Is Your Own Property Surveyed?

My home in town was in a monumented subdivision and when I bought it, we had it surveyed and I know where they all are. One was destroyed from construction, but was a dividing lot line and I owned both lots.

In 2008, I bought two nominally 34-acre tracts. We had surveyed one for the guy who I bought it from in 2000, and we beefed up the corners at his requests to concrete monuments but I beat one around the other day and I need to re-set it.

The other tract I surveyed myself when we were very slow at work and I have not messed with the objects we found.

Most of the places have been surveyed. In a couple of cases, I had surveyed the property at one time and ended up buying it later. A few others had already been surveyed at one time by other surveyors. I have been responsible for surveying several of them. But, there are a few I haven't worried about just yet.

The last place I purchased was surveyed in about 1870. I found all four cornerstones about 15 years ago while doing a section breakdown for a client.

When my wife and I moved from the country to town fifteen years ago, we bought a house in a subdivision. The fellow we bought the house from owned that house and lot and four more then vacant lots between the lot we bought and the entrance to the subdivision.

He had built a detached garage right on the lot line between the lot the house we were buying and the vacant lot next to it. No problem for him, but an instant setback encroachment if I bought the record lot. I refused to buy the lot without getting 10 feet off the adjacent lot to clear the encroachment.

I was not licensed at the time but I did the work under the surveyor for whom I worked at the time. So yes, my lot was surveyed and monumented. Need to put one of them back in because I think it has wandered off somehow or other.

I recently bought 37 acres and it had just been surveyed and monumented. I have big plans for setting concrete around the pins, and setting large galvanized posts at each corner and marking the lines as well. Making the house liveable is first priority.

Now, remember, you can only set the concrete around one-fourth of the pin without encroaching on your neighbors.

Surveyed in conjunction with work on the adjacent property / properties. Concrete monuments at each corner plus the point on line that is a common corner for two neighbors.

Fun story with typical themes; we had surveyed the entire property back in the 80's. The owner decided to subdivide in the early 00's. Once we completed the permitting, he did not want to pay the invoice, so the balance became my down payment on the old house on the grandfathered lot. Of course, the monumentation was in conjunction with a Town requirement, so it was on his dime as he did pay for the construction layout, as-builting and other final details.

3 of the 4 monuments were in place when we bought the property 33 years ago. Shortly after we purchased, I had the company I worked for set the missing S.W. corner and file a Record of Survey map with the County Surveyor. Shortly after that, I fenced all the way around the place.

> I am curious if other surveyors here have their own property corners marked with permanent monuments and if you did anything special.

Nothing special. Got a copy of the previous survey made of our block that re-divided the six original lots into four (the survey was made about 10 years before we moved in). Found all our corner monuments as described on the plat. Easy peasy.

I purchased my home in suburban Portland (platted in 1963) in 1995 without a survey. My north and east boundaries are the exterior boundaries of the plat. To the north is another plat by the same surveyor. The east is vacant land, owned by the county as park, but unimproved wetland. Spec houses all lined up in neat rows. Fence lines were no more than mashed down chicken wire and broken t-posts following a not very straight line.

The former owners had allowed a great deal of metallic trash to pile up amongst the encroaching blackberries. It took me a couple of years before I got things cleaned up to the point where I found even a single corner (2 inch pipe "Initial Point" - something meaningful only to Oregon Surveyors), and another couple to find a second (1/2" rebar in an alder tree root, 70.00' PLAT, 70.77' MEASURED, 70.00' would fall in the middle of the tree).

It wasn't until I had been in the place for well over a decade before I did anything like a comprehensive survey. I never found anything in my front yard. Found one across the street and a couple in the next block. Splitting the curbs fits plat distances better than the monuments. Still, for all the imperfections, I haven't found anything that amounts to a problem.

I still need to search in a couple of my neighbor's back yards before I call this done. Since the recording fee in Washington County is $400, I probably won't set or record anything unless I have to.

And BTW, the surveyor who did the plat lost his license a few years after I purchased.

I live in a 205 lot subdivision in which we staked all of the lots and provided most of the surveying for new home construction. I had a competitor survey my lot and lay out the house so I wouldn’t have to sue myself if it was wrong.

He set pins in the rear of my lot 0.16’ away from the pins we had previously set and held the front. Now I know one of the “pincushioners” in my locale.

Have a great week! B-)

I live in a simple lot and block suby from the mid 70's. I looked for the corners when I first moved in but didn't find any. I found utility lines right on the front line & one side and imported Rock landscaping on the back line and other side. I have 4 neighbors adjoining my lot and all of them are original owners. They told me a judge owned the lot to start with and he brought in all the landscaping that most likely wiped out the original mons. One neighbor is the one who built all the fences for about 10 houses around me.

So are there any boundary problems even though the monuments are no longer there? Nope. I live by my fences in harmony with the rest of my neighbors. I guess Im just waiting for some surveyor to come in and muck it up before I break out the total station. 😉

Yes

I purchased a house in a subdivision about 3 years ago. I had a friend and former co-worker do the survey for me. I assisted with the fieldwork. We found all 4 corners. 2 of them are very well protected. The 2 front corners are just rebar, but it would take heavy equipment to get them out, our hill is all shale after 2 inches of top soil.

