I'd tell them I need to research the land records before I can give them a fee.
From the geometry of the improvements and "encroachments" I'd guess that there has been some sort of lot line adjustment out there (by whatever mechanism they use in that municipality) and it hasn't been reflected in the GIS
One could hope a change was recorded. Otherwise, recheck the state's acquiescence rules.
Checking deeds is essential. The history of the deeds, not just the most recently recorded.
Thirty years ago we encountered a situation where a ten foot strip had been sold to two parties on the same day and recorded the same day. I forget the exact numbers now, but, let's say it was five lots that were much longer north and south than east and west with the north and south distance being 120 feet. The prior owner sold the north 80 feet of all five lots to one party and the south 50 feet of all five lots to another party. The date of that sale was over 40 years prior to when I was called in. 80+50=130 not 120
Thank you, everyone, for all the great responses; unfortunately, this happens way to often, in my neck of the woods.
I've come to the conclusion that either; back in the day, they didn't care; or, they bullied their way into doing what they want, because the person doing the permitting was the mayors brother in-law and didn't know what he was doing.
I've seen a lot of crazy scenarios; then when I present the problem to the client; I get a deer in the headlights look and they blame me! And their jaw drops when I tell them how much more they will need to spend.
Attorney's love these scenario's! Their eyes light up with dollar signs when clients come to them!
I don't remember things being this bad when I worked in Nebraska; how are things in your area?
Thanks again
Dougie
Contractor- But they just want to build a deck!?!
Sometimes getting a survey is like going to the doctor and getting an MRI...there is a reason they only do these things when it is actually needed.
Of course some contractor cheaping out on a survey is why that area looks that way in the first place...
They just want to build a house.
They just want to build a driveway.
They just want to build a fence.
(and if they hire a surveyor, that eats into the budget for the important person in this story...the contractor)
it's ok..
a survey only costs 3-500 dollars per the Internet....
What do the good people of this board tell their clients when they see something like this:
I would probably assume the GIS is somehow wrong actually, but I'd tell the client it's not possible to know for sure prior to doing the survey.
My standard comment to the client is that the GIS crew is tasked with a nearly impossible job. Mistakes can happen very easily. For example, the sides of the block and the lots within that block are based on the street sides. If the intersection of the streets is incorrect, everything else will be incorrect. If the street is shown to be 40 feet from centerline but the true dimension is 50 feet, then the entire block will be off by that amount.
Mistakes can happen very easily
Back in the early days of GIS; we had a GIS'r from the county come to a local chapter meeting. On of the points she brought up was; an area where you could see the error propagate when she ran the rubber sheeting to resolve those errors.
I knew this area; The county found the North 1/4 corner of the section in 1924. A surveyor, working on a plat in the NE 1/4 didn't accept it because it missed the split by 100' and set a new one.
Some surveyors accepted the corner the county found and some accepted the new corner set by jack-leg surveyor.
The GIS'rs don't want to resolve these kinds of problems, so they just shrug their shoulders and walk away; oh well.
I bet we all could list what would be hundreds of examples of such cases where the poor people at the GIS office can only shake their heads and throw up their hands because the expert measurers don't agree with the true tapestry everyone else has taken to be correct.
My grandmother and mother were very good hand quileters for decades. There is a reason why the term "crazy quilt" was coined.
the term "crazy quilt" was coined
My Wife is a quilter, as was her mother. My wife managed a fabric store for over 25 years. This is the first time I've heard of this. Not that I don't agree...
My wife also went a long time thinking that there was no such thing as lefthanded scissors. Even though I told her I cried in Kindergarten, when other kids made fun of me for needing to use them.
The crazy quilt is constructed of non-uniform pieces of varying sizes, color patterns and shapes. The stitching style may also vary.
https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/history-of-the-crazy-quilt
In our area some counties have very good gis. In others the parcels don’t even look like the deeds or plats in any shape or form. A county we are doing now a parcel has several jogs and looks line someone randomly through slices of pizza and connected them as the laid. The deed is front a creek. Back a river and sides parallel. Lots on each side all rectangular basically. I had to locate 3 tracts just to get mine in close. But it looks nothing like the gis.
