I have read through the General Rules of Procedure and Practice for surveying in Texas, specifically 661.33 and 663.17
I was instructed that all corners of easements had to be monumented. I understand that easements have to be tied to monuments in the boundary of the parent tract but I can't find where easement corners have to be monumented.
I understand we should use sufficient monumentaion to retrace the easement. But does every corner need to be monumented?
Thanks!
headywest, post: 441987, member: 9223 wrote: I have read through the General Rules of Procedure and Practice for surveying in Texas, specifically 661.33 and 663.17
I was instructed that all corners of easements had to be monumented. I understand that easements have to be tied to monuments in the boundary of the parent tract but I can't find where easement corners have to be monumented.
I understand we should use sufficient monumentaion to retrace the easement. But does every corner need to be monumented?
Thanks!
I think enough of it is that you can put it back together. We do a lot of centerline easements and the centerline gets monumented and about every 8 to 10 legs, or at least twice per tract, I place some reference rods outside of the right-of-way of the pipeline or ingress-egress easement. That way, if EVERY one of the centerline monuments gets taken out via construction, then the other two, per tract (or more) plus the actual corners of the tract it's tied to can be found and used to replace it.
I just chased one in Ellis County that looked very good on paper with lots of SPC et cetera, but they only referenced two monuments and the SPC. I had ONE of the corners (the other was destroyed) but my SPC fit their SPC within 0.03'. Then I chased the boundary it came out of and that guy said he set a bunch of corners, but we only found that which he found. All were supposed to mirror the new TxDOT right-of-way. We found all of those.
So, after doing a ton of real surveying to replace an easement that should have been easy to locate, we got it done. Had they monumented their easement, even if they'd used the centerline and not the boundary of it, that would have been better. We put a lot of steel in the ground for easements.
We generally don't monument easements. We usually tie to at least 2 property corners (2 on each end if it passes through a tract). I don't see any reason to put steel in the ground for every easement. I know most of our clients would not prefer to pay for that if it is not necessary. As long as it can be re-created on the ground, it seems okay with me. here is the rule:
BrandonA, post: 442021, member: 11837 wrote: I don't see any reason to put steel in the ground for every easement.
I vehemently disagree with this statement. Furthermore, since the easement affects boundaries, and the investigator says the current take of the board is that you are creating new lines, then I think that you are required to monument the easement in some way.
The practice of not monumenting the easement drags out retracement work when it should be a matter of digging the rod up rather than reinventing the wheel to figure out what was going on at the time.
Kris Morgan, post: 442044, member: 29 wrote: I vehemently disagree with this statement. Furthermore, since the easement affects boundaries, and the investigator says the current take of the board is that you are creating new lines, then I think that you are required to monument the easement in some way.
The practice of not monumenting the easement drags out retracement work when it should be a matter of digging the rod up rather than reinventing the wheel to figure out what was going on at the time.
How does an easement affect a boundary line, I am fairly certain it is the other way around?
From what I can tell, the board requires the easement to be able to be recreated on the ground. Tying to at least 2 monuments of record and giving a description that also ties to those two monuments should make it very simple to recreate it.
I have only seen easements monumented at every corner in very rare cases, and usually at the request of the client.
Further, in some cases, a surveyor is not even required to be a part of the process of easement creation. I wonder if the parties involved should be required to put rods in the ground for those easements?
BrandonA, post: 442046, member: 11837 wrote: How does an easement affect a boundary line, I am fairly certain it is the other way around?
From what I can tell, the board requires the easement to be able to be recreated on the ground. Tying to at least 2 monuments of record and giving a description that also ties to those two monuments should make it very simple to recreate it.
I have only seen easements monumented at every corner in very rare cases, and usually at the request of the client.
Further, in some cases, a surveyor is not even required to be a part of the process of easement creation. I wonder if the parties involved should be required to put rods in the ground for those easements?
I'm not in Texas but just thought I'd interject that monumentation of easements is extraordinarily rare here. I personally make it a practice to NEVER set ANYTHING at all on easement lines unless that is the scope of the work, in which case I set wooden lath marked "easement line." Rebar & pipes are far too easily mistaken for property corners by landowners, and I don't want to be responsible for moving a fence!
Jim in AZ, post: 442051, member: 249 wrote: I'm not in Texas but just thought I'd interject that monumentation of easements is extraordinarily rare here. I personally make it a practice to NEVER set ANYTHING at all on easement lines unless that is the scope of the work, in which case I set wooden lath marked "easement line." Rebar & pipes are far too easily mistaken for property corners by landowners, and I don't want to be responsible for moving a fence!
I know what you mean, I am always very careful to never set a control point close to a right of way, in case someone thinks that is the line. If I use a TP close to a right of way, I pull the 60D nail before I leave.
BrandonA, post: 442046, member: 11837 wrote: Further, in some cases, a surveyor is not even required to be a part of the process of easement creation. I wonder if the parties involved should be required to put rods in the ground for those easements?
I agree and in those rare instances where the tract is not being bisected by the easement or is identifiable by the objects on the ground, we are not needed. Alas, they removed that rule.
How does an easement affect a boundary line, I am fairly certain it is the other way around?
When the easement parallels a line, that was NEVER monumented, then in retracing the easement and staking the lines of the easement, then it ABSOLUTELY affects the boundary line and IF the easement line was created in error and didn't use the right iron stakes, then it CAN and DOES cause a ton of problems. How hard is it to drive iron rods and call for them??? They're creation corners so they're right, even if they're wrong.
[USER=29]@Kris Morgan[/USER]
I agree with your thinking.
The less monuments, the more surveying it takes to relocate the bounds of an easement.
It may be perfectly legal and more economic to not monument an entire easement.
Not setting monuments does not help down the road.
That is the number one reason there are so many drives, utilities and other physical things that are not actually located inside their described easement.
To save survey costs, contractors lay down their system where it will fit from some quickie measurements from what they are guessing at being boundaries.