There are 3 lots that back up to our lot on the east side, and we found 3 of the 4 corners on that line. We did not look for the other one and after looking at the survey, I do not want to mark it for them. Becasue we live on a very steep hill, the dirveway angles up to the house and has a curve in it. The curve gets with 0.5' of the property line. We have a drive gate into the back yard on the east side of the house, at the back corner of the house. The only problem is that the front corner of our house is only 8.5 feet from the property line. That makes it a little hard to drive into the back yard without getting on the neighbors. They do not know where the property line is and I think I will not give them free information. I only drive inot the back yard one or two times a year, but want to be able to do that.

I have surveyed every parcel my family and I have ever owned.

Some properties I surveyed years before they were purchased and some just because monuments were missing.

My present office/part time residence has a pin cushion where another surveyor set his rod with cap touching the existing rod a few years after I moved in.

Two monuments on the back road usually are knocked out every few years by the county or neighbors and the last time by rural water company. None have ever been supportive or man up to their error or to be responsible for replacing them.

I use that property to teach my helpers and candidates for PC and IMan to prove their worth before I send them on any solo work.

I have always set typical 1/2 inch rebar with cap and in needed places longer segments and even buried some short iron, pig iron or wagon hub several feet below the surface.

There are on site and off site referencing hubs to replace most of them when needed.

Yes

My uncle bought a lot years ago that had iron pipes at all 4 corners. He decided to "preserve" them and his property rights by driving them down 6 feet. I just shook my head and told him that a Schonstedt wouldn't detect them, and no surveyor would dig down that deep. I'm sure they're still down there.

NO

I'm up against a municipality on 2 sides (side and rear), which also happens to be a conservation area.

"They" have monuments that don't match mine, by 1/3 of the acreage!

I'm enjoying my extra 1/3 of acreage, without paying x1.3 of my taxes.

:angel:

I surveyed my current primary home two owners ago for an addition. I did an update when we bought, found three of the four corners, and did not/am not going to set the fourth in the center line of our driveway/dirt road.

I started doing one at my other home because of a conflict with the neighbor. After he saw us out there surveying he cleared up the conflict area within a week, so I haven't been back over there, surveying anyway! Found two iron pipes that are pretty good, not to concerned about the other two corners...

How about you Jerry? What's your status on this? 😉

I have had a hand in finding/setting/surveying the corners for all 3 properties that I have lived in with my folks, and my dad's mother. All were in subdivisions of some sort.

#1: 203 Woodrow Street, Marietta (Devola), OH. I was probably about 8 or 9 with my dad (OH PS 6070). This was about 1977. Old subdivision from about 1913 or so, I think Dad found iron at all 4 corners of the lot. He probably found all the corners for the neighbors too.

#2: 118 W. North St, Bridgeport, WV. This was after we moved to VA. This was in 1991. The house had sat vacant for about 3 years after Anchor Hocking shut down in Clarksburg. There was a glut of houses on the market. The opening of the FBI Fingerprint center changed that. Dad did the plat for the transfer from him and mom to the new owners to save a few bucks I think. He surveyed it under his WV PE right before they stopped allowing it. Found 3 of 4 corners, so had to reset one. Utility upgrades to the phone lines had knocked out the NE corner in the back yard.

#3: 1120 Hans Meadow Road, Christiansburg, VA. I have surveyed this lot several times for various reasons. A tree survey, one to learn our old equipment, one to learn my new equipment (robot). All of the irons are in. One is about 2' deep, so we dug it out, shot it, double measured offset nails with a plumb bob, set a pipe over it, adjusted the pipe, filled it in, etc. It's in good position. I don't have anything set in concrete, but I have good PVC witnesses in the back and short fiberglass "bike flag" witnesses at the front to not be soooo noticeable. The lot lines are not good compared to the subdivision plat... but the whole neighborhood sucks in that respect.

#4: Dad did a redivision of the lots behind the house for the bank. We ended up with one for awhile, now since sold. As I remember, the ones at the street right of way were very deeply buried. A real pain in the arse to get to.

#5: When my grandmother was selling her house, we did a "Lot Line Vacation" for her and made it one parcel so that the next owner couldn't divvy up the lots without going through the hoops. The purpose was to keep the neighborhood like it was, rather than the possibility of much denser dwellings. The new owners didn't say a thing. They were happy to have a survey.

Carl

Well, let's see.

1. I bought 60 acres from my cousin that was split on paper by my great great grandaddy. As far as I know, it's never been surveyed.

2. I bought a lot in town that was part of a subdivision from the 60's. I don't think it's been surveyed since.

3. I bought 20 acres of pasture with a house on it that was surveyed by the firm I work for in 1997, before I started. I'm still not exactly sure of where all the corners are.

Fine spokesman for the profession I am.

Surveyed all my properties in Florida and Kentucky....my last house here in Kentucky had two corners missing, so I set rebar with Aluminum Caps....not my usual plastic caps....nothing but the best for this rascal...;-)