For some reason I'm getting more irate landowners calling me.?ÿ
This time it's a new out of town buyer.?ÿ
She purchased a property and from her area code she is from a large city.?ÿ
She doesn't like the survey from over a decade ago that shows an easement running along the south side of the property.?ÿ
It wasn't my survey and the surveyor isn't around anymore, so I had to dig a bit into the files to figure out what the easement is. Yes we surveyed the property, did a plat, it was filed, there is an easement and we wrote it, it was granted, the deeds, plats, descriptions are all of record.?ÿ
One reason we file all this is so we don't get these phone calls, although I didn't say that to her as tempted as I was.?ÿ
She is simply ready to sue everyone over this easement, like someone is trying to scam her with it.?ÿ
It's all of record, no one is hiding anything!!!!!!!!!
Hahaha?ÿ Oh man... I think I would have quite a hard time biting my tongue when someone buys something without doing any research first.
Bitch.
just testing the bad word blocker.
Caveat Emptor lady and have a nice day.?ÿ
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
For years I ran the surveying department for an engineering company.?ÿ We surveyed miles of proposed sanitary sewer lines every year.?ÿ The clients, normally, would go ahead and purchase the permanent and construction easements even if the lines would not be constructed for some time.?ÿ I have been, literally, "Cussed out" by a home owner when the construction surveyor shows up to stake and flag for construction.?ÿ The subdivision plat (and I assume the homeowner's plat) clearly showed the easements, but that doesn't matter.?ÿ The VERY IDEA that someone could come through and clear and dig a ditch in their back yard!!!!?ÿ We had one that we, literally, had to redesign and put in a lift station because the (well to do) neighborhood got up in arms and went after the County Commission.?ÿ That's Okay, we got paid again.
Andy
I prepared an easement a few years ago for the co-op that ran 1320' or so along the side of a 20 ac. tract.?ÿ The line was needed to supply a development area behind the 20 acres.?ÿ The easement was obtained and filed but the development never materialized for some reason.
A year or so ago I received a phone call from a lady whom had recently purchased the 20 ac. with her husband.?ÿ The title company had provided her a copy of the easement.?ÿ Her phone call was to ask me to "get rid of the easement".
I tried to tell her that wasn't up to me.?ÿ I tried to explain the nature of easements and such.?ÿ I could tell she felt I was stonewalling.?ÿ I told her to contact someone she trusted, possibly the title attorney at the title company, to explain.
Her husband eventually called me back.?ÿ Apparently his wife's version of the story was that I had told her to "lawyer up".?ÿ Once again I tried to explain the party who sold them the property had dedicated the easement prior to their purchase.?ÿ The husband's sentiment was "he doesn't own it any more, I do".?ÿ ?ÿAfter multiple reiterations he said, "So you're telling me I don't have a say about what's on my land?"?ÿ He did not cotton to that mindset.
The conversation eventually got around to the fact there were no facilities in the easement.?ÿ I told him the proposed development behind him would probably eventually get build and the electric lines would be placed at that time.
His reaction would have been nicer if I had pooped on the kitchen table at Thanksgiving...
He didn't want any development "back there"...he's gonna by gawd sue everybody starting with me...this is America and a man has the right to do what he wants on his own land...yadda yadda...I told him to please contact the co-op.?ÿ End of phone call.
A month or so later I worked the request to get service to the property for new residential construction.?ÿ It was the same folks.?ÿ I prepared their easement and sent it back down the pipeline.?ÿ Never heard a peep from them.?ÿ They signed the new easement and built themselves a really nice house.
I've often wondered how they treated their builder...
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I think I have mentioned this in a post before but several years ago I was contracted by a water district to survey for a possible reroute of a future 72"+ water transmission line.?ÿ Apparently someone had purchased a rural property with cash, forgoing a title search, and sank their retirement money on building a house as an investment.?ÿ Turns out they built on top an easement acquired decades before for the future line.?ÿ According the the water bureau, the developer's attorney called asking how soon the city could vacate the easement.?ÿ The reply was not what they wanted to hear, something more like how soon can you get your house off of our easement.?ÿ A deal was struct that if a new route could be found that worked for the massive pipe and all of the effected land owners agreed to the new location of the easement, the City would move the easement.?ÿ All of this was done at the developers expense.?ÿ It took about 5 or 6 large tracts to agree, but they were able to reroute the easement.?ÿ I don't think the developer made much money on the deal.?ÿ Everyone just bent him over a piece of pipeline so to speak.
Tried to explain to a client today how he needed to make sure he obtained an ingress/egress easement from the seller (his father-in-law) because without it the tract I am to survey will be landlocked.?ÿ He pointed to an existing gravel road between a major power line and the neighbor's fence and said that he would go in and out over that existing route.?ÿ Again, I tried to explain that just because something exists does not mean you have the right to use it.?ÿ I am certain his lender will point that out to him a bit more emphatically before the closing date.
They should be calling whoever represented them at closing.?ÿ Either they dropped the ball or the excited new home owners had it go in one ear and out the other.
Caller: I bought my house 2 weeks ago. Do I need a survey?
Me:?ÿ You're a few weeks to late.
I usually ended up doing the survey. Never asked if the Realtor in any way?ÿ discoraged them from getting a survey prior to closing.
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I am always tempted to ask during these kind of calls: "What part of 'due' and 'diligence' don't you understand?"
People just don't understand easements.?ÿ Some wonder why they're not getting paid when a utility comes in to install or maintain.?ÿ I explain that the easement and rights were there when they bought, and also, maybe that's why they got a good deal, because of the easement rendered some of their land un-developable.?ÿ?ÿ But they still wonder why they're not getting paid something.
An easement for pipelines paid 50 cents in the 1930's per rod of length of the 120-foot wide easement crossing the property.?ÿ No limit on the number of pipelines or what was inside of them.?ÿ Two of the eight pipelines now have fiberoptic cable inside instead of liquids.?ÿ Current owner gets zip.
The current owner gets everything he bargained for and was free not to buy it.?ÿ?ÿ
iTs working, B _ _ _ _ is a perfectly legal word in dog breeding, so i presumed you were calling her a breeding dog.?ÿ ??? ???? ?????ÿ
His reaction would have been nicer if I had pooped on the kitchen table at Thanksgiving...
Maybe they like Thanksgving poops?
Im totaly using this one someday, cataloged!
The funny thing is the client probably put the yard back nicer than it was to begin with.
It is my understanding that the courts have have ruled that because the word "transmission" is used in the easement verbiage that this would include the transmission of data.
Heard the same thing concerning the installation of telegraph and telephone lines down railroads.