Chapter 472: Boundary Lines

Whenever the boundary line between the land or estates of adjoining owners is in dispute, and the location of the same as described in the deeds of said owners or of their predecessors in title cannot be determined by the monuments and boundaries named in any of said deeds, the parties may establish said line by agreement in the following manner, and not otherwise.

The actual occupant shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be deemed the owner thereof.

The line agreed upon shall be surveyed and established by courses and distances, and suitable and permanent monuments shall be placed at each end and at each angle of the boundary so agreed upon.

A writing, reciting that the parties signing the same are adjoining owners, that the division line between their lands is in dispute, that the line described in their respective deeds or in the deeds of any of their predecessors in title cannot be located on the ground by reason of the loss or obliteration of the monuments and boundaries therein named and described, and containing a full and complete description of the line thus agreed upon and established, and the volume and page where their said respective deeds are recorded, or if title was not acquired by deed, a statement identifying each owner's other source of title, shall be signed and acknowledged by the parties to the agreement before any officer having authority to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and recorded with the registry of deeds for the county where the lands are located, and, when the volume and page of an owner's deed is set forth in said agreement, the register of deeds shall note the recording of said agreement on the margin where the said respective deeds of the parties to said agreement are recorded. In those registries recording on microfilm, in lieu of noting the recording of said agreement on the margin where the respective deeds of the parties to said agreement are recorded, the register of deeds shall list all parties to the agreement in both the grantor and grantee indices.

For the purpose of providing accuracy in land surveys, the commissioner of transportation shall be charged with the responsibility of cooperating with any agencies of the federal government engaged in studies of the earth's magnetism to the end of establishing true meridian lines at one or more suitable places in each county, and shall maintain in his office a list of all magnetic stations and true meridian lines established by such agencies in New Hampshire and shall furnish a copy of such list upon request.

I. Any person who purposely commits or causes to be committed any of the following acts with regard to a boundary marker knowing it to be a boundary marker shall be guilty of a misdemeanor: defacement, alteration of location, or removal of a stone wall or monument, or a mark on a tree, made for the purpose of designating a point, course or line in the boundary of a tract of land or in the dividing line between towns.

II. The provisions of paragraph I shall not apply when a boundary marker is moved pursuant to:

(a) Mutual agreement between all landowners whose property lines are affected by the moving of the boundary, or

(b) Authorization by government officials in order to more accurately place the boundary, or

(c) A finally adjudicated court order or decree, or

(d) A law that requires or allows the movement or alteration.