The division line
between two tracts of land already surveyed is where I am right now. Two surveys that conflict. Actually, the two surveys conflicted until one of them changed to match the other. Now the deed on record for this gal is not what she has and she cannot understand what happened to her property. Rather than go to the surveyor who changed, she sought out a third party to investigate this change and try to find a solution to her dilemma. I don't think this is a survey problem and I'm not really "surveying" one line but I am trying to find senior rights and those lead to the years 1851-1863.
Sometimes these requests to survey one line are crazy. Ok, I'll admit that I dismiss most of them. Sometimes, though, these clients have a legitimate gripe/problem. I'll also be honest and say that I like to be the third guy called into an issue. I think finding a patent that shows the line you're looking for as exciting as finding an old steel pin called for on a plan from 1903. You don't really know how crazy people are until you begin to research beyond the typical checked-a-couple-deeds-back approach.
Heck, your client's bounded on 3 sides by road. This ought to be a piece of cake. 😉
I spoke to her on the phone and actually quoted her a price and didn't tell her what I actually intended to do. So she declined on price rather than scope.
I'll keep this in mind on my next request. I received 5 lot survey requests yesterday and could have used the couple of days work. I expect to get a few of them.
No, she doesn't....I would think she does
It's hers, want it or not. That's the law. The vacating entity had to go through a process, including public notice, for platted lands.
What time is it? This is how you build a watch.
Where do I start??
So many thoughts in so many directions here I'll just hit them in random order.
The lady apparently owns "Lot X in some subdivision". That parcel is defined by the Plat and perfectly described By Lot and Subdivision. Now an entity vacates the Right-of-Way. Under most State Law and circumstance ownership now extends to the Center. I'll run with that as it was in the original post.
If the vacating entity did its job, the vacation process created a description for the parcel or parcels created. The description now exists regardless of my survey. If it was done right I have nothing to add by inserting my measurements. I contend that a better course is record the survey and leave the description alone.
As for what to survey, again this is driven by State law and circumstance. I am picturing a straight Alley with Lots on both sides. My client now has a parcel common to her existing corners at the former right-of-way with side lines perpendicular to Center or proportionate to the frontage. If the evidence of the corners and the Alley are solid there is no need to survey the remainder of the Lot. I certainly have no need to survey the Lot on the other side unless that is the only way to get the Alley.
Short-cutting to get a job on the cheap isn't my thing. I spend quite a bit of time educating folks. Over the years I 've learned to do it without selling services that aren't needed and without insulting the potential client. Perhaps another thread...
Where do I start??
> Short-cutting to get a job on the cheap isn't my thing.
It's also unethical.;-)
As has been stated by others, there may be circumstances under which it is fine to survey one line of a parcel. On other parcels, it just can't be done.
As has also been pointed out, even in those instances where it is fine to give them a survey of just one line, it is usually just as much work, or very nearly so as it would be if you surveyed the entire parcel, so your costs are pretty much the same either way.
In my experience, when someone has called and then said they only need one side surveyed, they're thinking that the cost for the survey they are asking for will be the cost of surveying the whole parcel divided by the number of sides. i.e. a quarter of the cost of a full parcel survey for a 4-sided parcel. And they know how much that is because when they called the first 2 or 3 surveyors on their list about it, they just said "I need a survey" and got prices for the whole thing.
When they would get my price, their reply was something like "That's as much (or more) than Joe Schmoe Land Surveying was going to charge me for surveying the whole thing!"
To which I would reply "That's not surprising since my fee for surveying the whole parcel would be about the same. If you ask a baker to bake you only 2 slices of bread because you only want to make one sandwich, he will still charge you for baking the whole loaf."
Thanks for all the commentary. This just reinforced my initial thoughts and helped developed some new ones. You are all a very helpful community of surveyors.
I often get these requests. If it is one line on a lot, I tell the people I practically have to survey all of the lot lines anyway, so they won't save very much money by only having one line surveyed.
If it's a large tract with many sides, that's a different story. Lines on one side of the tract might not have anything to do with lines on the other side.