I had a client who hired me after an offer subject to survey. He offered 10k per acre for 43 acres. The survey showed 39. Never seen anyone so happy to pay for survey. (they were using [by mistake??]a deed that had 4 acres cut out after it was recorded ). My client is a sharp tack and had a suspicion.
I had the last house I bought surveyed due to encroaching garage and lots lines.
I'll never buy any properties ever again unless a real honest to God survey is performed.
It's pennies on the dollar for a transaction that is usually the biggest financial thing most people will ever experience.
If a seller wouldn't let me get a survey I wouldn't even bother and back out under the contract with that sole reason.
Something to hide is no thing to buy.
I recently did a survey where an adjoiner owned a portion of the parent tract and was hostile to the purchaser of the remainder. She refused access to the northeast corner of the parent tract. I contacted her adjoiner to the east and got permission to cross their pasture to shoot the corner. If that gets you before the board in Idaho or Oregon, then I'd suggest they have way too much time on their hands.
If you provide written notice to the owner or occupant the Board won't say a peep. Unless your entry interferes with a business you cannot be denied entry. It's all a trade-off.
A question I ask myself every time this non-owner question is raised. If during the process of this survey, which includes filing a record-of-survey map, I discover something that is not what it appears to be, am I harming the owner in some way that might expose me to legal action. If the deal goes south or perceived value plummets.?ÿ?ÿ
Remember, the survey and its record may exist long after your client leaves the scene.?ÿ
I suggest that you check with your E&O carrier about this, and structure your contract in a way that the property owner also acknowledges the conditions by which you work.?ÿ
I have provided survey information to a buyer without setting any stakes which at the time I believed absolved me from the record-of-survey requirement but I have been enlightened that that is not the case when I discover something, dare I say like an encroachment, that might affect an adjoiner.?ÿ
I believe that it is always in the owners best interest to commission the survey. With it they will attract more buyers and you know what that means.?ÿ?ÿ
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Almost all ALTA surveys are requested pre-ownership.
@dmyhill You mean ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys. This is why setting stakes is optional. However that conflicts with our state law which requires disclosure whether its in the form of points on the ground or on paper. I still require written acknowledgement by the property owner for site access and an understanding that I will be filing a map with the state.
Imagine: Ring-ring. Hi Mr. property owner this is Mr. I-lease-8k sf-of-office/manufacturing-space-from-you. My private security firm has two land surveyors detained because they were digging a hole under the fence trying to access my propitiatory facility. They say they are working for Mr. X who got permission from Mrs. Realtor. Who are these people? Is my rent going up?
Or this actually happened to a friend of mine who sent his crew to survey, for a buyer a commercial building that was not advertised for sale. While measuring up the building they were caught on camera appearing to be looking into one of the well screened by landscaping windows that belonged to a dentist while he was working. Can I just say the manure hit the fan.
Over 25 years ago a nearby survey firm was hired to survey 30 or 40 properties in a certain town.?ÿ None of them were owned by the one paying the bill, which did get paid with no problem.?ÿ The entire purpose was to document situations where the landowner was encroaching upon the street right-of-way.?ÿ One of the properties belonged to the mayor.?ÿ The one paying the bill was in a major battle with the city commissioners who were hammering him for encroaching on what was a drainage easement.?ÿ He had plenty of money and enjoyed beating the city at their own game.?ÿ Money was not a concern.
Half of the Surveys I have done, the client is not the owner. Never had that to be a problem.
Oregon's ROE requires notification of land owner and occupant.
I'm getting ready (if the state ever gets the contract to me) to do a series of RR crossing surveys along two miles of a state highway.?ÿ I will be surveying on ~ 50 private properties that are not flipping the bill directly.?ÿ I will send out ROE notification via mail, 10 days prior to beginning of work, to both the owner and occupants.?ÿ Pretty simple once you get the owners info off of the tax rolls and it is good advertising too boot.?ÿ It is also nice to know up front who is going to be a pain in the *** before I show up.
P.s.?ÿ Even though I send out the letter I always knock on a door when on site.
It happens all the time. But, if you encounter the landowner who is uncooperative, politely leave and bill for time incurred.?ÿ
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It happens all the time. But, if you encounter the landowner who is uncooperative, politely leave and bill for time incurred.?ÿ
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Many years ago did an in-town survey for a prospective buyer and discovered about forty feet of what was on the deed had not been possessed by the seller or the seller's parents before her for over fifty years.?ÿ The forty feet they assumed they owned on the other side was actually an unopened city street.?ÿ This specific deal fell through, but I was paid for my services by the buyer who turned out not to be a buyer.?ÿ Eventually, they sold to a different buyer, but only after deeding forty feet to the neighbor who had no idea she had been possessing land that was not hers.?ÿ The true boundary was about five feet from her house that had built decades before she bought it.
