Recording someone elses plat

do you have the original plan? It would have to be an original plan here in MA but anyone could record it.

Contact the place you would record it, and ask them.

N

I don't think you should "record" it at the recorders office. It probably wouldn't meet the requirements.

As evidence of a past survey you could file it with the county surveyor as an attachment to your Record of Survey or as an additional page to your Record of Survey. In your narrative you can give the details and explanation. Call the Salt Lake County surveyors office and ask them. The filing law went into effect late 80's, 87 or 88 I believe.

The filing act didn't start until April of 1988. It should be filed with the county surveyor, not the recorder (some counties have a joint surveyor/recorder). And, yes; there is a provision in the code which allows for the filing of any survey made prior to that date. The survey does not have to meet the requirements imposed under the act and is simply a courtesy filing. It can be filed as a corner record.

The purpose of the filing act is to simply perpetuate boundary and corner evidence. Any evidence depicted on the survey is worthy to be filed. Otherwise, it's simply lost in time and of no benefit to future generations.

JBS

29 Years Is A Long Time

You would first need to survey and verify what is there and in the right place. Having done that you essentially have a new plat. If it meets all current standards you file yours as an addendum and the original to memorialize it. If it does not meet current standards you either meet them, request waivers and or variances.

Aound here there is a time limit for filing a plat, so you merely have an ancient survey, That still may be quite valuable if there are conflicting circumstances.

Paul in PA

29 Years Is A Long Time

Around here folks will record old surveys (we only have county registries-what is a county surveyor?;-) )but they are clearly marked by the registrar as "For Research Purposes Only" or "For Information Purposes Only". Some of the counties will not let you view these plans online, you have to make the pilgrimage to the registry if you want to look at those hallowed documents.

"I pulled up the County Surveyors website to view the same plat she was looking at"

I am so jealous of you recording states. That would be so handy for future surveying, perpetuation of monuments, etc, etc. I come across pins all the time with no idea how they got there, who may have put them there, or how big the goat was that was tied to it. I wish I had your problem.

> The filing act didn't start until April of 1988. It should be filed with the county surveyor, not the recorder (some counties have a joint surveyor/recorder). And, yes; there is a provision in the code which allows for the filing of any survey made prior to that date. The survey does not have to meet the requirements imposed under the act and is simply a courtesy filing. It can be filed as a corner record.
>
> The purpose of the filing act is to simply perpetuate boundary and corner evidence. Any evidence depicted on the survey is worthy to be filed. Otherwise, it's simply lost in time and of no benefit to future generations.
>
> JBS

:good:

Typically what would happen here is I would do the Survey and include a copy of the unrecorded Survey with my Record of Survey package that I file with the County Surveyor for checking. My Record of Survey would have a note on it about the unrecorded Survey. Since I work for a Government agency we have lots of material on file that can't necessarily be filed but I provide the County Surveyor copies and state that the Field Notes or unrecorded Plat Map is on file at our office.

You should try and get a recording act enacted. It won't help you much, but it will sure help those who are going to try to follow your footsteps.

> The filing act didn't start until April of 1988. It should be filed with the county surveyor, not the recorder (some counties have a joint surveyor/recorder). And, yes; there is a provision in the code which allows for the filing of any survey made prior to that date. The survey does not have to meet the requirements imposed under the act and is simply a courtesy filing. It can be filed as a corner record.
>
> The purpose of the filing act is to simply perpetuate boundary and corner evidence. Any evidence depicted on the survey is worthy to be filed. Otherwise, it's simply lost in time and of no benefit to future generations.
>
> JBS

John,

Thanks, that is a good bit of information the 1988 date. I think the survey would be well suited if available, so that others can find this information regarding the parcel, and also adjoiners.

I'll send a digital copy to the county surveyor regardless.

Not sure if I'll be doing the survey, as I received the dreaded statement (although understandable) "How much do surveys go for now in Salt Lake City" :-S :-S

Update:

Turns out they are going for $750. Better than a couple years ago. But I'm out

I've had a few shopper calls lately. None have called back, not that I really care. I did give out a few numbers and must have been very high. One choked over the phone when I told him I couldn't do anything for under a thousand.

I'm thinking about modifying my response to the calls. Going to tell them to make all their calls and then call me last and tell me what the going rate is. Then I could better it if I was interested (I won't be). That way at least I'd know where the great slide to the bottom has taken us.

I do a little surveying these days but not much. My overhead is zero unless I buy gas or something. I'll survive. I wonder if all other's will. I do have other things to do and I don't generate any tax bills for wages and other stuff. I'm basically off the tax grid (work for myself, no cash wages to tax).

I remember what an old well driller told me years ago which turns out to be very true. "Charge a lot and make a profit, Stay in business." The guy done very well, better than me. I know times are very tough. They are going to be a lot tougher. Things won't turn around in time or well enough to stay in business if you work for nothing. By the time the turn around comes you'll be broke and unable to muster the resources to start over because you couldn't make a profit and stay in business.

Agreed.

Change your company name to Zippy Cheapo Surveys, an be at the bottom of the list in the phone book. Problem solved

No, you should not be allowed to record something like this. Recording is an authentication procedure in the chain of evidence. Without the authentication it would mean little. Recording anothers plat is similar to grabbing an old rusty iron axle out of the truck, setting it and calling it found. Use it as it is, deposited in a government office from somewhere, by someone, but not necessarily as produced (or produced at all) by the surveyor who's name is on it.

I ain't in the phone book. I think the county has me on a list they give out. I do have a website which probably gets a hit once in a while. I need to update it.

Hopefully I've reached the point where I can specialize in fixing survey messes. Ain't like they are in short supply. Probably growing exponentially these days, all for the least bid.

If you want to be paid well you need to offer a valuable service. Let's face it, most lot surveys aren't that valuable as a commodity product as offered by many survey outfits. If there is actually a standard answer to the question “How much is a survey?” then it's not a commodity you want to sell. You'll need to make a little bit and do a lot of jobs. I'd rather make a lot on doing a few good jobs, be able to have pride in the work, provide something of value. So in today’s environment their isn't that much work for me. But I could do more if I get the word out and build a reputation as a real problem solver. That ain't going too happen doing all the low cost survey's around. So I pass on them.

In Oregon there is recording law and County Surveyors who have custody of the surveys. I know personally of one case, and have heard of others, where the Surveyor's widow donated boxes of old, unrecorded surveys to the County Surveyor's Office. The CS then duly assigned recording numbers and added them to the files.

Oregon's recording law took affect in 1944. Compliance was spotty in the beginning and not universal, I think, until around the 1980's. There is an outfit in Portland that holds old records that go back to the 1800's. Periodically they pull one of these records out of their behind and record it, so that they can call out the source of a found monument on one of their new surveys.

I don't know about Utah, but I think you could just add a note to the face of the map stating the circumstances and record away without accepting any liability.

> I know times are very tough. They are going to be a lot tougher.

Things are on the upswing in my area of the west. 2012 was better than 2011, and 2013 is better than 2012. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm not seeing anything to indicate a downturn on the horizon.

So there is no value to a present surveyor from the work a past surveyor done? By filing surveys with the county surveyor the chain of evidence is perpetuated. You don't have to use it, in fact it might help you reject some stuff. It's just there for review. It doesn't directly affect title as it's not part of the official title records.

If you don't have access to prior survey records how do you authenticate anything?

Two different takes from filing states and non filing states. Not changing very rapidly either. Does anyone know of a filing state that went to a non filing state?