Property Boundaries

Civil Code Division 2, Part 2, Title 3, Chapter 1, Article 2 deals with boundaries for rights of owners of real property in California.

Section 829 provides that the owner of land in fee has the right to the surface and to everything permanently situated beneath or above it.

Section 830 says that, except where the grant under which the land is held indicates a different intent, the owner of the upland, when it borders on tide water, takes to ordinary high-water mark; when it borders upon a navigable lake or stream.

Section 831 states that an owner of land bounded by a road or street is presumed to own to the center of the way, but the contrary may be shown.

Section 832 provides that each coterminous owner is entitled to the lateral and subjacent support which his land receives from the adjoining land, subject to the right of the owner of the adjoining land to make proper and usual excavations on the same for purposes of construction or improvement, under the four specified conditions.

Section 833 provides that trees whose trunks stand wholly upon the land of one owner belong exclusively to him, although their roots grow into the land of another.

Section 834 states that trees whose trunks stand partly on the land of two or more coterminous owners, belong to them in common.

Section 835 defines the term “electrified security fence.” An owner of real property may install and operate an electrified security fence on their property, subject to all four of the specified conditions. The electrified security fence may interface with a monitored alarm device in a manner that enables the alarm system to transmit a signal intended to summon the business, a monitoring service, or both the business and a monitoring service, in response to an intrusion or burglary.

However, an owner of real property cannot install or operate an electrified security fence where a local ordinance prohibits the installation or operation of an electrified security fence. If a local ordinance allows the installation and operation of an electrified security fence, the installation and operation of the fence must meet the requirements of that ordinance and the requirements of this law.