Re-establishing Survey Corners and Way Points?

[MasseyFerg231]

When my father bought this 80 acres in 1939 - he accepted the 1892 government meets/bounds survey. Since that time the land around me has changed hands a few times. Three of my four property corners have been re-established by modern day surveys.

Surprisingly - the old government surveys were spot on - plus or minus six inches.

The fourth corner - the SW corner - is out in the middle of a big lake. Nobody, including me, gives much of a hoot about having that corner surveyed.

One step even further, Jstpssng. How can a lending institution lend that kind of money without knowing things are "kosher". That's your and my money and one "sloppy" loan could put those funds in jeopardy for a good long time.

Our place is 5.5 acres wit house /barn. It’s a cost for us. Lender did not require suvey. We insisted. Seller paid $4,500. Glad we insisted. One of our fences is directly on the line. Pool is on the setback. Nice to know going into it.
I have done lots of work on seven figure properties with zero setback. You have to account for thickness of exterior wall finishes. We had one where the chimney on the house next door encroached 3” onto our site at the top.

 

[dodge man]

It’s been about 30 years ago but I did a subdivision. New lot on a golf course, very high end for our area, maybe a 100 lots.

The first home builder found the pins and built the house, never called us. In Illinois and by the city ordinance you have to stake bends in the road right of way. The builder of this first house found one of these bends in the street pins, which was about 5 feet away from the lot corner. Mostly by dumb luck the house was just barely within the setbacks.

 

[newbury]

That quite a survey, it shows topography also.

A couple of points, we don’t want the government involved in surveying. <snip a bunch of good points>


Obviously each of the above 3 types require a different method by the surveyor. Sorry for the long post.

Don't apologize.
Someone should make a compendium of your posts and put it in a TBN fact file.

Remember that your property may have been originally just set up with chains and stuff. Does new tech make things better? Or do you have to redefine the borders to a more clearer division of property. This is a very messy area, legality, and open to interpretation and open to contention with more exacting measuring methods. 10 feet, can sometimes be important. If you own 20 or more acres it can be hard to monitor this, if you also have a 9 to 5 job. I have found that all my neighbors have made inroads into my property, and I called them on that, and they backed off. Yet, they still did it. It is not a nice world out there. I just don't like any of my immediate people anymore.

Unfortunately that is the way things are going, steal a little until you get caught then say "whoops, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that".
What they mean is they didn't mean to get caught.

 

[ddbackhoe]

And that's why I said what I said. If it were simplified and standardized and a matter of record on each parcel in a diagrammed format, it could/should be included in each real estate sale listing from the git-go. There would be no surprises like that. There would be no need for interpretations by private companies of what can and can't be done.

If I wanted to cut 10 acres off a 50 acre parcel, I could draw lines on that diagram and be done with it.

Sure, if the earth was really flat and on one plane with no rivers, dales or hollows that may work. Who would explain to all the deeded land holders that all the lines are going to be redrawn for their benefit ?

 

[BackRoad]

One more survey war story:

The rural property was listed as 52 acres. Nice view with promise, but terribly overgrown and difficult to find the corner markers. I looked...

Using measurement tools in Google Earth and what seemed to be obvious borders, the best I could make out was ~35 acres.

So we made the offer contingent on a current survey.

Survey confirmed it was only 34.5 acres not 52.

Sad that the original owners had been paying taxes for nearly 30 years on "52 acres".

Which is one more reason the government should not be in the survey business! They levy taxes based on the results.

...//TJ

 

[Jstpssng]

They levy taxes based on the results.

...//TJ

Here, at least; those taxes are based on maps created by private companies who do the best they can to interpret deeds, then make them match what they see on aerial photos. Sure, it would be nice if they went out and visited every lot but would you want your tax accessor to pay for it? Just another reason to hire a surveyor and find out what you really own. At the very least take your deed and those of your neighbors, read the descriptions and overlay them onto Google Earth; and see how closely it does or doesn't match what your deed and tax bill says that you have.

 

[bdhsfz6]

In my state, many older surveys were done using metes & bounds (distance and compass bearing) rather than coordinates. I use this program to draw deed plot maps from that data:

Metes and Bounds Plotter | Deed Plotting | For Windows, Mac and iOS

Free Deed Plotting Software. Metes and Bounds Plotter. Legal Description Plotter.

www.tabberer.com

The plot map can then be used as an overlay in Google earth to get a good idea where property lines are. Its no where near as accurate as a survey though.

 

[dodge man]

What Jstppsng is 100% spot on. Almost all county maps and GIS systems are not based on survey data but just lines drawn as best as possible on top of the aerials.

When I was still working a lady called and said the assessor called her and said he was going to start making her pay taxes on her neighbors house because his GIS map showed she owned it. Keep in mind neither owner had a dispute, she did not think it was her house. When I called the assessor I tried to be polite but I finally got tired of him and told him he didn’t have the authority to do that. He of course got all indignant. I told her to contact an attorney which I rarely give that advice. I never did here how that one turned out.

 

[RjCorazza]

I find surveys and resulting issues to be fascinating reading.
I know very little about them however (more so now). I did locate all of the pins on my 2 adjacent properties when we bought 24 years ago, and mapped them out on AutoCAD for future reference.

I did come home several years ago to a surveyor exposing the pin that separates my properties at the street. I believe he was using that pin to measure back to the corner pin that separates my property from a neighbor's lot that was being sold. He wasn't very friendly, but I suspect they get treated poorly sometimes dealing with other people's problems.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Here's one I still get a chuckle over.

I once owned a piece of land I used mainly for hunting. I didn't get up there much but on one visit, I found a "For Sale" sign posted next to the property access road. I removed the sign and returned it to listing realtors office. They informed me the land was part of an estate owned by someone I never heard of. After some testy conversation, they gave me the name of their surveyor. I called and made an appointment to meet him at the site.

I was waiting for him with my deed and survey map spread out on the hood of my truck. When he laid his map alongside mine, it quickly became obvious there was a major error. It turned out one of his draftsmen had the correct road name on the plot plan but the wrong county! Fortunately, there was no harm done and we both had a good laugh!

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the property had been sold.