To legally keep someone away from your property, give the person clear notice they are not welcome, back that notice up with signs or barriers where useful, and if they ignore you, escalate to a court order and to police for criminal trespass. A civil lawsuit can recover damages on top of that. Which tools fit depends on whether you are dealing with a specific person or the public at large, and on whether there is any threat of harm.
Start With Direct Notice to the Person
If your problem is one particular individual, the single most important step is telling them, in a way you can prove later, that they are forbidden from entering your property. Notice is the element that turns a later visit into criminal trespass. Without it, most jurisdictions will not charge.
A verbal warning counts. If someone is on your land and you tell them to leave, their refusal to go, or any later return, generally satisfies the notice requirement. The weakness is proof. You end up arguing about what was said and whether the person heard you.
A written trespass notice fixes that. Write a short letter identifying the person, identifying your property, and stating plainly that they are not permitted to enter. Deliver it by hand with a witness or a signed acknowledgment, or send it by certified mail with return receipt. File a copy with your local police department. If the person shows up again, officers already have what they need to arrest for criminal trespass. This is the right tool for an unwanted ex-partner, a boundary-crossing neighbor, or anyone whose presence is disruptive but does not rise to the level of a threat that would justify a protective order.
Post No Trespassing Signs
Signs are notice to the world rather than to one person. In many states, posted signs are what allow criminal trespass charges against someone who claims they did not know the land was private.
To hold up, signs need to be visible, legible, and placed where someone approaching the property would reasonably see them. That means every gate, road entrance, trailhead, and access point, plus intervals along the boundary. Some states set specific requirements for letter height, spacing between signs, and wording. Including the phrase “No Trespassing” with your name as owner covers the basics in most places. A few states want the local trespass statute number on the sign itself. Check your state’s rules before printing.
Purple Paint as an Alternative
More than 20 states now accept painted marks on trees or fence posts as a legal substitute for signs. The standard mark is a vertical purple stripe, roughly eight inches tall and one inch wide, placed three to five feet off the ground at regular intervals along the boundary. A handful of states use orange, blue, or allow a choice. Paint is useful in rural areas where signs get stolen or weathered. One catch: in some states the paint only prohibits hunting, fishing, and trapping, not general entry. Verify what your state’s version actually covers.
Install Fences, Gates, and Barriers
Physical barriers do two jobs at once. They keep people out and they communicate that the property is closed. Someone who climbs a locked fence has a much harder time claiming they did not know they were trespassing. If your property has utility easements, any fencing across those areas usually needs gates for the easement holder.
Get a Court Order
When signs and warnings are not enough, a court order puts legal force behind your demand that a specific person stay away. The terminology varies by state, but two categories matter in practice, and the difference between them controls how the order is enforced.
Protective Orders
Protective orders are tied to situations involving violence, threats, stalking, or domestic abuse. They carry criminal penalties for violations, which means police can arrest on the spot when the person shows up at your property in defiance of the order. To obtain one, you generally have to show the court a credible threat of harm. In urgent cases a judge can issue a temporary order the same day, without waiting for the other side to respond.
Restraining Orders and Injunctions
A restraining order is a broader court directive prohibiting specific actions, such as entering your property or contacting you.1Legal Information Institute. Restraining Order In federal court, a temporary restraining order expires within 14 days unless the judge extends it, and the person seeking it must show that waiting for a full hearing would cause immediate and irreparable harm.2Legal Information Institute. Rule 65 – Injunctions and Restraining Orders State courts run on their own timelines but follow a similar pattern: a short temporary order, a hearing where both sides present evidence, then a longer-term order if the judge finds it warranted.
In many jurisdictions, restraining orders are enforced through civil contempt rather than immediate arrest. A violation may mean going back to court for sanctions rather than a 911 call that produces handcuffs. If there is a genuine safety concern, a protective order with criminal enforcement is usually the better fit.
What You Need to File
Both types start with a written petition. Describe the specific behavior you want stopped, explain why the order is necessary, and attach evidence: police reports, photos of the person on your property, security camera footage, text messages, witness statements. Filing fees typically run a few hundred dollars, and some jurisdictions waive them in cases involving domestic violence or harassment.
Call Police for Criminal Trespass
Criminal trespass is the enforcement mechanism once someone ignores your notice, signs, or barriers. The offense generally has two elements: entering or staying on property without authorization, and having notice, or reason to know, that entry was forbidden. Notice can come from signs, a verbal warning, a written trespass letter, a fence, or the nature of the property itself, such as a locked building.
When someone trespasses, call the police and hand over whatever evidence you have: security footage, a copy of the written notice you served, photos of your posted signs, witness accounts. Officers can issue citations or make arrests depending on the circumstances and local law.
