A month or 2 ago, our next door neighbor had the corners staked on his property.

Sometime is the past few days, he had them come back and stake our common property line, 3 stakes plus the corners along a 350 line through dense woods. The corners are in the right place, the new stakes do not appear to be correct to me, they angle into my property then back out again, where my survey shows the property line is straight. One is next to my house, 15'6" away where my survey says it should be 17'.

The guy is a lawyer, he works for a lot of developers, handling the legal side of new subdivisions, zoning, things like that. Him and his wife are perhaps 10 years older than us, and are empty nesters. If he's planning on moving, the neighborhood ladies gossip mill has not gotten wind of it. He's involved in local politics to a small degree, and is new on the homeowners assoc. arcitectural committee.

He's a good casual acquaintance, and at least as far as I know we have never had a problem.

I tried to call him a bit ago, but got the answering machine.

Any guess why he might be surveying his property?

sub divide!

Fence?

Fences are not permitted by the HOA (except around a pool, and even then only certain styles are allowed, you have to be able to see thru them), and the lots cannot be subdivided.

keep guessing!

Property tax dispute?

Curiosity?

Strip Joint :)



Kev

Jim, Maybe he is trying to purchase title insurance and they require current survey to confirm no encroachments. OR he really isnt sure of where his line really is and is counting on survey for that. If your legal description is 'lot and block. as is his Im sure, then the plat is of record in the county and if your recollection is accurate of a straight line between you, which is most common, then a line that wavers around is not accurate. Definately ask him if there is a problem that you are not aware of with the line and if you can help resolve any problem that he thinks exists. That way you are part of the solution. In that process, certainly a line that wavers around is not accurate and needs to be double checked with the surveyors on site when they are there, not after they leave the site. A common good boy scout compass can confirm between the 2 corners if there is a straight line staked out or not. If its not straight, definately quiz him on it before it goes any further. You can tell him you want to be sure all of your improvements are on your lot and not infringing on his land at all. He then should not be fearful of your concerns and you can work it all out with him in a good manner for both.

lots cannot be subdivided.

keep guessing!

he's a lawyer... can't is not in their vocabulary.

How large is the lot?

Hes burying his victims in his yard and wants to be 100% sure he knows where the line is??

Jim - get a copy of the tract map, parcel post, record of survey or what ever is on file for your property, as well get what is currently on file for his. It will cost you a couple bucks but they are fairly easy to read. You don't want boundry desputed down the road so don't let a foot here and a foot there slide. It's very likely someone measured wrong or possibly some grading has taken place to make a measurment invalid and the surveyor didn't catch it.

My guess, He might be putting the property up for sale or possibly adding on and needs to know exactly where his property lines are...

I just don't have a guess, unless the surveyor is soo bored he's giving them something to do... The surveryor did lay off about half their staff, including my sister in law, all things real estate are pretty slow around here.

The lots are 1 acre, more or less.

A certified survey was provided by the developer when I bought the lot.

The same surveyor "updated" the survey, and staked for the corners of the foundation when we were building. This was inspected by the city prior to pouring concrete to ensure the house would be within the building lines.

Prior to issueing an occupancy permit, the city required another survey, to ensure the house was put where it was supposed to be.

The best I know, these surveys are taken from known reference points off the property. The corners are marked by permanent stakes in the ground.

Title insurance is SOP around here, There is both a lenders and an owners policy.

The only additional improvement I put in is the pool. The pool fence is 3 feet further away from the property line than the house is, according to my survey, but not according to where those new stakes along the lot line are.

John, my neighbor, is a nice guy. He is certainly the type who would discuss first if there was any kind of problem. Perhaps he is still getting his ducks in a row before having that discussion? I dunno, they ain't home.

SOP when selling is the sellor has to provide the buyer with a current (within 12 months) survey. This is typically done just prior to closing. All I've ever seen done is to mark the corners.

Most likely they will be selling or at least trying to sell in this weak market....A survey is typically done prior to listing the property.....Are you sure you didn't irritate them with your car or perhaps your animal's crossed their path or pooped on their property?

Jim, I have been a land surveyor for 10 years now and have seen many, many properties surveyed for various reasons. The two most common are that they simply want to know where their property line is(maybe for a fence, mowing, landscaping, building something, etc.), the other is conveyance or division of the property. The easiest way to resolve this by simply calling the suveyor and ask them what has happened and if they could come back out and check there line stakes. 90% of the time, they won't charge you anything for it because they need it to be right for liability reasons. However if they aren't willing to check their work and you want a survey on your property, DON"T USE THEM FOR THE SURVEY. They will simply retrace what they had done previously and you will have spent a lot of money for nothing. If you live in a platted subdivision they must follow what was established on the original plat{Surveoys original intent}(at least in TN we have to do that, I would imagine that is a universal law no matter where). If you do have a survey performed on your property and you want to make it "less costly" for you by pulling the deeds for them, don't bother. The surveyor needs to do there own research and they will also need all the deeds for the adjoining properties as well. So it's easier to just let them do it. It's already built in to the price. You can also call a surveyor and ask him to stake the line for you. Explain that you do not what him to do a boundary survey or to certify anything all you want him to do is to shoot your two pins and stake the line for you. Depending on the distance from pin to pin it should take the crew less than an hour. We charge 80$/hour for a 3 man crew and 65$/hour for a 2 man crew. A 2 man crew should be able to easily handle this in under an hour. One other possibility is that the crew had a newbie and he wasn't quite sure on what he was doing and maybe just screwed the pooch a little. One other possibility could be that it's not a line stake. It could very well be a control point. Look by the stake and see if you see the head of a nail, rebar, or wooden hub. If you can't see any of those just look in about a 3' radius from the stake to see if you see 3 holes in the ground from where they set up their total station. If you see any of these it's more than likely a control point and holds NO VALUE to your property line. Shouldn't be a big deal to solve this problem. If need anything else just let me know. Thanks, Jason

So... I talked to my neighbor yesterday.
Either my distrust of lawyers is completely out of control or I have a guilty conceince about something.

Turns out he went thru this cause he's gonna do some landscaping and wants to make sure he does it on HIS SIDE!.

:thumbsup: :D

Actually Jim, I didn't sense that in your posts, I just got the feeling you were bothered by the new survey not matching where you believed it should.

Didn't see that you know why now , so I guess you don't need this done . Whats the address , my wife can pull it up on MLS and see if there is any kind of a sale pending or if it's even been listed for sale . I don't think they do a survey on a sale until it goes to attorney , I'm in Illinois too .

I vote for electric fence with razor wire to keep away assassins.

Turns out he went thru this cause he's gonna do some landscaping and wants to make sure he does it on HIS SIDE!.

Prettying up your property line at his expense. Sounds like a win/win to me. :thumbsup:

I've done this.

Got down on my hands and knees in the grass and found the 3/4" x 2' pipes that were used to mark the corners and then got out my trusty 100' steel tape and made sure everything was OK. Mine were all there fine.

Get a plot plan for starters tho.

pdq67