We have owned our 1+ acre rural property for 30 years. A recent survey showed that a small triangular piece is actually owned by the neighbor across the busy county road -- i.e. the road and this triangular piece that is separated from his property (and by use & function part of ours) is actually all part of his property. There has been a rickety fence at the edge of the road, on what we had presumed was our property.

We now want to build a concrete retaining wall type of fence on this rectangular piece to separate us better from the road. It would be set back from the road about 8 feet which makes it 30 feet from the center line of the road (much farther back than the original rickety fence) but clearly ON his property, according to our survey.

What are the hazards in doing this? Do we have any prescriptive rights? assumptive rights? The absentee neighbor/owner has never spoken to us although his family lives on the property and nothing has ever been said about ownership of this triangular piece.