I did and boundary and topo survey for an engineering firm. No ALTA mentioned. I get an email from a paralegal who is writing a description from my survey. I offer to write the description and include in it a description of the adjoiners overlapping deed calls. They send me a copy of the final description and they left out the overlap, (said it affects title). A couple days later I receive an email asking for an Alta proposal for the property, the title commitment is the description from the survey not the record deed. What ya'll think?
I write my own descriptions based upon my own surveys, period.
Anything else is not my work and I will definitely sign or stand behind what is not mine.
I can not see how anyone could take your drawing and write a description other than what your drawing shows. It shows the overlap and is a graphic metes and bounds of your work.
:-S
Do you put the descriptions in text on all your surveys? I think maybe I should start putting the descriptions on every survey.
We put our descriptions with our plats. Period. End of story. Somebody else wants to write one? Go ahead. It's your future law suit, not mine.
Adam, post: 328757, member: 8900 wrote: I did and boundary and topo survey for an engineering firm. No ALTA mentioned. I get an email from a paralegal who is writing a description from my survey. I offer to write the description and include in it a description of the adjoiners overlapping deed calls. They send me a copy of the final description and they left out the overlap, (said it affects title). A couple days later I receive an email asking for an Alta proposal for the property, the title commitment is the description from the survey not the record deed. What ya'll think?
I think that's odd - your description isn't (unless there was a recent sale) the record description. The vesting document description is what needs to be used...
I rarely if ever write a new description - I don't have that authority nor do I wish to possibly color the title.
First the only time a surveyor should write a new description is if he is creating a new parcel. If you can follow the existing description it is valid and you are only clouding the title unnecessarily if you insist on writing a new description.
Second did they supply the deed that the new description came from? If not you need to request the new deed to be included in the title binder.
As far as the title company re-writing the description based on your previous survey, unfortunately it happens frequently. Fortunately it is not your legal so you are not the one who decided to throw a cloud over the title.
Also good news you get to perform two seperate surveys and you already have the field work mostly completed.
Show both record, and measured information and descriptions of the departures from the corner monuments. ALTA survey need to reflect the legal, recorded boundary information, as well as the information as found or determined by the surveyor. There can be no ambiguity that the property being insured, and the property identified and surveyed by you are one and the same. That being said, the owner/representative should have a correction plat or deed recorded (some juristiction require it). If so, then you may have an additional project (more money for work already performed).
Still waiting for the Texas crowd to explain how things really work.
Holy Cow, post: 328820, member: 50 wrote: Still waiting for the Texas crowd to explain how things really work.
Looking around for the dead horse...
Can we just skip to the part where we say disparaging remarks about one another's mother? I don't have a lot of spare time lately.
As to the topic. I'd contact the title company and explain the situation.
Woopigsurveyor, post: 328801, member: 8227 wrote: First the only time a surveyor should write a new description is if he is creating a new parcel. If you can follow the existing description it is valid and you are only clouding the title unnecessarily if you insist on writing a new description.
Second did they supply the deed that the new description came from? If not you need to request the new deed to be included in the title binder.
As far as the title company re-writing the description based on your previous survey, unfortunately it happens frequently. Fortunately it is not your legal so you are not the one who decided to throw a cloud over the title.
Also good news you get to perform two seperate surveys and you already have the field work mostly completed.
I do not know that a deed was made from my survey, The description i wrote followed the existing deed, then at the bottom I added a note regarding the overlap and describing it, (all corners regarding this overlap were found, not something I created from deed math)
Adam,
Just search on here a bit in the forums. This topic has been covered quite frequently with varying opinions.
Adam, post: 328826, member: 8900 wrote: I do not know that a deed was made from my survey, The description i wrote followed the existing deed, then at the bottom I added a note regarding the overlap and describing it, (all corners regarding this overlap were found, not something I created from deed math)
That was ment to say "they insist that you write a new legal".
On a different note have ran into a few surveyors who think that they have to write a description for every survey they do. I guess they didn't listen to the "follow in the footsteps" part. Thankfully they usually find a new profession fairly quickly.
I am torn on this subject. I feel like if monuments are missing, and new ones are put in place, they need to be introduced into the "record". I also don't want to cloud the title of a property either, hence my dilemma.
The firm I started my surveying career with wrote a description for just about every survey we did. Most of them were vast improvements over the cryptic deeds that we were retracing for our area from years past. Most of the surveyors in our area do this. I can understand what some of you guys are saying, but there still tons of archaic descriptions in our area.
I kinda kept up with that practice until I started learning what other surveyors here on the forum were saying.
Needless to say, I have much more studying to do on this subject.
For Woopigsurveyor
Love the name, BTW.
If I'm surveying Lot 7 of Block 4 of Hitler's 3rd Addition to Nowhere, my plat will indicate that is what I did. If I'm surveying the south half of the northwest quarter of Section 9......., my plat will indicate that is what I did. When creating a new tract, I provide a description for future use. When following a metes and bounds description, which are simply metes in my neighborhood, I will list the existing description but the plat will show my distances and bearings as measured and the existing description as record. I will not rewrite that description unless there is something out of the ordinary discovered during the survey.
I also follow a practice of describing the remnant of an aliquot part as being the aliquot part less the description of the tract previously removed. I avoid writing a new description for the remnant as, in my opinion, you are then messing with the adjoining aliquots.
Jimmy Cleveland, post: 328837, member: 91 wrote: I am torn on this subject. I feel like if monuments are missing, and new ones are put in place, they need to be introduced into the "record". I also don't want to cloud the title of a property either, hence my dilemma.
The firm I started my surveying career with wrote a description for just about every survey we did. Most of them were vast improvements over the cryptic deeds that we were retracing for our area from years past. Most of the surveyors in our area do this. I can understand what some of you guys are saying, but there still tons of archaic descriptions in our area.
I kinda kept up with that practice until I started learning what other surveyors here on the forum were saying.
Needless to say, I have much more studying to do on this subject.
It is rare in my area to find a deed that is bad enough to not be followed and need to be rewritten. I am from a PLSS state (Arkansas where the survey of the Louisiana purchase began and they set wood stakes for corners in the early 1800s) and deal with a few Spanish and French land grants. If I do have to correct a description I always include the book and page of the original description in the body of the new legal so that the chain of title is clear.
