Question about land survey

[Dargo]

Call it a duplex & start sharing expenses :thumbsup:

LOL, good one!

 

[Dargo]

Dargo, I always feel bad for people in your situation. Someone built a garage on your property, and it seems like it ends up costing you money. If you do go to court, I would ask for punitive damages because they didn't have a survey done. I have so many stories I could share, it might give you nightmares.

Well, since I last posted I did get a call from this neighbor's attorney. She apologized for the neighbor's "unreasonably aggressive" response to my simple inquiry and asked if I would be willing to give them 90 days to tear their existing structure down, rebuild it on their property and return my property to the condition it was before they built on it and then ran a chain link fence another 3' onto my property. She seemed relieved when I told her that I really wasn't looking for anything more.

Apparently the "garage guy" built the garage sans any permit, sans any survey etc. and was going to be in big trouble if we went to court. I think she explained to him that his only option was to move since 1), I honestly cannot sell any land to him and 2) he ticked me off to the point where a very warm place would freeze over before I would consider selling him any land if I could. We'll see. He waived and acted really friendly when I passed by just a little while ago.

 

[bp fick]

Apparently the "garage guy" built the garage sans any permit, sans any survey etc. and was going to be in big trouble if we went to court. I think she explained to him that his only option was to move since 1), I honestly cannot sell any land to him and 2) he ticked me off to the point where a very warm place would freeze over before I would consider selling him any land if I could. We'll see. He waived and acted really friendly when I passed by just a little while ago.

Things have a way of working out. Good for you.

People don't always like the building permit process, but this is one reason for them, like 'em or not. The application for that garage would have required him to submit a drawing showing compliance with putting that structure within his property and likely, depending on specifics, 15' inside his line. (side, rear and differing factors, for the setback). This could have all been avoided.

Far be it for me to tell folks to ignore building codes and permit laws, but AT LEAST build the fool thing to code and on one's own property!! :laughing::laughing:

 

[two_bit_score]

I can tell you how our local surveyors keep out of trouble when surveying a farm. They get the old deeds from all adjoining property at the courthouse and make sure all mesh together. I have a acre that I don't have a deed too, however, none of my neighbors have a deed to it either and all know it goes with with my farm, so all is well. Ken Sweet

If you wind up having some mineral activity in the area and the leasing gets heated up you may find several people more interested in that acre than you thought there would be.

 

[two_bit_score]

I am a land surveyor in Illinois and Iowa, so I am not really sure how things work in Pa. Some state require tags to be put on monuments with the surveyors license number on it, or caps on top of the corner marker, which sounds like what you are describing. In a perfect world, all surveyors would come up with the same location for your corner. It isn't a perfect world, so sometimes we disagree. Sometimes there is a conflict in the deeds that gives a different locations, sometimes a surveyor see the evidence of the boundary in a different manner than someone else.

You should not have pulled the marker. Like someone else said, it could be some kind of offset, or it may not have anything to do with the boundary. If the surveyors license number was on it, you should have contacted him and asked him "whats up". I welcome people who call me or ask me in the field what we are doing. I like to educate the public and let them know what we are doing. I would say in the future, don't pull the markers, most states have a law against it. If it is just a wood stake that makes the corner visable on a temporary basis, there is nothing wrong with pulling them once you get tired of mowing around it, but the metal stake in the ground should be left alone.

First let me say how much I appreciate your contribution to this thread and answering the concerns expressed here.
I read through the whole thread to see if you touched on this and didn't see where you had, directly, anyway.

I think most people get scared when the see where some surveyer has been on their property and immediately think it means they are about to lose some of it. That is why they are prone to pull up stakes. They want to 'make it go away'. 'It' being the problem they think is coming where they are going to lose some of their property and since they usually pull up the stakes or markers in secret they think they are actually helping their case and getting away with it.

Most of the time that is NOT what is about to occur. I don't see why surveyors don't invest a little more time in having someone contact these people to tell them what is going on. Would it really be that expensive to have someone in the office call 'em? Seems like it would pay off in the long run, but maybe not.

All the surveyors I've ever had contact with have been extremely professional. Can't always say the same for siesmic crews though.

 

[two_bit_score]

I have 10 acres in the NC mountains. It was originally a 9 acre piece and a 1 acre piece. A couple of years ago we went up there and someone had surveyed the boundary line between my two pieces, nothing else. Really ticked me off cause they spray painted dayglo orange stripes on my trees. I went and bought some gray and brown paint and painted over all their marks on my trees.
Went back a few weeks later and the orange marks were back.
That did it.
Called the attorney for the adjacent landowner, 1300 acres worth, and inquired.
Yes they were using my internal line as a reference for something they were doing. I had no problem with them staking the ends of the line as that is a common point between us.
The attorney was told in no uncertain terms I better not ever find them painting MY trees again on an internal line that has nothing to do with them, the end points ok but stay off my internal line with the paint.

WOW! All that because someone was surveying and marked your trees with some paint? I can understand being concerned because you didn't know what was going on. But, painting over the marks on the trees? Really?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

After I built my house the county came out and surveyed to make sure the house was where I said I was going to build it on the site plan. I know of people who got their stakes confused in the woods, and almost built across a property line because they were looking at the wrong stakes. As I recall, they didn't get too far before the mistake was caught.

 

[sodamo]

Things have a way of working out. Good for you.

People don't always like the building permit process, but this is one reason for them, like 'em or not. The application for that garage would have required him to submit a drawing showing compliance with putting that structure within his property and likely, depending on specifics, 15' inside his line. (side, rear and differing factors, for the setback). This could have all been avoided.

Far be it for me to tell folks to ignore building codes and permit laws, but AT LEAST build the fool thing to code and on one's own property!! :laughing::laughing:

Unfortunately, the drawings can be correct and the actual building still sited incorrectly.

 

[Skyco]

Originally Posted by Skyco
I have 10 acres in the NC mountains. It was originally a 9 acre piece and a 1 acre piece. A couple of years ago we went up there and someone had surveyed the boundary line between my two pieces, nothing else. Really ticked me off cause they spray painted dayglo orange stripes on my trees. I went and bought some gray and brown paint and painted over all their marks on my trees.
Went back a few weeks later and the orange marks were back.
That did it.
Called the attorney for the adjacent landowner, 1300 acres worth, and inquired.
Yes they were using my internal line as a reference for something they were doing. I had no problem with them staking the ends of the line as that is a common point between us.
The attorney was told in no uncertain terms I better not ever find them painting MY trees again on an internal line that has nothing to do with them, the end points ok but stay off my internal line with the paint.

WOW! All that because someone was surveying and marked your trees with some paint? I can understand being concerned because you didn't know what was going on. But, painting over the marks on the trees? Really?

All that? So I'm supposed to look at dayglo stripes (as far as I'm concerned- it is graffiti) for years- that don't belong there in the middle of my property on my trees? Not that I need to explain myself about my land but this is a piece of beautiful mountain property and the internal line is next to my pond where we do lots of wildlife photography. The neighborhood watering hole, so to speak, for- deer, turkey, raccoons, and bear. Still trying to catch a pic of the coyote I know are in the area.

I suppose if someone painted graffiti on your land or house, or maybe dumped trash on your land, you'd be ok with that and just leave it? :confused3:

 

[lilranch2001]

WOW! All that because someone was surveying and marked your trees with some paint? I can understand being concerned because you didn't know what was going on. But, painting over the marks on the trees? Really?

I would not like it either, they are my trees and God did not make paint to desecrate them out in the wild