5 Things a Tennessee Neighbor Can't Legally Do at Your Property Line

A limb from a neighbor’s tree once fell through a Memphis roof.

That case reached the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Here’s what a neighbor can’t legally do at your property line.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Property laws and court rulings are subject to change.

1. A Moved Corner Marker

A neighbor who intentionally moves the survey marker at your property corner now faces a Class A misdemeanor in Tennessee.

The 2026 law applies to a person who intentionally moves a monument without replacing it, or who alters, destroys or removes one.

The person has to know, or reasonably should know, that it marks a property corner.

The Senate passed it 32-0 in March, and the House followed 91-0 in April.

It took effect July 1.

You’ll want to check your corner markers after any construction nearby.

2. The Saw Stops at the Line

A neighbor can’t walk onto your land to chop down a tree whose branches or roots cross the line, unless you consent.

At most, the neighbor may cut the branches and roots that cross the line back to it, at the neighbor’s expense.

The Tennessee Supreme Court set that rule in 2002 in the Lane case.

A limb from an oak next door had fallen through a Memphis roof, and the oaks’ roots had clogged a sewer line.

The court sent the case back to set damages.

What Cutting Timber You Don’t Own Costs

Under Tennessee’s timber-cutting law, a neighbor who negligently cuts timber that isn’t theirs owes the owner double its market value.

If the cutting was knowing and intentional, the liability rises to three times the market value.

The law measures that value on the standing timber, before it was cut.

Owners can also recover loss of value beyond the commercial timber price.

The doubling and tripling apply only to the timber’s market value.

In a 2012 case over a neighbor’s six cedars, trees not suitable for a timber sale brought an award for loss of value alone, undoubled.

3. A Gate Across a Recorded Easement

A neighbor can’t make changes that materially interfere with a recorded easement running along the line between your properties, such as a gate across it.

A Madison County landowner learned that in the Riegel case, when the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld an order to take down her gate on a 751.9-foot easement along the boundary line.

Earlier owners had created and recorded the easement, though the deed to her land didn’t directly reference it.

A buyer takes land subject to all duly recorded prior easements, the court said, whether or not the deed mentions them.

Her driveway also ran beyond the end of the easement, so the gate could sit on her own land.

If you rely on an easement, check that it’s recorded in the county register’s office.

Psst! How much do you know about neighbors and property lines? Tap each card and see how many you can get right.

4. Water Sent Onto Your Lot

A neighbor on higher ground can’t alter the land so that surface water collects on your lot or arrives on it in unnatural quantities.

Homeowners in a 1992 case before the Tennessee Court of Appeals blamed flooding on development next door.

The opinion treats interference with natural drainage that injures a neighbor as a nuisance.

In the 1883 Hays case, the Tennessee Supreme Court applied the same idea.

The court held a railroad liable when surface water overflowed because it failed to maintain its road-bed and ditch.

Your lot still has to accept water that flows down naturally from higher ground.

5. Trespass on Your Side of the Line

Stepping onto your land without your consent can make a neighbor a criminal trespasser in Tennessee.

It’s a Class C misdemeanor.

Under subsection (d) of that statute, a drone that enters the airspace above your land counts as entering, too, unless the Federal Aviation Administration regulates that airspace as navigable.

A neighbor charged with trespass has a defense only by proving all three of these things.

They reasonably believed they had permission, they didn’t substantially interfere with your use of the land, and they left immediately when you asked.

That defense doesn’t apply once you post signs at the major entrances to your land or mark trees or posts on it with purple paint.

Misdemeanor Penalties

If a neighbor moves your corner marker, the Class A misdemeanor carries up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

If a neighbor trespasses on your land, the Class C misdemeanor carries up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $50.

Seven Years to Sue

You have seven years after your right to sue arose to bring an action to recover land from a neighbor.

A suit filed after those seven years is too late.

A 2025 case from Fentress County shows how the clock plays out.

The owner of a 30-acre parcel sued the owners of the adjoining 48 acres after learning their house, pond and driveway sat on her land.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed a ruling that the neighbors had adversely possessed part of her land.

The court pointed to the house, the gravel drive, the pond and the mowing as proof of possession.

The trial court first found that the neighbors possessed about 4 acres, then widened that to the larger area on a survey exhibit after a motion to alter or amend.