Most neighbour disputes are decided by two documents: the parcel register and a current survey. Get both first. Ontario law gives you real remedies for trespass, encroachment and a blocked shared driveway, but only once you can show a court where the line actually runs.
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Order the parcel register for both properties and any reference plan referred to on title. Then get a surveyor's real property report. Fences, hedges and eighty-year-old asphalt are not evidence of a boundary — they are evidence of what somebody once did. Where the boundary itself is genuinely unclear, the Boundaries Act allows an application to have it confirmed permanently, which binds future owners too.
Mutual or shared driveways generally work one of two ways. Each owner owns to the centre line with a registered right-of-way over the other half; or one owner owns the whole strip subject to an easement in the neighbour's favour. Check which one you have, because it decides who may park, who must maintain it, and who can build on or over it.
If nothing is registered, long use may or may not have created a right. On land registered under the Land Titles Act, section 51 bars any interest acquired by possession or prescription after registration, so a claim that had not already matured never will. On Registry-system land, the Real Property Limitations Act still supports a prescriptive right of way after twenty years of uninterrupted use, and treats forty years as absolute.
The Line Fences Act gives you a municipal process. You apply to the clerk, three fence-viewers attend the property, and they issue an award apportioning the fencing work and its cost between the two owners, along with the cost of the proceeding itself. What they cannot do is decide where the boundary is — that is a surveyor's job and, if contested, a court's. Some municipalities run their own fence by-law instead, so confirm the local route before you spend anything.
A shed, retaining wall, eave, fence or driveway apron over the line is a trespass, and removal is the starting remedy. Courts do not always order it. Where someone made lasting improvements believing the land was their own, the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act lets the court grant a lien for the amount by which the value was enhanced, or require the improver to retain the land and pay compensation — whichever is most just on the facts.
Repeated parking, storage, dumped snow or redirected drainage onto your land is trespass or nuisance depending on the facts. Record the dates. A pattern proved by timestamped photographs beats an argument about principle every time.
Money claims up to $50,000 go to the Small Claims Court — the limit rose from $35,000 on October 1, 2025. Anything requiring an injunction, a declaration about title, or an order about an easement belongs in the Superior Court of Justice, which is slower and considerably more expensive. Choose deliberately: a claim capped at the Small Claims limit can be the cheaper commercial decision even when the loss is larger.
Where the claim is genuinely about an interest in land, a certificate of pending litigation registered against the neighbour's title stops a sale and concentrates minds. It requires leave of the court and carries real risk in costs if the claim fails. Costs follow the event in both courts, but Small Claims costs are capped and will not come close to covering a fight.
A written agreement, registered on title. Verbal understandings between neighbours die with the first sale, and the new owner starts the argument again from zero. A registered easement, cost-sharing agreement or confirmed boundary binds the next owner, and that is the only version that lasts.
Before that: a letter setting out the registered rights, attaching the survey, and stating plainly what will happen and by when. Most neighbours stop once the paperwork shows they are wrong. The ones who do not are the ones you were always going to end up litigating with, and you will have built the record for it.
First establish whether the driveway is a mutual right-of-way and what the registered wording actually permits. A right of way is a right of passage; parking on it, or on the half you do not own, is usually a substantial interference with it. Timestamped photographs, then a letter attaching the register and the survey, then an injunction application if the blocking continues.
Almost always. An Ontario land surveyor's plan is the only evidence a court will treat as authoritative on where a boundary runs, and most residential titles have never been surveyed within the current owner's ownership. Relative to what a boundary fight costs, it is the cheapest money you will spend, and it often ends the dispute on its own.
Through the Line Fences Act process in most Ontario municipalities, yes — fence-viewers can apportion the cost of a boundary fence and the cost of the proceeding between the two owners. They cannot rule on where the boundary is. Some municipalities have replaced the process with their own fence by-law, so confirm the local route before ordering materials.
Removal is the starting point but it is not guaranteed. If the encroachment was innocent and removal would be grossly disproportionate to the harm, a court can order compensation or a lien for lasting improvements instead. Your position weakens the longer you sit on it after learning about the encroachment, so raise it in writing early.
Often, yes. By-law enforcement on fences, parking, drainage and property standards is far faster and cheaper than court, and costs you nothing. It will not resolve ownership or a boundary, but it can stop the conduct while the title question is dealt with properly, and the enforcement file becomes useful evidence.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.