line.

Would it somehow revert to the county road easement or anything if it's outside our fence?

We want to build the fence INSIDE our line following the curve of the road & working with some trees, etc. that we don't want to cut. So, technically some of our property would be well outside of our fence.

Do you have a copy of the survey on your computer that you can print screen and post?

How large is the property you're fencing and what type of fence? I've seen split rail fences put up similar to what you are saying.

I've seen people plant grasses in areas like that so that visually, you can see the land is theirs. You already have trees, so I'm not sure a fence would matter.

As was mentioned, fence companies want a survey. We shopped for a fence a few months ago, every place we went into wanted the survey we had then drew out our options on it.

They usually put the fence as close to on the property line as they can unless there is 1) something in the way, 2) a house next to you as is the case on one side of me. My neighbor beat me to a fence, he had to have permission from us and his other neighbor to go on the line, we didn't give it, the other neighbor did.

At one side of my house the property is on an angle, think of a piece of pie with the crust being at the sidewalk. I don't know why they cut us short in front, we never knew until after we moved in and were staked, but they sodded that piece of pie belonging to the town but guess who cuts it? Us. If we put a fence from the house across to the woods, we'd be going over by a few feet. Surprising enough, they said they would fence where we wanted and that the town might ask we move it but they doubted it.

Well, one thing to consider might be putting a gate in the area that is well inside the property line, thus giving an argument that you had not cut off access to that area.

OK - here's the survey we had when we bought it. We are getting another one in the next couple of weeks to refi.

There are 2 easements along the front & we are the only one without a fence. Everyone else on the street is fenced along the front easement. But that will put us too close to the road since we are in the curve.

We will furnish the survey to the fencers & will try to find out who to talk to with the county to make sure we are complying with their easement requirement. Everyone on our street has their fencing & gates well in front of that 20" easement to the county that is marked.

Hope this helps to clear things up.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I only see 1 easement,and i see that the property corners are already set along the front ROW line,if you can locate them,you;ll save yourself having the surveyors come back out...I see no problems for you to fence the front of your property,the easement is well within the yard..

There are 2 - Texas Power & Light has one right along the road & the county has the 20' one that is inside the property. Yes, our corner marks are still marked from the survey when we bought - but, as much as I hate it, we still have to get a new one anyway for the ref!

It appears the Texas Power and Light may not be the same type of easement the county has..My hunch is it is an easement for the utility poles and overhead wires, and doesn't have a legal description as the county one likely does..The county easement is described as 20',whereas the TPL just notes a book and page for the deed...Placing a fence along your front property line should be no problem at all

Thank you for taking the time to look at it qdognj! Really appreciate the input.

Where the road is marked in front, does that "ribbon" include their easement? There is no width marked to tell how wide that strip is. The actual road does not come that close to our marks like it would appear on the survey. The road is a very thin 2 lane with some gravel shoulders then a sloping drainage area, then our property line on the other side of the shallow culvert area. I'm thinking their easement probably covers the drainage area right up to our line.

Again - will check locally before doing anything.