> No, the deed descriptions still call for the hickory tree. The 1998 survey was recorded because the surveyor's client recorded it. WV is not a mandatory recording state.
Well, this is an easy fix. One of our sayings in this office is a jacked up survey doesn't convey title. If West Virginia is like Tennessee, the recorded plat (survey) does not trump the legal description. Survey the line like it is supposed to be, and then notify the other surveyor and the adjoiner. The neighbor shouldn't be too torn up over it, since the error is to his benefit.
The adjoining survey illustrates one of my pet peeves. You cannot project a line in that fashion. Very rarely was everything originally laid out in a straight line as was intended.
Did you say that the descriptions of all properties that touch the "hickory corner" call out the hickory tree? Is the line south of the hickory described the same in all deeds?
Plant a hickory tree next to the rebar and call it good?
Gotta love West Virginia surveying
> The 1998 surveyor created a gap between the two properties. Has the rebar become the corner? Has the passage of 17 years relegated the original hickory tree to "just a tree"? What are your thoughts?
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> 
Surveyors cannot create a boundary (it's not their property). Only a written conveyance by the landowner can create a boundary. Therefore, there can be no surveyor-created gap.
What you need to concentrate on is answering the question, "Did the landowners place sufficient reliance upon the surveyor's rebar to establish the boundary?" From what you've posted, I'd say not. You haven't really stated what evidence (or lack of evidence) exists to indicate a reliance upon the rebar. I assume from that there is none.
To the contrary, you've recovered direct evidence of the original boundary and are showing construction of a fence made in apparent reliance upon the Hickory. All signs of an established boundary based upon the clearly expressed intent of the original common grantor.
It seems you have no basis for showing the green lines in support of the rebar. Mistakes and blunders of surveyors don't establish boundaries. The actions of the landowners after the surveyor has walked away that establishes the boundary.
JBS
Why is it that somebody always comes along and try to rewrite history?
Around here it is usually because they have done enough research to find out who owns a property and where their deed is recorded and fails to read all the documents and discover what is called for the monument and then to actually take the time to look for that object in the field.
Yesterday I found two objects (RR Pike and Reference Nail) that were called for in the deed and new survey resulted in both being ignored and new monuments (1/2" rebar) being set 4ft west of the originals.
I always show what I believe to be the correct and following the original survey and let the client and other parties decide what and where they want this to go next.
My position is that I can prove that my decision was arrived at from public records and willing state that I have no real idea why anyone would come up with another location that is better than where the original monument occupies.
:good: :good: :good:
show the gap but hold the original monuments. From your plat it looks like there is a long standing fence much older than 17 years that was built to the old corners.
I have found many times that projecting a straight line with my high tech equipment will miss many original corners. In other words a straight line survey from the 1800's wasn't perfectly straight and we should not try to force a straight line where none existed in the field but only in deeds.
> show the gap but hold the original monuments. From your plat it looks like there is a long standing fence much older than 17 years that was built to the old corners.
I'm not a "two lines guy". Once I determine where the boundary is located, that's what I show. I will show a tie from the hickory to the rebar and state that it was set by others and where that survey is recorded. As JB mentioned above, a survey doesn't create a gap; I just couldn't think of a better way to describe it in my subject line.
> I have found many times that projecting a straight line with my high tech equipment will miss many original corners. In other words a straight line survey from the 1800's wasn't perfectly straight and we should not try to force a straight line where none existed in the field but only in deeds.
Yeah, I run into that quite often up in these hills. That's exactly what happened here. The previous surveyor extended the line from the fence post through the stone and set a rebar at the deed distance, missing the original hickory tree by 14'. The line on the ground actually has a kink in it, a turning point, even though the deed describes it as a straight line. There is a similar situation on the rear (north) boundary line of this property. As the boundary line leaves the hickory tree and runs west, it runs to a white oak then turns northwest to a poplar. From speaking with previous owners, the old barbed wire fence was ran to mark off the property that was being created. They described it the best they could. I've recovered remnants of that barbed wire fence around all the boundaries of the property. I'll show the location of that boundary with deed calls in parentheses for reference.
:good: :good:
