Alabama âpurple paint lawâ has been on the books for years: What is it? What does it do?
It’s not as noteworthy as, say, a tax decrease or more school funding, so when the Alabama legislature passed the state’s so-called “purple paint law” in 2016, it received little fanfare.
Officials with organizations such as the Alabama Farmers Federation (AFF) or the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office did their best to get the word out, but few likely paid much attention.
So what is a “purple paint law”?
Simply put, it gives property owners an alternative way of marking their property in a way that legally informs would-be trespassers to keep out. Under the law, it carries the same weight as a “NO TRESPASSING” sign.
The legislature adopted the law as a low-cost alternative to posting no trespassing signs. The purple paint also has the advantages of high visibility and difficulty of removal.
Prior to the adoption of the purple paint law, an intruder on private property was not necessarily a trespasser unless “notice against trespass is personally communicated to him by the owner of such land or another authorized person, or unless such notice is given by posting in a conspicuous manner,” under Alabama law.
The purple paint addition gives landowners a second means of meeting the “conspicuous manner” requirement.
The law, found in Alabama code 13A-7-1, reads: “A sign or signs posted on the property, reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden or the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property.”
In order for those purple marks to be valid, the following conditions must be met:
- They must be vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width.
- They are placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground.
- The are placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and are no more than 100 feet apart on forest land or 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land.
It’s important to remember that not every state has purple paint laws. Other states with purple paint laws are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
So purple paint markings on a property in Mississippi, for example, would have no legal significance.
Additionally, although called “purple paint laws,” not every state with such laws on the books actually requires purple paint. Idaho and Montana requires orange paint, while Maryland requires blue. Also, in North Carolina, purple paint does not denote “no trespassing,” but instead signifies no hunting, fishing or trapping on the property.