Thoughts of a Land Surveyor.

[oosik]

For twenty plus years I was the individual who reviewed subdivision plats in Municipality of Anchorage for environmental acceptability. In plain English - can homes be built in this subdivision without creating a sewerage or water supply nightmare. I worked very closely with half a dozen survey companies in Anchorage.

One old surveyor alway said - - "the accuracy of the survey will depend upon the value of the land. In the open wilds of western Montana - a foot here or there makes little difference. In downtown New York city - people will live or die over 1/1000 of an inch".

 

[dodge man]

Argonne there is no magic number for when a found corner should be used or rejected. It is a case by case basis. There might be some places a corner could be off a small amount and it should be ignored. There might be another place where a corner should be used but the distance is off hundreds of feet.

A real world example. A guy built a garage onto his house. It was over the line a couple of feet. Neighbor hires a surveyor and then builds a fence against the guys garage so he can not maintain it. He hires me to check the other surveyors work. He points out a pin and said he used it to build his garage. In this case I found a lot of the pins from the original survey. The corner he used to build his garage did not fit the pattern. The others were close to the original distances, an inch or so, but this one pin was a few feet out of position so I rejected it and so did the other surveyor.

The other surveyor screwed up and set new pins when the old ones were there but it made very little difference. This one bounced around the lawyers a few years and the finally gave up and tore down a garage that had been in place for over thirty years.

 

[/pine]

I'm familiar with a parcel of land along a river that was subdivided into about a dozen lots all about the same size (average 100' wide and 350' deep)...I was here when the original survey laying out the lots was done and know exactly where the original corner pins are...

On a few occasions where one or more of the lots changed hands and a new survey was done...the new surveys never once agreed with where the original pins should be...some would be different by nearly 3'...

 

[fried1765]

I'm familiar with a parcel of land along a river that was subdivided into about a dozen lots all about the same size (average 100' wide and 350' deep)...I was here when the original survey laying out the lots was done and know exactly where the original corner pins are...

On a few occasions where one or more of the lots changed hands and a new survey was done...the new surveys never once agreed with where the original pins should be...some would be different by nearly 3'...

"Pins" can, or could have been moved, by the property owner, or others, over time, and may be of questionable reliability
A drill hole in a (large) rock, or some other fixed landmark, should be honored as an actual point on a property survey even if the measurements given do not exactly coincide.

 

[/pine]

"Pins" can, or could have been moved, by the property owner, or others, over time.
A drill hole in a rock, or some other fixed landmark, should be honored as an accurate point on a property survey even if the measurements given do not coincide exactly.

Not the case here...like I said I know exactly where a majority of the original pins were established during the original survey...they have/had never been moved...driven rebar below grade with additional pins/markers extended above...

What's baffling is the warranty by a few of the surveyors states they would swear under oath their surveys were correct even though they differ from the original survey plats...

 

[dodge man]

I have yet to find an old property corner that has had a camera pointed at it for the last 100 years. Each surveyor has to to decide if a corner has been disturbed or not.

 

[/pine]

I have yet to find an old property corner that has had a camera pointed at it for the last 100 years. Each surveyor has to to decide if a corner has been disturbed or not.

In this instance I know for a fact (I was here when it was originally done and have been here since (about 45 years))...one of the pins in question is one of my own corners...it has never been moved or tampered with and it is one where a newer survey says it's about 3' off the mark...which I know for a fact it is not...to this day the original pin is dead on the number if you pull a chain (surveyors tape measure) from another of the original pegs...according to the length stated on the original survey plat...

 

[dodge man]

Like I said earlier original corners should hold. Did the surveyor talk to you? We are allowed to take peoples testimonies into account.

 

[JamesHW]

The two back corners on our are marked with capped galvanized pipe driven over the driven pin placed by a surveyor in the late 60’s. The northern and southern lines on our platt correspond to lot lines laid out for Kayaderossera Patent grant of land made by Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 1701 to thirteen subjects. I remember there used to be a bronze geodetic survey marker on the line in the middle of the road the runs along the western line. I have a surveyor for an ancestor from Scotland and it has always interested me.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

When we bought our property here in Virginia six years ago three parcels of land came with the house. No survey was on record and the last known was decades old. Unfortunately for one of our neighbors the county GIS was way off. What he always thought to be his land turned out to be our land. He " lost " about 2.5 acres of land. As you all can imagine, he was not happy. Turned out our property line was about 25 ft off of the side of his house. So... irate neighbor huffs and puffs all over town, I stole his property... of course I told everyone that was where I was going to park old junk cars and put a compost pile and chicken house, he shut up... Still won't wave at me though...