I was staking a barn for a client. It was pretty straight forward, but the architect had designed the building too close to a setback. We checked we the architect, and shifted the barn.
The builder shared a story about why he considered surveyors a good investment.
He had been paid $200k to cut 18" off a completed multi-million dollar custom home. It had been built inside a Seattle City Light ROW or setback off some sort.
The first builder had walked away, and the bank hired my client to fix the problem.
Makes me look cheap.
I just completed a job for a local utility in which we ended up re-aligning an existing easement for a future transmission line through five rural properties. The easement was acquired about 30 years ago for a future large diameter pipeline. It seems that someone purchased a parcel that the easement cut trough and built a house right dab smack in the middle of the easement. The property was purchased as an investment without a loan and no title report was ordered. The owner had a survey done which, as is common in this area, did not show easements. After building the house the developer sold the property and that is when the fun began. The purchaser found that the house sat on top of the 100' wide easement. The owner's attorney called my client at asked "how long it was going to take them to vacate the easement". The jurisdiction replied that it was not a question of how long it would take to vacate the easement but how long it would take to remove the house. A compromise was reached in which the developer agreed to pay all costs associated with re-aligning the easement including additional r/w cost. Given the size of the proposed pipe, something like 72", it took five (5) properties to make the shift. I know my part of the bill was not cheap and I'm guessing the r/w agents costs were greater than the survey.
Just goes to show, it pays to have it surveyed. At least get a title report.