Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is a Spite Strip?
A spite strip is a narrow parcel retained so a neighbor cannot reach a road, a utility, or their own back land without crossing land someone else kept. The name describes the motive. The legal effect comes from the deed that held the strip back, not from the nickname.
Platbookmapper is an Amazon Associate. If you buy through an Amazon link on this page, we earn a commission. The link is a product, not the county map.
A strip with a purpose you will not see in the soil
Unlike a gore, which is an accidental gap, a spite strip is intentional. A grantor deeds the field and keeps two feet along the road. The buyer’s land has no frontage. The grantor can demand a price for access later, or can simply block a rival. Courts in various states have refused to enforce some spite strips, and have enforced others, depending on the facts, the wording, and public policy about landlocking. You cannot look that result up on a parcel map. You can look up whether the strip was excluded from your deed. If the deed says less and except the south two feet, those two feet are not yours, whatever a court might later do about access. The first reading is the exception. The lawsuit is not a reading step you skip by moving a fence.
How the description hides in plain sight
The strip may be a separate tax parcel, or it may be so thin the assessor folded it into the road or into the grantor’s home parcel. Folding is taxation. The exception language is title. A plat may show a hatched sliver labeled not included. A metes-and-bounds deed may run along the road and then except a strip one foot wide. People miss the exception because the granting clause is long. Read less and except and reserving with a pen in hand. County GIS frontage graphics are unreliable at one-foot width. A phone GPS is useless at that width because the error exceeds the strip. Platbookmapper will not highlight spite strips. It links to the county viewer so you can find parcel ids, then you read deeds.
Access questions belong offline
If your land is landlocked by a strip, the remedies people discuss include an easement by necessity, a private condemnation statute where one exists, or a purchase. Each of those is a legal process with elements that have to be proved, not a right you declare because the situation feels unfair. Do not cut a road across the strip while you think about it. Do not remove a fence on it. A survey can show the strip’s location if the deeds support a survey. The survey does not grant the easement. Keep the survey and the access negotiation as two different files.
What to do next
- Hunt for a thin exception along the road or the boundary.
- Map that exception as land the deed did not grant.
- Do not decide from the nickname what a court would do.
- Keep any access remedy in a legal channel rather than in a new driveway.
The mix-up to avoid
Calling every inconvenient gap a spite strip and plowing through it. Some thin strips are reserve strips, some are road widenings, and some are genuine leftovers. The deed’s purpose is proved from the documents, not from irritation.
Questions people ask
If the assessor taxes the strip to me, do I own it?
Tax billing is a strong hint and a weak deed. Assessors make mistakes, especially on thin pieces. The deed into you either includes the strip or it does not. Start there.
Does a spite strip show on the plat as an easement?
Sometimes it is reserved fee, not an easement. An easement would burden land someone else owns. A strip exception means the grantor kept ownership. The label on the plat, fee versus easement, changes what you would have to buy.
Find the county map
Start at Platbookmapper, search the county, and open the local GIS link. Write down the parcel number before you compare the screen to a paper plat.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.