Neighbor thinks he owns my land?

[EddieWalker]

Yep, they are getting better and better. The still mess up. All it takes is one mistake and every measurement, distance, angle and area is wrong. The problem is you don't know when or where it made the mistake.

Laws and rules are always changing, and maybe things are better, but the reason I'm question you is that I've never heard of them being used for a legal survey that is stamped.

For roughing out an area and getting close, they are great!!!!

Eddie

 

[newbury]

I dont know of any surveyors in my area that use gps.

I've worked with a lot of surveyors. They ALL use GPS. Some like the TomTom, but most like Garmins or Magellans. For their VEHICLES.

If they have a total station using a real-time kinematic GPS system they are accurate to around 20mm horizontally and 30-40mm vertically. But these are expensive.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've worked with a lot of surveyors. They ALL use GPS. Some like the TomTom, but most like Garmins or Magellans. For their VEHICLES.

If they have a total station using a real-time kinematic GPS system they are accurate to around 20mm horizontally and 30-40mm vertically. But these are expensive.

I'm confuesed.

Are they using GPS to do a survey on a piece of land? or are they using them to find the piece of land?

Eddie

 

[strum456]

I wish I could understand how surveying is done. Robert, yes I have a legal description. I have the degrees, minutes and feet for the line in question as recorded at the court house. I thought the surveyor would set up on a stake down on that end of the property and check the angles, or something. Not so easy. He says he would need to start a couple thousand feet away where he knows the points on my property from some work he did for me this summer. The surveyor says he never did work on that end of my property before, but I have a map and a legal description that says he did. I told him that too, but he insists that he didnt do it. Weird?

I estimate the neighbor is blocking me out of about 2 acres.

 

[RobertN]

This has been mentioned in threads of the past... Document everything. Who you called or saw, when, what the outcome was. The neighbor, the lawyer, the Sheriff Deputy, the surveyor etc. What day, what time, document it all.

Hopefully, a discussion with the neighbor, and maybe that survey will resolve things. But if that does not resolve the issue, you will have a record of everything that may prove helpful in court

 

[RobertN]

This has been mentioned in threads of the past... Document everything. Who you called or saw, when, what the outcome was. The neighbor, the lawyer, the Sheriff Deputy, the surveyor etc. What day, what time, document it all.

Hopefully, a discussion with the neighbor, and maybe that survey will resolve things. But if that does not resolve the issue, you will have a record of everything that may prove helpful in court

 

[rambler]

Are you sure?

Maybe it's a statewide thing, but from what I've been told, GPS isn't accurate enough. It also has a higher percentage of mistakes that lead to everything else being off. One mistake on the GPS, and nothing is correct.

Eddie

GPS with RTK and other technology is good to within 1/10 of an inch or so, I can't see how that isn't good enough? (Basically the GPS uses one ground based signal to become extremely accurate...)

Most tractors, combines, planters, sprayers, etc of the last 5 years are equiped with this, surely surveyors have kept up.

The trouble is, it's too accurate, comes out different than what the stick and chain folks did - then how do you work that out??????

--->Paul

 

[strum456]

GPS with RTK and other technology is good to within 1/10 of an inch or so, I can't see how that isn't good enough? (Basically the GPS uses one ground based signal to become extremely accurate...)

Most tractors, combines, planters, sprayers, etc of the last 5 years are equiped with this, surely surveyors have kept up.

The trouble is, it's too accurate, comes out different than what the stick and chain folks did - then how do you work that out??????

--->Paul

When I asked my surveyor about gps, he said only the really big companies can afford it.

 

[farmfun]

Seems title insurance really covers next to nothing. What a racket this is, getting that huge premium every time property changes hands or gets refinanced.......

Title insurance doesn't really cover the physical property at all, it covers the legality of the title chain so there aren't any legal ownership issues in the past that will completely negate your deed in the present...:confused2:

 

[zzvyb6]

Sorry to intrude late, but I recently had a talk with a professional surveyer in Town about what is and is NOT legal in Michigan, GPS is not legal. It is used in property sales because all they (the bank) care about is whether the buildings are on the property. But (for example in MY CASE: Where is the county roadway?), a theodolite (measures angles) and chains/tape (measures distance) system is all that is legal. They might even have to go back to the county marker a few miles away. Your property description ought to include a compass heading, angles and lengths. A kid in sophmore trigonometry ought to be able to figure it out for you. In college, we had to survey the entire campus given the tools, the description and the brass county marker.

All this for a simple reason. GPS is accurate for a short time, but wanders because of satellite movement and earth precession. A while back, On-Star contacted me because a 'dead zone' about 50 feet wide runs right thru my property. No XM radio, No DirectTV, and no satellite phones. The wander of this zone over 30 days is pretty large, often over 100 feet. That can be narrowed down a bit using an extra ground station from the local jetport in Pontiac (differential GPS). So the moving property lines and the moving center of my road is a well known joke around here. My neighbor was told that the county road went right thru his front porch until they did a proper, legal survey. You can also see this on Google Maps. You often see the road centerline is often not in the center of the road. This is not because the paving company or the county snow plows screwed up, either.

BYW, Thats why they still need BIG bombs. Close is good enough. Exact is not likely. I don't care how precise it is, next month the precision will be the same, but the accuracy will be different.

Precisely. It cost me $10,000 to prove to the road commission that the center of the road is in the center of the roadway, not 32 feet east (like Google indicates).