Ring, Ring

I recently did the same thing. Told the guy I'd be out there on a Tues. morning.
Pulled up to the address and the lot had, what appeared to be, a new fence. I checked the address and called the homeowner.
He said that the fence company had come the day before and installed the new fence. I asked him if he still wanted me to proceed as a check. He said to go ahead.
Well, on the right side, as his property line went to the rear, the fence began to drift over the line. By the time we got to the rear, it was 6' over the line.
Personally, I don't think a lot of fence companies care. If I owned a fence company, I'd require a surveyor to flag the corners. It would add a few hundred dollars, but at least all liability would be taken off you.

We did a gorilla stakeout last week. Nice lady called (surveyed her lot about 15 years ago), having a problem with her neighbor. I know the guy, surveyed his place last summer and he did not like the outcome, so he just got bigger elbows then he had before. Then we were called to survey the lot on the other side, then to the rear of him. Nobody like this guy, and he is involved in several lawsuits. Anyway, made the arrangements with the nice lady and we were at her place on a day when the neighbor was known to wok out of town. We showed up at 7:30, recovered the common irons, and checked their location. Everything jived with the prior, and last summers surveys, we then proceeded to mark several point on the line, and were out of there shortly after the fence company showed up. They hit is really hard and had the whole job completed by 5pm that day. No problems with the problem neighbor either.

Does any jurisdiction have rules requiring identification of corner monuments before putting up a fence? (With emphasis on preserving said monuments.) Even if they relied on found pins without a current survey, a great many problems would be avoided. If there were no monuments found then requiring a survey would definitely head off trouble.

The former owner of the lot next to mine put up a fence and apparently wanted to be sure he wasn't over the line, but didn't locate any pins. By my reckoning, based on found rebars, he gave up use of a foot on my side, 2 feet in back (hedge), and a foot and a half on the opposite side. At least it's all in the neighbors' favor.

Not in my little burg Bill. But fences in subdivisions around here are not boundary lines nor are considered definitive. With our winds, and such then a fence has to be rebuilt every 10 years or such. With my neighbors then we build a new fence before we take down the old one that is falling. So the fence moves back and forth. No one considers these the property lines but just temporary boundaries to contain pets and such.

No one thinks they are the actual property lines.

> Does any jurisdiction have rules requiring identification of corner monuments before putting up a fence? (With emphasis on preserving said monuments.) Even if they relied on found pins without a current survey, a great many problems would be avoided. If there were no monuments found then requiring a survey would definitely head off trouble.
>
> The former owner of the lot next to mine put up a fence and apparently wanted to be sure he wasn't over the line, but didn't locate any pins. By my reckoning, based on found rebars, he gave up use of a foot on my side, 2 feet in back (hedge), and a foot and a half on the opposite side. At least it's all in the neighbors' favor.

Bill, not that I know of in my neck of the woods (Christiansburg, VA). I recently did one in Radford, VA that the city "strongly suggested" that they get a survey before building any fences. I suspect that is because Radford is known locally to have many lots that don't close correctly if they aren't 90° common lots. I think the city recognizes that also. That was the situation here. Corner lot in a hilly part of town, but the math simply didn't work. Luckily, I found 3 out of the 4 lot corners and put the 4th in for them. City regs say you can build fences right on the line, but they have height requirements. They can only be 4' high if they run along a street r/w, but they can be 6.5' high if it is an interior line, or along an alley (whether the alley is in use or not).

My town (and I'll bet Blacksburg too) "suggests" only building to the Public Utility Easement if your lot has them (usually 7.5' off the lot line). But they can't make you do it. They threaten and make you fully aware if there are no public utilities currently in that easement, that any entity can come in and use it if they feel the need to. If the fence gets harmed, so be it. No recourse, in fact the home owner might have to pay for the time it takes to have it removed. From the late 60's until the late 90's most subdivisions had a blanket statement Public Utility and Drainage Easements written into the General Notes of the Subdivision. After the late 90's they started to do it a little differently... every other lot... along the street only... along the back lines... separate and unique public utility from drainage...

> Does any jurisdiction have rules requiring identification of corner monuments before putting up a fence? (With emphasis on preserving said monuments.)<

We put it such a requirment in our subdivision homeowner's covenants. Guess who was Homeowner Association president and suggested it? 🙂 Actually other owners agreed it was a good idea when I explained on what everyone's liablities for clouding title was if they went without. Acutally fences are discouraged and only allowed with approval of the HOA... We only have a few. Mostly to keep the bears and moose out of the gardens.

Here, if you pull a building permit for the fence, a survey dated within one year is required.

There are HOA's here locally that require that the fence be built ON the property line.

In the little village I live in, they want a Boundary Survey submitted with the fence permit documents. I don't blame them in the least little bit for that requirement. My neighbors and I get along just fine without any fences, but it's nice to know they'd have to get a survey before they could build one... If I wanted to build a fence, I'd probably have a fool for a client and see if the village noticed that the homeowner signed and sealed his own survey. If they complained, I'd pull out the previous survey and explain how I was present a dozen years ago when that survey was performed, so technically the survey under my own signature would qualify as an update. 😉