Adjoining Deed References Wrong Property

Maybe there's another deed - a correct one - for the adjoining property. I often find incorrect references in the assessor's database. You have to track down the correct deed. First question to ask is where did you get that deed reference from in the first place?

The poster's profile says North Carolina, which might be relevant to the discussion.

Start with the lawyer who drafted the deed.  If that doesn't work, go to the tax agency and see if you can send a letter to the owner.

I have had two of these over the years.  One I was able to contact the owner as he was my client and happened to own the adjoining property.  The other I contacted the law office that drafted the deed and sent them a sketch showing the mistake and the path forward to correct it. 

I'm up to three times I've had to be the one to explain to a landowner that the lot their real estate agent sold them was not the beautiful view lot they were shown prior to purchasing.  The agents weren't fraudulent, but certainly negligent (and one was gross too ).

1. I would go to the clerk of court office and start researching the title back to when the property was severed or created.  Louisiana does not have a register of deeds but I assume it is equivalent to our clerk of court.  Anyway I would start to research the title to the adjoining tract back to find previously used recorded descriptions and plats.

I'm up to three times I've had to be the one to explain to a landowner that the lot their real estate agent sold them was not the beautiful view lot they were shown prior to purchasing.  The agents weren't fraudulent, but certainly negligent (and one was gross too ).

I was almost on the wrong end of a transaction with the same type of issue when purchasing a vacant lot out of state for a summer place.  I hired a local surveyor and he caught the issue with a quick driveby. The for sale sign and the listing photos showed one nice lot, the legal description in the sales contract described the adjacent swampy lot.  My attorney took it from there and sorted it out. 

Hire a good surveyor and a good attorney.   

You know the old saying “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.”

You will probably have to research the chain of title for the previous deed references.  You may want to check with the tax assessor to see what they have listed for deed references in their historical records, 

@peter-lothian The county's GIS parcel viewer. Register of Deeds said that is the deed they have on file for that property and they agreed it was referencing a completely different property.

@kevin-hines There are no previous deed references associated with the property. The tax assessor's site directs you to the GIS parcel view for tax information which is where I obtained the information from.

Your profile says you’re a Project Engineer.  I suggest you hire a Licensed Land Surveyor to survey the property.  He will know what to do.

I stumbled onto a survey about 20 years ago done by a firm that rarely does work in my home county.  I was looking at something unrelated and saw this survey on the next page.  Saw where it said it was located and I knew something was wrong.  The client's name did not match the owner of that property as I definitely knew who owned it.  And, the true owner would have called me to do the job.  After thinking about the client's name for this new cutout I shifted myself one township further to the east and saw the client's name.  Everything on the survey and the description called to the wrong range.

@kevin-hines There are no previous deed references associated with the property. The tax assessor's site directs you to the GIS parcel view for tax information which is where I obtained the information from.

This comment would imply that the deed you have is of an original survey - ie, the property had never been set on the ground before the creation of that legal description (and may have not been set since either).  In NC, and most or all other US states, there has to be at least an original govt patent (kingdom grant in my case) that would describe that parcel or what encompassed it in some way.  If not, someone has literally created a new nation-state with that piece of paper, so I highly doubt there are "no previous deed references associated with the property".  The tax assessors office is not (in my experience) any place to get legal boundary location information.  They usually take minimal info (ie acreage) from said legal and paste it onto a document for purposes of taxing the owner.  Have you looked for bounding or adjoining property deeds as well?  I hope I'm not sounding like a pompous ass or am writing in complete ignorance of something here (which, yes, has happened), but I think you need to either take it on as a learning exercise in property research or talk with someone who does that for a living - like a local land surveyor or land attorney.

@tdblack31 If you ask the tax assessor's office to pull the archived card (recorded before it went to a digital system), there will be a reference.  That reference may be before this particular  parcel was cut from the parent parcel, but doubtful.  The GIS data parcel view and the on-line tax assessor's land roll records will not accomplish anything.  Visit the assessor's office and and ask to see what is in their hard cards.  Good luck.

@dave-o When I click on the property card info it lists the previous owners. The only previous owner shown on the property card is the person who currently owns the lot and the deed reference is the same deed mentioned in my original post. I can search the county register of deeds by the owner's name but haven't found anything describing the lot shown on the parcel viewer.

@fairbanksls I obtained my surveyor's license early this year. I'm aware my experience is limited and I have much to learn still.

@fairbanksls I obtained my surveyor's license early this year. I'm aware my experience is limited and I have much to learn still.

Couple of things...

Force someone to be your mentor. Hang out in their office as often as you can without them running you off with a shotgun.

Some things cannot be fixed by a surveyor. Say you hunt down what the real call should be. You still cannot fix the deed. Sometimes we think because we cannot fix something, it is our failure. Well, the system isn't set up that way. Engineers can fix pretty much anything they are working on in some fashion or another. Sometimes Surveyors need to refer a client to a lawyer.

If you help find a defective deed or a bad legal description (ask your mentor their opinion), contact the client ASAP. Tell them they get to pay for the work done to date to discover the issue, and they should do X, Y, Z, then you can talk to them about adjusting the scope to get the matter resolved. 

Maybe get a hold of a title company and ask them to dig up what they can on it.

@dave-o When I click on the property card info it lists the previous owners. The only previous owner shown on the property card is the person who currently owns the lot and the deed reference is the same deed mentioned in my original post. I can search the county register of deeds by the owner's name but haven't found anything describing the lot shown on the parcel viewer.

Sounds like a money pit.  And that your county/state may not be up to speed on providing record documents in a digitally controlled access format.  Same here in some areas of land research where it will sometimes require a trip to the state archives on another island to find relevant docs - sometimes significantly adding to the expense of the project.  It may be cheaper (and more sure) to employ an escrow or title firm to do a title search or at least an abstract to guide you in.  But you're going to have to go back in the chain on that and likely the adjoining properties to reveal the truth.  For a complete view if needed, you'd want to identify all encumbrances as well - rights, reservations, easements, etc, which a title search should do.  Good luck to you.

@dave-o When I click on the property card info it lists the previous owners. The only previous owner shown on the property card is the person who currently owns the lot and the deed reference is the same deed mentioned in my original post. I can search the county register of deeds by the owner's name but haven't found anything describing the lot shown on the parcel viewer.

I’ve run into situations where the previous owners and previous deeds aren’t immediately obvious.  County indexes, property cards, etc aren’t always 100% updated. It usually requires a few hours (or more) in the county courthouse searching the grantee index for the name of the last known owner to find the grantor. Then take that name and search the grantee index.  Repeat until you find an original land grant/patent from the governor, a King, the US government, etc.  There should be an unbroken chain of title back to the original land grant from the sovereign.

Usually the court house staff will be very helpful if you ask politely.   Most of them know the records better than anyone else.

I’ve also had to travel to adjacency county courthouses as counties sometime split and merge.  

Do your own digging in the courthouse.  You must learn how to do this.  If you have a Register of Deeds Office, begin there.  If you are in one of backward States and are not allowed full access to the index books, you will need to pay a title company to go through their index books to pull up what you must have.