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Posting your property
"Posted" signs are a common
sight around farmsteads in New York. Farms and rural landowners
use these signs to alert potential trespassers. This article explains
New York's Posting Law, so you can have a clear understanding of
its effect on your farmland.
As a landowner, you are permitted
to post your property boundaries through New York's Environmental
Conservation Law. Posting allows you to control access to your property,
or property you lease, in your absence. It is a conspicuous notice
to a person who is about to enter property. The signs notify that
person that they are committing trespass if they are entering without
permission.
Trespassing is illegal even if your
property is unposted. However, if the land is unimproved, vacant,
or unfenced, you will find it more difficult to prove that a person
committed trespass. If you wish your unfenced cropland to have effective,
yet economical, protection, a series of posted signs is a good first
step. On land you lease for agriculture use, you need the permission
of the landowner to post the property. If you are authorized to
do so, you can place your name on the posted signs, so it is clear
who intends to protect the land.
To post property, you can obtain
pre-printed signs from hardware and farm stores. You will likely
have better long term success with signs on durable material, rather
than paper-thin plastic. In any case, the signs must be 11 inches
by 11 inches, with prominent wording ("posted") covering
at least a 9 inch by 9 inch area. The signs must be legible and
include the name and address of the landowner or authorized person
using the land. Homemade signs are acceptable if they follow these
rules. Signs must be located no more than 660 feet apart along the
boundary of the area your wish to protect. You have a duty to make
the signs visible and conspicuous, without being an eyesore. Missing
signs need to be replaced each year. If you secure a sign directly
to a tree, aluminum nails will prevent tree health problems.
A basic posted sign bars all trespass
activities. Of course, a posted sign may contain wording that permits
or excludes certain activities, like hunting, swimming, or motorized
vehicles.
A posted sign does not affect your
liability, but it does strengthen your position against trespassers.
New York's General Obligations Law protects landowners from liability
for recreationist trespassers. However, landowners are not protected
from liability in cases of willful or malicious failure to guard
or warn against dangers. You may not intentionally erect a hazard
or fail to provide warning of a known hazard. If you know of a hazard
on the property, fix it or warn against it. This will ensure the
highest protection from liability.
If you want to report and prosecute
trespass, you need to collect as much information about the trespasser
as possible, including:
· Time and date of suspected violation
· Identifying features of suspect or vehicle
· Location of violation
· Description of violation
· Number of suspects
· Type of weapon or activity in use
Any law enforcement agency in New
York makes arrests for, and prosecutes trespass. In situations relating
to hunting, fishing, trapping, or wildlife disturbance, contact
the Environmental Conservation officer in your area.
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Recreational users getting hurt
Am I going to get into trouble
if a trespasser hunts or drives an ATV on my land and gets hurt?
The real question to ask in a situation
involving a trespasser getting hurt on your property is whether
they can make a case that you were careless or downright mean-spirited
about a hazard on your property. Your responsibility toward other
people does not stop because you have your land posted. You always
have an obligation to refrain from malicious or willfully harmful
activity. Instances of gross negligence, such as an open well you
know about, must be repaired or effectively forewarned, even for
people who are not supposed to be on your land.
A trespasser - a person on your property
without permission, right, or legal authority - has few legal protections
on your property. They must leave your property when told to do
so. You generally have no duty to maintain your property to be safe
for trespassers. However, you cannot willfully or intentionally
injure a trespasser, either passively (stringing hidden wires) or
actively (running down a trespasser with machinery).
By law, you are permitted to post
your property boundaries. Posting allows you to control access to
your property, or property you lease, in your absence. It is a conspicuous
notice to a person who is about to enter the property. The signs
notify that person that they are committing trespass if they are
entering without permission.
Trespassing is illegal even if your
property is unposted. If the unposted land is vacant or unfenced,
you will find it more difficult to prove that a person committed
trespass. If you wish your unfenced land to have effective and economical
protection, a series of posted signs is a good first step. On land
you lease, you need the permission of the landowner to post the
property. If you are authorized to do so, you can place your name
on the posted signs, so it is clear who intends to protect the land.
Whether the property is posted or
not, the New York General Obligations Law (Section 9-103) protects
landowners from liability under a particular condition: the person
is not paying you to access the property. This includes trespassers
and the people you give permission to hunt, bird watch, or hike
on your property. Because of this protection, recreational liability
lawsuits against rural landowners are uncommon. Recreational activities
covered in the law include: hunting, fishing, picking (berries,
plants, etc.) canoeing, boating, trapping, hiking, cross-country
skiing, tobogganing, sledding, caving activities, horseback riding,
bicycle riding, hang gliding, motorized vehicle operation for recreation
(ATVs), snowmobiling, non-commercial wood cutting or gathering,
and even dog training.
If you are interested in the requirements
for posting property, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schuyler
County. Information for this article came from the NYS DEC and Cornell
University's Department of Natural Resources Extension Program.
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