We are our worst enemy.
I would record the plat and see about getting a Deed of Correction filed, which would reference the plat. Of course, if there are bankers involved in this it could get complicated. If your survey is in accordance with the deeds and the monuments on the ground, there is no need for any sort of agreement between the parties.
Property tax ramifications?
As a non-surveyor I was wondering, how would this correction affect the property taxes of both owners? Would filing new/corrected deeds alert the assessors? I realize this may differ around the country.
Thanks!
Melita
Luckily there are no bankers involved with the properties affected.
Because the adjoining owner's legal description does not define actual angles/distances, and my client's legal description prior to the previous survey is bounded by adjoiners only, we have chosen to show an agreed upon property line between the two properties on the plat to established the exact location of their common line. The plat will also have an owner's certification signed by the current owners stating that they are in agreement with the location as shown. This will benefit not only the current owners, but also future owners of the properties and any future surveyors.
A wrong survey, record or not, cannot change the existing boundaries. Monument the correct deed calls. Show the bogas survey evidence as rejected. Write a narative giving the essential facts and explanations that will help all who follow your footsteps. No new agreement should be needed.
> Thank you very much 🙂
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> I would gladly submit the plat to a planning commission, but there isn't one in the area where this property is located, which is in a very rural area of East Tennessee. Several years ago, there were state planners appointed to the areas that did not have planning departments, but that is no longer the case. I do deal with planning departments in other areas close by and have talked with acquaintances there regarding this property ... if this property was in your jurisdiction, how would you have me handle this?
Well, that's interesting. I don't deal with any jurisdictions that don't have some sort of approval process, so I don't really know. Basically I was saying submit it to whoever approves divisions/adjustments, but if that county doesn't have one... the point is kinda moot.
And to be clear, my county has a Planning Department (which handles small divisions and adjustments administratively) and a Planning Commission that deals with larger subdivisions and variances and such and work in conjunction with the PD. The PC is a board of volunteer citizens while the PD are employees of the county. I just wanted to make that clear. In one very rural neighboring county, the building inspector used to handle the division issues, but they were cosmetic, at best.
Carl
EDIT: I think I misread that at first. If it were in my jurisdiction, I'd prepare a plat, stating all the historical evidence and then state a source of title for both parties, have the parties sign the plat (notarized of course), then the county would approve (sign/stamp) it. Then (in this case), I'd probably have them take it to a lawyer and have either Deeds of Correction or Deeds of Confirmation done (now being done quite a bit here) for each party and have the plat recorded with one or each.
I'm not disagreeing with the need for a current survey to depict the boundaries, I'm disagreeing with the need of the parties to "agree" to the boundary when it isn't necessary. I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but I don't believe it is necessary as long as the plat is put on record.
I agree with this completely. Many times I have told clients that a jacked up survey does not change title. I had one here a while back where the previous surveyor had screwed up the survey to the benefit of the adjoiner. They were insistant that my client's deed only went to a certain point, and they (adjoiners) owned past that, even though their deed did not call for that property (a gore, if you will).
I kind of read all the above and all I can say is everybody is right IMO. You are right in raising a red flag. Careful to raise two, even if they are small. 😉
I'm not fully with the crowd of just citing deeds and calling people off, cash the check, and move on though. I'd rather save the day and be the hero.
From what I read it seems both parties are at least in somewhat of an agreement. Not the case in too many situations. Client is along the lines of "do what is right, and if that's what she owns... so be it". Adjoiner always thought it was theirs in the first place. Not many lay persons can even read a deed, let alone know the consequences and how it fits the earths surface. I'd think a deed describing a line as "center of the hollow" is gospel. Could be some Jr/Sr rights issues involved too.
Sounds like a classic scenario for some kind of re-plat and/or property line adjustment where all parties agree. If they have 15 or 16 acres vs 20, could be 25, so be it. Welcome to the club, happens all the time in Gov't lots, etc. Then you'll be that hero.
I've run across some older recorded plats that weren't even good enough for toilet paper. The monuments didn't fit the numbers, let alone descriptions. At least the guy recorded it, so you have something
Good luck
I agree on this. There is no reason for a boundary agreement because the line isn't being disputed. You've done your homework and determined where the deeded boundary is truly located. If it were my survey, I would show all of the lines on your plat, even the lines from the previous survey. But I would draw the shoddy surveyor's lines with a light pen weight and label them something like "line as shown on previous survey performed by.... etc" and then bold up the correct lines and annotate them as "line by deed (DB XXX, PG XXX)" and include the old fences and such to back up your survey.
You did a good job on this one though. Its sad that many surveyors refuse to do their homework.
Good point Larry. I've researched the legal definition of "gross error" as it pertains to surveys. All of the cases I've found that address it recognize "gross error" as being something so large that it significantly changes the character of the parcel in terms of acreage or location.
I've seen no cases that identify errors as "gross" that do not alter the area of the overall parcel by at least 1/3. For your survey, the error between your client's parcel and the 20 acre (or 15.5 acre) parcel may be considered gross relative to the smaller parcel (3 acres vs 15 or 20), but not relative to your clients parcel.
There is a case cited in Skelton that I have not been able to find an actual transcript of the opinion itself, in which a waterfront parcel of 2 or 3 acres was involved. The parcel was understood to exist between a road and a river and to have a home on it. When surveyed, the surveyor placed it on the upland side of the road and the home was some significant distance completely off of it. The fact that the home existed on it for so long (and may have been mentioned in the conveyance), and that one boundary was described as being the bank of the river, and that the surveyor placed it in a location where the house was not on it and where no part of it touched the river, made it gross.
In addition to all the great advice you are getting as to referencing all the pertinent tile documentation and correlating it to field evidence, and of including a narrative describing your methods and decisions, I understand that you also want to make clear that you are not changing any property lines but merely correcting them. I would start the narrative with something like this:
>>This survey was performed to correct errors in the previous survey of this parcel, filed in Volume XX of Maps at Page YYY, as those errors have been identified by various affected landowners. In the course of perfoming this survey, additional errors were identified and resolved. ...
And then go on with the explanations relative to individual lines and points as advised above.
The more you are able to cite the agreement of various adjoiners, and collect signed statements (or better yet, have them sign statements placed on the map if your statutes allow for that) of their agreement that you have correctly identified the boundaries as they have historically understood them to exist, the more reason you provide to subsequent surveyors to follow and hold your work.
It sounds as though you are doing a great job helping friendy neighbors remain friendly by cleaning up this mess and seeking to document it so well. It's really good when we are able to show people that surveyors don't just make or find problems, but sometimes we fix problems as well.
Great job!