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Need a surveyor in Georgia
Hi everyone. I am looking for a surveyor licensed in GA who is knowledgeable with boundary issues. We are in south GA, Thomasville, which is about 20 miles north of Tallahassee, FL. It seems most of the surveyors who post in the forums here are very informed, competent professionals & that’s the kind of surveyor I desperately need. My property issue is a long, complicated situation. I’m not sure how much info I should include here & apologize if too lengthy. Our lot is a lake front lot we purchased in 1995. The original S/D plat was done in 1983 & the surveyors are now deceased. We had our house built on the lot in 1998. A survey done in 1998 before construction began placed 3 of the property’s lot lines in different locations & also placed a new corner pin in the back yard at a different location even though the original corner & pin was found where is was suppose to be. The new corner pin this surveyor placed right in the middle of our back yard a good distance from the lake shoreline where the original corner pin is. The survey was never filed & no one gave it much attention. Our home builder used the original 4 corners to construct the house. We had another survey done with a different surveyor after the house construction was completed. He found & used the 4 original corners on his survey which was filed in the county records. All previous owners of our lot & all owners of our neighboring lots have always recognized the same original corners & lot lines without question. And that includes our neighbor to the right when they bought the lot/house next to us in 2009. In 2012 those neighbors refinanced & had a survey done of their property. For some reason that surveyor used the 1998 corner pin in the middle of our yard as a property corner instead of using the original corner pin which was still in place. We were aware of this not because anyone informed us but because 2 long wooden stakes with pink flags were placed there. We then had our own survey done to verify our corners & verify the pins were in place which they were. What we didn’t know at that time was that our neighbor mistakenly believed her new 2012 survey gave her ownership of that part of our property. For the next 7 years the neighbor did not in any way try to claim that piece of property, nor did they use it or treat it as if they did own it, nor did they ever try to discuss it with us. About 3 years ago these neighbors moved across town & their house has sat vacant since. So we did not believe there was a boundary problem when we went to install a fence in Feb. 2019. The very day the fence crew was starting to put up the fence our neighbor happened to be at her house next door. When she saw the fence crew she confronted them & told them to stop their work because that was her property. The fence work was halted & we hired an attorney not knowing what to do. The fence crew, our lawn guy, & our handyman all used their metal detectors around the area we believed the original pin was but the pin could not be located so we assumed it had been lost. Our attorney thought the lost corner pin was a huge problem & without it we could end up losing a portion of our property. Also our neighbor told our attorney that they were going to be selling the house & they believed they could get more money in the sale with the addition of part of our property. Following the advise of our attorney, who thought we had to have the lost pin replaced, we had several surveyors survey our lot. Each & every one of their measurements found our lot lines & corner to be the exact same of the 1998 survey that placed the new corner in the middle of the yard. So none of them were willing to put a pin back in the original corner. And I guess none of them seemed to notice the odd location of this corner in a much established yard. And nobody seemed to be aware that state code, county code, & our S/D covenants all state that boundaries on a lake lot go all the way to the lake’s shoreline, just as every other lake lot on the street does. On top of that I could not get one surveyor to talk with me or give me any explanation of their work. I was left clueless as to the problem with our lot. Our attorney seemed to think we were screwed unless we could get a surveyor to place a new pin in the original corner. By this time I had gained a good bit of knowledge regarding property law & owner rights & realized the land professionals around this area were doing everything wrong & nobody was going to correct it. Having zero trust for any of them & not knowing how to proceed without going to court I hired an expert consultant, Jeff Lucas, to help figure out the mess. From the documents I sent him he discovered that our lot lines on the original S/D plat done in 1983 lined up perfectly with the 1998 survey done pre-construction. The line between us & our neighbor that cuts off a good portion of our property does end right at the 1998 pin placed in the middle of the yard. However our 4 original corners & the pins placed in 1983 were all placed correctly. In other words, the 1983 plat’s lot lines do not connect the 4 original corners on our lot. Obviously some kind of error was made when platting our property’s lot lines. We also discovered that 1983 plat was not actually performed by the surveyor whose name is on it but was done by an assistant he had recently hired with very little surveying experience. After consulting with Mr. Lucas I got a $15, plastic metal detector described as a child’s toy from Amazon & using some of Mr. Lucas’ calculations I located the original corner with the original pin still in place, undisturbed. It was just a few feet away from the area we thought was the corner with missing pin & it still lines up perfectly with what has always been believed to be the lot line. This must mean that all those surveyors we paid over the past year never even looked for the original corner pin. It was there all along. If I found it with a $15 plastic toy how did not one of the surveyors find it? I am beyond frustrated, disgusted, & fed up. This is why I need a knowledgeable, competent surveyor. My property has all 4 original corners & monument pins undisturbed & always has. I’m not sure what kind of survey work we need but I’m sure it will be much more than the average survey. I do know (& our attorney agrees) we need a surveyor to verify the corners & to correct the lot lines so they connect those corners, which are the same lines we’ve always used as the property’s lot lines. For the past 15 months I have gathered every piece of information & documents pertaining to this that a surveyor may need. I also have a long list of proof showing where the original corners & lines have always been with evidence to back it up. Also our other neighbor on our left used to own our lot & is who we bought the lot from in 1995. Both he & his wife can verify our lot’s corners & boundaries. I’m aware this will not be a typical lot survey & won’t be cheap. I have no problem paying for an expensive survey to someone who knows what they are doing. I say this just so you all know I’m not the average client who expects complicated, time consuming survey work to be inexpensive. Remember I’ve spent the past year reading your forums, haha. If any one may be interested I’d be more than willing to answer any questions, give more info or send any documents you may want to look over before committing. Or if anyone knows of a surveyor that may be available you can refer me to I’d be grateful. Thank you to all of you for this website, especially the forums. They have been invaluable to me in becoming informed with all things land/property. Thanks for your time.
Lea
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