Landowner's Rights and Obligations

A. The Right to Support

Imagine that you own a plot of land and you've built your dream home on it. One day you wake up to find your neighbour out with his backhoe digging a major excavation right by the property line and a few yards from your home. As the hole deepens, your own land suddenly begins to cave in beside it, threatening your foundations. Your neighbour hasn't touched your property, but he has damaged it. Have you any legal right to stop him?

The answer is yes. As a landowner, you have what's called the "right to support"-in other words, the right to have your neighbour's land continue to support yours as it has done in the past. Of course, the flip side of a right is an obligation, and as a landowner you also have the obligation to your neighbours not to do anything with your land that would interfere with their right to support.

Check your knowledge by completing Something to Think About 8 on the next page.