New North Carolina Statute Helps Landowners Protect their Properties

 

Posting your property lines is necessary to protect your land from encroachment, trash dumping, vandalism, and illegal hunting and fishing activities.  Posting the lines and painting the trees along property lines can also keep your property lines visible and make a costly survey unnecessary in the event of a timber sale.  This past June, the North Carolina General Assembly rewrote General Statue 14-159.7 regarding the process of posting property lines.  The Statute states that a property can be posted by either putting up POSTED signs 200 yards apart or nearer or by painting a vertical purple stripe at least 8 inches in length on trees along the property and spaced 100 yards apart or nearer.  Previously, establishing and posting property lines was a two-part process: paint the property line trees with horizontal stripes and put up POSTED signs.  Now POSTED signs are no longer necessary if you paint the property line trees with vertical purple stripes. 

Posting your property lines gives you more legal recourse against trespassers.  According to the Statute,

“Any person who willfully goes on the land …  of another that has been posted in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 14-159.7 to hunt, fish, or trap without written permission of the landowner, lessee, or his agent shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Written permission shall be carried on one’s person, signed by the landowner, lessee, or agent, and signed within the last 12 months.”

If a police officer or game warden meets an individual hunting or fishing on a posted property, written permission must be presented at the officer’s request.  If written permission cannot be presented, punishment for a Class 2 misdemeanor could range from community service to 45 days in jail depending on the severity of the crime and how many prior convictions the individual has.  Members of a hunt club need to present written permission given to the hunt club and an active hunt club membership card.

Timber Marketing and Management of the Carolinas is committed to helping forest landowners manage and protect their property.  We offer services such as posting and painting property lines in addition to annual inspections, timber sales and reforestation.  Give us a call toll free at (800) 962-2281 to discuss protecting your property from trespassing.