I have a client who has asked me to survey his existing property boundary and set some In-Line iron stakes every "X" feet on the boundary line that is shared with a "particularly disagreeable" neighbor.?ÿ I've never been asked to install new in-line pins before.?ÿ Is this common??ÿ ?ÿ Also, how is it that "bad neighbors" generate so much work for surveyors?
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I've done that a few times and both times the "disagreeable" neighbors yanked everything I had set.
I've done that a few times and both times the "disagreeable" neighbors yanked everything I had set.
Doesn't that become a legal issue then?
I don't know about bad neighbors but the farm I lease for my cows had rebar set every 100 foot minimum and some at 25 and 50 foot in the slopes of wet lands and where terrain changed. It was to make it easier on them when they were building the fence around the property as they did not want to become bad neighbors themselves. About 20 years later as they purchased more properties they had it all re surveyed and asked the Surveyor to locate and show the points on line on the plat. Now re tracing that survey is easy LOL. He has PVC on the T post everywhere a rebar was set online. He even still has guard post T-post or wood post on all the old corners now vacated and inside his property. He was about 93 they said when he passed away. But he was known to everyone as knowing exactly where his property was.?ÿ
The points on-line that I have set with some degree of frequency are 7' t-posts.?ÿ I've never been asked to set pins on-line and personally disagree with doing so.?ÿ My opinion is, someone, some time in the future, will eventually find a pin set on-line and accept that line pin as the corner pin, even with proper plats and stamped caps that give the offset distance to the corner.?ÿ Why tempt fate??ÿ T-posts, set where you can see the ones ahead and behind the one at which you are standing gives the client a visual of their line and doesn't leave evidence for someone to misinterpret in the future.
[Edit] After reading @olemanriver's statement, I think I'll revise my opinion of being totally against the practice of setting pins on-line.
I have had a few requests of the same type of concerns.?ÿ I have set 18" #5 rebars with 1.5" aluminum caps stamped 'POL'.?ÿ Filed the survey in the county and never heard from them again.?ÿ Good boundaries make for good neighbors.
Most of the 'bad neighbors' had a bad survey done and was poorly advised by their surveyor is what I have experienced the most.?ÿ Advice like bulldoze it or sue 'em.
@firestix that depends on whether the clien takes the neighbor to court for reimbursement.?ÿ It's basically a civil matter and I highly doubt that any State Board would act on a civil matter.
Rebar & cap below grade, lath with flagging above grade.
Record of survey with monuments placed dimensioned and shown.
If the neighbor pulls the lath, your client still has the mons. If the neighbor pulls the mons, then your client gets to decide whether to escalate or not.
You might be getting into a hornet's nest with this one. My advice is if you really want to do this, do it right, file the survey, invoice, close the job and stay far away.
I think I would try to talk the client out of that, or at least stake the line points with a hub and lath to avoid having them confused as corner monuments later on.
Years ago we had to go back to stake one of these contentious lines between neighbors, crazy neighbor kept pulling the stakes, even took a bulldozer to a fence built on the line. So what this guy did was replaced our stakes with 8" well head casing, buried 6' deep and concreted in. They'd have stopped a tank. Problem solved.
@williwaw Sounds kinda like what a friend did.?ÿ Someone kept running over their mailbox.?ÿ It was on a tangent and there was no reason to hit it accidentally.?ÿ He went to a heavy equipment dealer and bought a crankshaft out of a D8 dozer with the flywheel attached.?ÿ He buried the flywheel with concrete on top and attached the mailbox.?ÿ A month or so later the mailbox it self was bent but the "post" was upright, although there was a LOT of automobile paint on the post.
Andy
We do this quite often.?ÿ Sometimes iron bars, sometimes T-posts and sometimes painted lath.?ÿ This has much more to do with building straight fences on line than anything else.?ÿ We have even ran a line of similar staking at a certain offset from the line.?ÿ This allows completely clearing whatever is going to block fence construction (in our case 150 year-old hedge trees and 87 strands of differing vintage barb wire).?ÿ Then, install a fence in a straight line based on the offset we used.
Once in a great while we get a similar request on an urban tract because either our client or his neighbor is a PITA, doesn't matter which.?ÿ There we usually set iron bars below grade with painted lath driven in next to each bar.?ÿ I cannot think of an occasion where someone mistook a point on line marker for a property corner.
If you don't set POL close to the corners (how close depending on occupation etc) there should be no confusion with actual corners.
But why not use something other than rebar for them? Heavy sheet metal strips? Tent pegs? Look at a scrap yard?
This is where those gray areas of NC trespass law come into play.?ÿ I would set #5 rebar on at least a 0.068ft offset of the boundary and label it in a way that makes it clear to the neighbor that no portion of the rebar or lathe is on his property (no abbreviations, write a novel if necessary).?ÿ I'd number each stake and record all shots and I might even snap a few photos of my work while being careful not to be caught on the neighbor's land.
An argument can be made that anything set on the line can be removed by either party. Your client will have an easier time recovering damages if you offset the stakes.?ÿ This also gives you the ability to claim that no portion of your body trespassed. CYA?ÿ
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