Most jurisdictions treat basic trespass as a misdemeanor. Penalties climb with the type of property and the trespasser’s behavior. Entering an unoccupied lot might bring a fine and a few days in jail; entering a home or a fenced residential yard can bring months or more than a year of incarceration. Some states elevate trespass to a felony when weapons are involved or the trespasser has been warned repeatedly. A trespasser’s prior record also raises the stakes.
Sue for Civil Trespass
Criminal enforcement punishes the trespasser. A civil lawsuit compensates you. The two tracks are separate, and you can pursue both.
To win a civil claim you generally need to show that you owned or lawfully possessed the property, the other person entered without permission, and the entry was intentional, meaning they meant to walk onto the land even if they did not know it was yours. You do not have to prove damage. Courts have long recognized that entering land without permission violates the owner’s right to exclusive possession, and a judge can award nominal damages even when nothing was harmed.3Legal Information Institute. Trespass
When trespass does cause harm, whether damaged crops, contaminated soil, broken structures, or lost rental income, you can recover the actual cost. Courts may add punitive damages when the trespasser acted maliciously or with deliberate disregard for your rights, though that is the exception. Deadlines for filing vary by state; if the trespass is ongoing, such as a neighbor’s structure encroaching on your land, the clock may not start until the last incident.
Use Cameras and Security Systems
Cameras, motion-activated lights, and alarm systems discourage trespassing and create evidence. Video of someone walking past a No Trespassing sign, climbing a fence, or coming back after a warning is more persuasive than your testimony alone. Prosecutors and judges treat it as an objective record.
The legal catch is audio. Federal law allows recording a conversation as long as at least one person involved consents.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2511 – Interception and Disclosure of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Roughly a dozen states require all parties to consent. If your outdoor cameras capture audio and you are in one of those states, you could face liability for the recording itself. The cleanest fix is to disable audio on outdoor cameras or post a visible notice that audio and video recording is in use. Video-only surveillance of your own property is generally permissible everywhere, since people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy on someone else’s land.
Know the Limits on Force
Property owners get themselves into serious trouble here, so the principle is worth stating plainly: you have far less right to use force against a trespasser than most people assume.
The general rule is that you may use reasonable physical force to remove a trespasser who refuses to leave after being asked. Reasonable means the minimum necessary to get the person off your property. Guiding someone toward the exit after a clear verbal demand is one thing; tackling someone standing on your driveway is another. Use more force than the situation calls for and you expose yourself to criminal assault charges and a civil suit by the trespasser.
Deadly force is almost never justified to protect property alone. The law draws a sharp line between defending your life and defending your land. If a trespasser threatens you with serious physical harm, you can respond proportionally to protect yourself, but that is self-defense, not property defense. Being on your land without permission does not by itself give you the right to shoot, strike, or seriously injure someone.
Booby traps and hidden devices are flatly illegal. The Iowa case of Katko v. Briney established that a property owner cannot use a spring-loaded shotgun or any similar device to injure trespassers, even in an unoccupied building. The reasoning: a device cannot do what you could not legally do standing there in person. Owners who set traps face criminal prosecution and civil liability to the injured person, even if that person was breaking the law by entering.
People You Cannot Legally Exclude
Some people on your property are not trespassers, even without an invitation. Trying to block them creates legal problems for you.
- Easement holders. If your deed includes a utility easement, the utility company and its workers can enter that portion of your land to install, maintain, or repair infrastructure. Easements run with the land, transfer automatically at sale, and generally cannot be blocked or removed unilaterally.
- Emergency responders. Police, firefighters, and paramedics can enter private property without a warrant in an emergency. Under the Fourth Amendment’s exigent circumstances doctrine, warrantless entry is permitted when officers have an objectively reasonable basis to believe someone inside needs immediate help, when they are in hot pursuit of a fleeing suspect, or when waiting for a warrant would risk destruction of evidence or endanger lives.5Congress.gov. Amdt4.6.3 Exigent Circumstances and Warrants
- Government inspectors with legal authority. Building inspectors, health officials, and code enforcement officers may have statutory authority to enter, though the scope varies and interior inspections often require notice or a warrant.
- Process servers. Someone delivering legal documents can approach your door through normal access routes. They cannot force their way inside, but they can walk up your driveway and knock.
Using trespass law against someone with a legal right to be there will not hold up and may invite a countersuit or regulatory action. If you believe an easement holder or government agent is exceeding their authority, the remedy is through the courts, not through a physical confrontation or a trespass complaint.
When to Bring in an Attorney
Most of the tools above, including posting signs, delivering written notices, and calling police, do not require a lawyer. Some situations do. If you need a restraining order or protective order, an attorney can draft the petition, assemble the evidence, and represent you at the hearing, which meaningfully improves your chances of getting the order granted. If you are filing a civil trespass suit for significant damages, the elements and procedural rules are detailed enough that going it alone is risky. Boundary disputes, encroachments, and easement conflicts almost always involve surveys, title research, and negotiation that benefit from professional help. The cost of a lawyer is usually far less than the cost of losing a property rights dispute you could have won.