Articles
Do You Need a Survey Before You Build That Fence?
Author: Philippe Richer
It is the first warm stretch of the year, and you have decided this is the summer the backyard finally gets a fence. You start measuring, and a small worry creeps in. Where exactly is the property line? You have a vague memory of a metal stake near the back corner, but you would not bet the fence on it. A neighbour mentions you should get a survey done before you build, just to be safe. So you start looking up surveyors and bracing for the bill.
Before you make that call, there is something worth knowing. For most Winnipeg homeowners, ordering a survey “just to be safe” is not the cautious move it sounds like. In some situations it can work against you.
You probably already have protection
When you bought your home, your lawyer almost certainly arranged title insurance, and you almost certainly have it. We recommend it to every buyer, and nearly everyone takes it. It is a modest one-time cost at closing, and most people sign for it and never think about it again.
That is the piece homeowners forget when a boundary question comes up years later. You are not standing in the backyard trying to prove where your line is from scratch. You already bought something that exists for exactly this kind of uncertainty.
What title insurance does, and the catch
Title insurance protects you against certain problems with your title that you did not know about when you bought. In a city full of older homes and fences built by eye along back lanes, those are not rare: a garage that sits slightly over a line, a deck a previous owner added without a permit, an error buried in the title history. If a covered problem surfaces, your policy responds, often by covering the cost of sorting it out.
The important word is “unknown.” Title insurance is a shield, not a sword. It defends you against problems you did not see coming. It does not back up a problem you went looking for on purpose. If you order a survey specifically to check your boundary for trouble, and it turns something up, you have changed the situation: what might have stayed an unknown defect your policy would quietly cover is now a known one you went and found. That can move it outside what your title insurance was meant to protect.
So the well-meaning advice to “get a survey just to be sure” can quietly cost you the protection you already paid for. The survey usually does not buy more safety. In the wrong situation, it takes some away.
When a survey is actually worth doing
Surveys are not a bad thing. They are the right call when there is a concrete reason rather than a general worry:
- A lender or a deal requires it. Some transactions list a current survey as a condition, and then the decision is made for you.
- You are building something major or subdividing. New construction, a large addition, or splitting a lot can need precise boundaries to meet municipal setback rules.
- There is a real, active dispute. If a neighbour is genuinely contesting the line, that is an actual problem to resolve, not a hypothetical one to go searching for.
- A permit calls for it. Your municipality may require a plot plan for certain work.
A backyard fence on its own usually does not land on this list. Most fence projects are better served by checking your municipality’s fence and permit rules, talking with your neighbour about where you both understand the line to be, and looking at what you already have in your closing documents.
Before you book a surveyor, talk to us
Most boundary worries we hear in the summer come from a good instinct and end with the same advice: you are likely already covered, and the survey is probably not the move. A short conversation can tell you what your title insurance does for you, whether your situation is one of the few that genuinely calls for a survey, and how to go ahead with the fence without creating a problem you did not have.
If you are about to build and you are not sure where you stand, give us a call before you spend the money. We will keep it straightforward, and if it turns out you do need a survey, we will tell you that too.
For a closer look at what your policy covers, see our companion article, “Title Insurance: What Are You Actually Paying For?“