Short answer. Yes. Article 687 requires any proprietor intending to make the kind of excavation covered by the surrounding provisions on lateral and subjacent support to notify all owners of adjacent lands. Skipping that notice exposes you to liability if the excavation ends up damaging a neighboring property.
What the law says
Any proprietor intending to make any excavation contemplated in the three preceding articles shall notify all owners of adjacent lands.
Civil Code, Article 687 — Notice To Adjacent Owners. Read the full provision →
Notice is a mandatory step, not a courtesy
Article 687 does not treat notifying your neighbors as optional good manners — it frames it as an obligation: "any proprietor intending to make any excavation contemplated in the three preceding articles shall notify all owners of adjacent lands." The word "shall" signals a legal duty. Before digging in a way that falls within the kind of excavation the surrounding provisions address, you are required to give notice to every owner of land next to yours.
Why the law ties notice to excavations near a boundary
Excavation work close to a property line can undermine the lateral or subjacent support that neighboring land and structures depend on, sometimes causing shifting, cracking, or collapse on the adjoining property even when the work itself stays entirely within your own land. Requiring notice gives your neighbors the opportunity to observe the work, raise concerns, or take their own precautions before damage occurs, rather than discovering the effects only after the excavation is already done.
This duty covers all adjacent owners, not just the most obviously affected one
The article requires notice to "all owners of adjacent lands," not merely the neighbor whose property sits closest to where you intend to dig. If your excavation could plausibly affect more than one bordering property, the obligation extends to each of those owners individually, since the risk of undermined support is not necessarily limited to a single direction from the excavation site.
What failing to give notice can mean for you
If you excavate without giving the required notice and your neighbor's land or building is later damaged as a result, your failure to comply with Article 687 can weigh against you in establishing responsibility for that harm. Giving proper notice beforehand, on the other hand, is a straightforward step that both satisfies your legal obligation and creates a record that you took the precaution the law requires before undertaking work that carries real risk to neighboring property. Keeping a written record of when and exactly how you notified each affected neighbor — rather than relying on a casual verbal heads-up — gives you something concrete to point to later if a dispute over the excavation's effects ever arises.