Gov. Shapiro and his Montgomery County neighbors file competing lawsuits over property boundary dispute

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and one of his neighbors have filed competing lawsuits over a property boundary and fence at their Montgomery County homes.

In dispute is who controls a comparatively small piece of land that borders the Shapiros' Abington property and property owned by Jeremy and Simone Mock. The Shapiros say a fence on the disputed property has been there since before the governor and his wife, Lori, purchased their home in 2003.

In court documents filed Monday, both parties allege they control the land, and have each asked a judge to rule in their favor and bar the other party from using the property. Both the Shapiros and Mocks are also looking to be awarded monetary damages.

Shapiro, who lives part-time at the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg, maintains his primary residence at the Abington home.

In their federal suit against the Shapiros, the Mocks allege that the governor knew the land in question belonged to the Mocks.

After negotiations for the Shapiros to either buy or lease the land fell apart, the Mocks said in court fillings the Shapiros claimed they owned the property through "adverse possession" and started treating the property as their own by "planting large arborvitae type trees and other plants on the Mock Property, flying a drone over the Mock Property, threatening to remove healthy trees on the Mock Property, and chasing away the Mocks' arborist and surveyor."

The Mocks also accused the governor of directing Pennsylvania State Police to patrol the property, and said they were ordered by officers to leave the property "on multiple occasions."

"Governor Shapiro exercised his power by virtue of state law and made possible only because he is clothed with the authority of state law," the suit said.

The Mocks have asked a judge to rule that the Shapiros violated the U.S. Constitution in this case and enter a permanent injunction to remove them from the property in question.

In a civil countersuit filed in Montgomery County, the Shapiros claimed a fence was put up before they purchased their home in 2003, and a tree line has separated the two properties along a common boundary line.

The suit says the Shapiros have treated that fence line as the actual boundary line between their property and the Mocks' property up until the summer of 2025, and have "exercised exclusive and continuous dominion and control over all the land on their side of the Fence Line." The documents go on to claim that the Mocks have also treated the fence line as the actual boundary.

After an arsonist broke into the Governor's Residence in April 2025 in a targeted attack against the governor and his family, state police made additional safety recommendations for their Abington residence, the suit said. As a result, plans were made to add security measures at the home, including a new fence around the Shapiro property. 

In the process, a land survey determined that about 2,900 square feet "exclusively possessed and occupied" by the Shapiros since 2003 fell outside their property and actually fell within the bounds of the Mocks' deed, the suit said, including the fence line. Therefore, the Shapiros weren't granted a permit to build a new security fence along the existing line.

After the discussions around buying or leasing the land from the Mocks failed, the Shapiros made "alternative security arrangements along the Fence Line and abandoned their effort to have a new fence erected along the Fence Line," the suit said. The Shapiros claim the Mocks always thought the now-disputed area was part of the Shapiro property, and never previously claimed to own it.

The Shapiros claim in their suit that because "they have been in exclusive, continuous, open, notorious, hostile, and actual possession of the Disputed Area for the statutory period of twenty-one (21) years required under Pennsylvania law," they have the "exclusive right to use, possess and occupy" the area.

Disputes over the area continued for several months, according to the documents, before the dueling suits were filed on Feb. 9, 2026.

Among their requests, the Shapiros are asking a judge to declare them the "legal and equitable owners" of the disputed area and establish updated boundary lines between the two properties.