My sister is attempting to engage a surveyor to perform a boundary survey on a property she is looking to by in SW Michigan. She sent me two of the proposals that she got. They both say that she has to provide deeds and/or title reports for the property. Is this normal in MI? Here we are responsible for doing all the deed research back to creation. Also, any thoughts on reputable surveyors in the Portage/Kzoo area is appreciated.
Being from the Great Lake State and surveyed there for about 28 yr (14 of which were self employment just up the road from KZoo in Grand Rapids), it is considered standard procedure for the client to provide the legal description. Hopefully via a current title commitment. If the surveyor detects something amiss, we would generally call their title company or go do additional research to CYA.
Here in AZ I'm lucky to get a tax ID number or address, let alone a deed, so we are pretty much on our own. But we get the luxury of charging accordingly, which can be a real challenge in MI.
edit: Oh yea, this guy used to work for me. Finished college and went on as a PLS and started his own deal. Good guy. Paul Scutter in Caledonia, maybe 30 miles from KZoo. http://www.schuttersurveying.com/
This guy is in Grand Rapids and bought all my stuff when I moved to AZ. Chris Gower at 616-863-9508, or 616-430-1486. Really good guy and has been at it for as long as me.
Don't really know many in KZoo area though.
How is a surveyor supposed to know which site to survey without a title report.
Here is why just a deed won't do: A gentleman brought in his deed, which I copied, and said he needed a land survey. I set it up, and the crew reported something was amiss, by about five feet. Sure enough, the man who gave us the deed had sold off five feet, but failed to tell me. His deed, of course, showed what he purchased, not what he currently owned. That taught me a lesson.
How about something obvious: The child care center at a certain intersection, urgently needed, title report to follow. Unknown to us, there was the obvious child care enter, and then there was the one across the street hidden behind the shopping center. Turned out that is the one he meant. That taught me a lesson too.
Fair enough Bruce. I've never worked out your way. I have never received a title report for any of the many, many boundary surveys I have worked on.
Here in Virginia about the only time we are given anything is for an ALTA - and then we still have to research adjoiners. Normally the surveyor is responsible for all research for the property being surveyed, all adjoiners, and anything else we feel we need.
In fact, most attorneys expect us to get them started so they know what to look for.
Typical call around here fits one of two scenarios. Caller: I live at 520 South Highland and need my land surveyed so I can build a privacy fence. Other Caller: I own the north half of the northeast quarter of section suchandsuch and want to keep the house and roughly five acres and sell the rest.
ALTAs are the only ones where title work is done by others.
The surveyors MUST become adept at reading all the deeds. Not just the tract to be surveyed, but its adjoiners as well. We normally don't have the luxury of being handed even a simple deed for a simple job. We figure it out as part of our service.
Around here it is not uncommon to just get an address and you have to pull the deed references yourself. Sometimes the client will have a copy of the deed, but I always check to see if it's the latest and also pull copies of all the adjoiners as it rarely reflects parcels sold off since the deed was drawn up. Just had one recently that the deed was for 20 acres, but there was less than 2 left that had not been sold away.