All to common for me. Research the record and find several versions of the description. I have the original when the parcel was created. Then maybe changes from rods or chains to feet. Then maybe added or dropped calls for corners. Then new bearings added when the original was just cardinal. This all for a parcel that has never been split or altered by a boundary adjustment. Maybe conveyed 5 to 10 times.
So which description is the record description. Which description should you survey and cite as your record description you are surveying. Should a surveyor add his own description to the pile.
The weird thing is, it is usually the early descriptions that sort it out for me when it's all jumbled up. The later ones seem to be someone trying to fix some perceived problem but it just seems to me it gets worse, not better.
So what about the chain of title. They say you can sell what you don't own. So did the last guy convey what the original guy that created the parcel intended. How would you prove it?
For example take an aliquot part something like the SW1/4 of the NE1/4 from 1890. Then some guy in 2012 gets some record and bearing four times over down to the hundredth of a foot and the POB being the center of the section which is pincushioned 3 times. Is this an improvement?
Why can't we just leave the record alone and report what we measured along the boundaries (Record vs. Measured)?
That's pretty much the way most people are going in my area. The hesitation was because it was such a royal pain in the butt to double label everything with the older software. It's easier today and most survey drafters tend to do it that way now. The guy stamping it sees the advantage of covering himself and goes along with it. A good cartographic drafter can save you a lot of heart ache. 😉
Reasons To Cite An Earlier Deed
To correct a missing course in a later deed.
To correct a scriveners error in course or distance in recent deeds.
To cite a called for marker ommitted in later deeds.
To cite an call for a senior line, whose markers you choose to accept over your current deed calls.
Paul in PA
