Not much changed last 100 years. New client that needs two acres with house divided out of larger parcel. The new line is to be along existing fences so it's pre monumented. Client says the title company told him to just step it off and they'd write the deed from there, no need to go the expense of a survey. Well, that's how a lot of parcels been created since the beginning these parts. Some how the descriptions improve over time in the precision of the numbers and the lack of any calls to monumentation. Then someday its surveyed and nothing seems to be on anymore, at least for those surveyors that can't find established boundaries. Anyway, this client wants a survey and a retraceable description so he's the exception other than the rule.
My challenge will be to actually have my description get into the record for the new parcel. If the title company gets a shot at it in the closing they will hack it to bits, had it happen more than once. One thing they can't hack is the survey I'll file. I'm tempted to just give them something like: beginning at the corner of the roads, follow the fences around till you get to the point of beginning about 500 steps, a couple acres more or less.
LRDay, post: 361070, member: 571 wrote: ...I'm tempted to just give them something like: beginning a the corner of the roads, follow the fences around till you get to the point of beginning about 500 steps, a couple acres more or less.
I had a little "back at ya" fun a few years ago with an attorney that was taking care of some family land.
The NE/4 I was asked to survey wound up having 164 acres within its boundary. The trouble was the quarter had been divided among three heirs, to-wit (and in chronological order):
1. The South 53 and 1/3 acres of the NE/4.
2. The North 53 and 1/3 acres of the South 106 and 2/3 acres of the NE/4.
3. The North 53 and 1/3 acres of the NE/4.
When I presented the survey I had yet to determine any boundaries from the descriptions. I explained that my "best shot" was that the quarter was intended to be divided into three equal parts. There were no cross fences and all of the heirs lived out of state. If one protracted the deeds exclusively by acreage, it indicated a sixty-something feet wide hiatus just south of the "North 53 and 1/3 acres".
The family commenced to squabble over the "extra" four acres. I was never paid for the original survey. It sat in a drawer for two years.
A new attorney contacted me and wanted a description of the "extra" four acres. I told him to piss up a rope because I had never been paid for the original survey. After a few phone calls he said a check was in the mail.
After I received payment for the original survey I prepared a description that read "All of the NE/4, less and except the following parcels; the South 53 and 1/3 acres of the NE/4, the North 53 and 1/3 acres of the South 106 and 2/3 acres of the NE/4 and the North 53 and 1/3 acres of the NE/4."
I fully expected to hear back from them, but never did. I never sent him an invoice for the new description, I was just happy to be paid for the two-year-old work. As it stands, I did a boundary of a quarter section and provided a plat of that survey. And I was paid for that boundary, finally.
LRDay, post: 361070, member: 571 wrote: Not much changed last 100 years. New client that needs two acres with house divided out of larger parcel. The new line is to be along existing fences so it's pre monumented. Client says the title company told him to just step it off and they'd write the deed from there, no need to go the expense of a survey. Well, that's how a lot of parcels been created since the beginning these parts. Some how the descriptions improve over time in the precision of the numbers and the lack of any calls to monumentation. Then someday its surveyed and nothing seems to be on anymore, at least for those surveyors that can't find established boundaries. Anyway, this client wants a survey and a retraceable description so he's the exception other than the rule.
My challenge will be to actually have my description get into the record for the new parcel. If the title company gets a shot at it in the closing they will hack it to bits, had it happen more than once. One thing they can't hack is the survey I'll file. I'm tempted to just give them something like: beginning at the corner of the roads, follow the fences around till you get to the point of beginning about 500 steps, a couple acres more or less.
I have similar problems here with descriptions. Most of them do not have any boundaries described. Only bearings and distances. Even if you scroll back to old deeds of the property they don't have them. Once in a while there will be some but rarely.
Then, I would say 96-98% of corners around here are not monumented. If they are, it's usually some new pin placed in the last year or two.
And every single sale is going through a title company. God forbid you by mistake label a line NE instead of SW....they call like banshees bc the line is 'wrong' and if you actually label what you had measured along the old stone wall they call up bc "the discrepancy" and proclaim that we have changed the property line. So I feel your pain with title companies.
No bueno