I would like to preface this with I have no idea if I am posting this in the correct place of anything about forum logistics or etiquette. I apologize in advance.
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I have a 10 acre piece of property with no known survey recorded with the register of deeds. A large farm was split into 5-10 acre lots many years ago. My 10 acres is at the front bordering a county road and there is a private road easment running through my property so that the back lots can access their property.
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There are no known surveys recorded with the register of deeds for any of the surrounding lots. My deed says I own just over 10 acres. 10.31 or something like that. The county plot lines show the boundary lines aligning with the county road and the private road easment.
I located the northern 2 corner stakes on the private road side and by using that to make a straight line it appears that my property crosses over the county road by about 50 feet and the private road appears to have been put in at angle. At the front of the property the entire road is on my property but by the time you get to the middle the entire road is off my property.
I dont understand where those 2 stakes came from if there has never been a survey but everyone who borders my property agrees in the area that they are indeed the property stakes.
Ok. I'm sorry about the long convoluted back story. Here is my question. If my property has never been surveyed where did the stakes comes from and how would whoever wrote the deed know to put 10.3 acres? Is it possible to end up with more land than you think you bought after getting a survey?
Thank you so much for making it this far.?ÿ
If there are real property corner monuments (official stakes) then there was a survey.?ÿ Unfortunately, not all jurisdictions require surveys to be filed as public record.?ÿ What state, and city or county or equivalent political division are you in??ÿ
Also, the on-line depiction is usually just to identify tax parcels, and is not necessarily accurate enough to locate property lines with precision.
We actually appreciate the "long back story". The more information provided, the better we are able to provide a reasonable answer. As Bill93 said, a survey may have been done, but no plan recorded. The record of the survey is in the boundary description recited in your deed. Also, the survey may not have been done by a professional. When my father bought 2 acres of land from my uncle in 1970, they did the survey themselves. It was cut out from a 15 acre tract. They measured off the 2 acres (plus or minus), set iron pipes to mark the new boundary lines, and wrote the description for the deed. No other record of the survey. Fortunately, they called out the pipes in the description, so nobody had to guess if anything was set to mark the corners.
Yes, it is possible to actually own more land than called for in the deed, usually as a result of errors in the measurement of the boundary lines, or error in the calculation of the lot area. Generally speaking, what is marked on the ground for the new boundary lines has precedence over the measurements. It is also possible to have less area than the deed calls for.
The lack of a recorded survey in records does not mean that there has never been a survey.?ÿ Only 15 states (all in the west, and not including Michigan)?ÿ have recording laws even today, and there was a time when none did.?ÿ ?ÿ
Are you just curious about your boundary markers or are you selling, estate planning, subdividing, etc? You might get better answers with a local surveyor who may have actually surveyed your or your neighbor's properties and could answer some of your questions.
County Roads are typically an easement that runs along an edge or through a property. In your case it would be most likely true that you own the entire 50 foot right of way of the county road in addition to what is the remainder to the over ten acre ownership. Note that in order to be a legal "farm" you need at least ten acres or more or 10 thousand in sales of ag product. The ten acre mark is important in that particular context also.