Only happened to me once. Did a survey that revealed that one land owner had been mining gravel well over into his neighbors property. My client was a third party. The trespasser, quite the character, approached me and asked me quietly how much it would take for me to move my stakes to make it appear that all of the extraction was limited to his property. In short, lie.
I looked at him for a long moment without saying anything while taking this all in and then burst out laughing. He didn't seem to see the humor in the situation so I asked him, 'What's your reputation worth?. Sooner or later the truth will come out. Go pound sand.'
My services may be leased to the highest bidder, but I won't be bought. I consider my reputation to be my single most valuable asset, besides my charm and good looks of course. 😉
I tell them to sum the total I expect to earn for the remainder of my career as a licensed professional. Once the check clears I will forfeit my license.
As I get older, I should consider changing the terms.
No. But I did once have a Real Estate Agent demand that we show an easement that didn't exist. He claimed that the lack of an easement was going to cost him his quite hefty commission and we had to show the easement. At the time he was Chairman of the County Commission and I think he figured that if he demanded loudly enough we would cave and show what he wanted.
In a way, I was kinda insulted that he never even offered to "make it worth the effort". The property involved was a several million dollar industrial plant so even a small percent commission would add up to a nice figure. Of course, his odds of success were zero. But even so he could have at least offered.
Larry P
> Only happened to me once.
Same here, in the mid-80s, before I was working under my own license. A guy with a fancy house in a golf course subdivision hired us to map his existing layout in order to plan an addition. The survey revealed that he had already built over his lot line (these are very unusual lots -- circular), and his planned addition would make things worse. He offered an unspecified sum for us to change the survey to show everything within the lot. I politely declined, and we discontinued work on the project.
I know exactly where you are talking about.
Dumb idea, circular lots.
Years ago I topo'd one of those for another surveyor. We found the only lot monument, a rebar at the center point, I'm sure it's gone now if the house was built. Both the neighbor houses are over their lot lines into the common area not to mention landscaping and fences. At least the circles don't touch. The rebars are under the houses.
Circular Lots
>
> Dumb idea, circular lots.
>
> Years ago I topo'd one of those for another surveyor. We found the only lot monument, a rebar at the center point, I'm sure it's gone now if the house was built. Both the neighbor houses are over their lot lines into the common area not to mention landscaping and fences. At least the circles don't touch. The rebars are under the houses.
I sure would like to see a copy of the plat with circular lots.
Sorry for the hijack.
I have had many proclamations of what someone would do if I would look the other way and mostly they were a long list of lies.
Most people are too cheap to actually offer anything of monetary worth and are usually matched with their threats to my future business relation with them and their friends.
IMVHO, I don't want clients that make those deals and expect me to guarantee problems to disappear or to always favor in their way.
Karma is a wicked mistress.
In every percentage deal I have made, everyone else involved busted the deal to keep me out of any big money and nobody made any money.
Early on in my career, every finder fee offered for finding a buyer for wood, sand, gravel or other worthy product wound up in my boss' pocket and I never got a cent. Nowadays, I keep my mouth shut unless it is on paper.
😉
Circular Lots
Don't think I've even heard of such an animal. How would one go about reestablishing lines on the ground if the only control is a radius point underneath someone's house? Primaries on the exterior boundary?
Hijack away my good man!
It seems to me that there should be a minimum number of monuments required to be put on the circumference of a circular lat. 6 maybe? 8?. How is an owner to know the extent of his property?
'Karma is a wicked mistress'
Agreed.
I was offered a bribe from a well known oil company to continue work at a very remote site through Christmas. We had already been on site for 30 some days.
My party chief at the time said at would take a new snowmobile for me, and a new snowmobile for his son.
Needless to say, we got to spend Christmas with our families.
> Ever been offered a bribe?
yes......;-)
Circular Lots
> How would one go about reestablishing lines on the ground if the only control is a radius point underneath someone's house? Primaries on the exterior boundary?
What's a "Primary"?
To define the circle, if the center was not able to be occupied (which would probably be the case unless it was a glass house:-D ), would be a minimum of two points on the circle, or the location of some of the other referenced property centers, correct?
Circular Lots
A primary is typically a standard full size monument, not a 5/8" rebar with a plastic cap and is typically set on the 'primary' exterior corners of a subdivision. If you had a rectangular shaped parent parcel that was sliced and diced into multitudes of lots and roads, the primaries would typically monument the four corners of the parent parcel with all the interior lot corners and ROW PC & PT's getting a 'secondary', usually a rebar topped with either a plastic or stamped aluminum cap. The plat should contain sufficient information to allow for another future surveyor to mathematically compute the radius point for these circular lots off of the primary corners alone. Short of that, said future surveyor is 'skwewed' if he can't find enough interior control to pin the boundaries down with confidence.
Circular Lots
> Don't think I've even heard of such an animal. How would one go about reestablishing lines on the ground if the only control is a radius point underneath someone's house? Primaries on the exterior boundary?
>
> Hijack away my good man!
Images courtesy of DK and other friends...
Was the subdivision with the circular lots designed by a landscape architect?
Many years ago, there was landscape architect in my area who did subdivision plats. But I don't recall him doing the circular lot thing.
He did seem to like many curves in the street and parallel curving rear lot lines. They are a pain, also.
Very interesting.
Over the years, I, too, have be unsuccessfully bribed. Always thought laughingly to myself, if the bribe were a couple million dollars, I might would think about!!! Not really.
Circular Lots
Polka lots.
I would have designed them using compound curves. Maybe throw in a spiral.
Amoeba lots. 😀
Agreed. Pretty stupid use of space. More suited for hobbits.
Maybe not a bribe but once a guy wanted to seal a set of foundation plans so he could get a building permit. All he needed was me to stamp it and although we didn't talk money the guy was suggesting that he'd pay what ever I wanted. I told him I do have a PE license and I don't do that sort of work and if I did I'd need to be the designer and go through the whole set of plans. Now I knew at least one guy that would have done it for $50-100 dollars, no questions asked, just fork over the cash. I decided not to give the guy the name but he probably found him within a couple of calls after me.
> > Ever been offered a bribe?
>
> yes......;-)
Say no more, right?
😉
You dog. 😉
Funny in parts of the world where pork and alcohol are forbidden, that would be the greatest of insults and yet I mean it as the greatest of compliments. 🙂
