Surveyor faulted for staking wrong lot

&g http://m.news-journalonline.com/article/20141013/NEWS/141019750/1041?Title=In-Ocean-Hammock-dream-house-ocean-view-wrong-lot
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> I imagine the owners of the $680K house will litigate.

It seems they're still prelitigation:

"Having the owners trade lots makes the most sense to Richmond, but Voss – the owner of the home on the wrong lot – is not ready to quickly sign off on that resolution."

One would think the owner of the lot the home is on would be the big money winner.

That's actually a well written article! I'm impressed. Usually they just flamethrow at the surveyor.

I looked at it on Google earth.. I'd have to say, the original surveyor really should have caught that. It's not a long line of exactly the same sized lots. The one they "should" have surveyed has a 'clipped' northwest corner AND should have been the last lot before the outparcel.

I am surprised they could build that house for $680,000. Doesn't say how many sq ft, but 5 bedrooms and 5.5 baths.....

I could see how this could happen, but that doesn't excuse it. It also says they own 12 other lots in the area.

I always find it amazing when there are two different surveyors involved from beginning to end of building on properties.

This is so stand out that both surveyors erred and did not notice the problem.

I would think the BOR will have one big decision for two surveyors.

:-O

Somewhere lurks a disgruntled former employee

Laughing hysterically.

I looked on line too, and there are several places where they could have taken a rough check shot to just prove they were in the right place. That is one of the first things a prudent surveyor does when there is a row of lots that are similar. I know it is easy for us to criticize in hindsight, but checking where you are is covered in Boundaries 100, maybe even 90.

They should have used GPS.:-D

Didn't the guys record information about the found property pins before stakeout?

> Didn't the guys record information about the found property pins before stakeout?

I'd guess that they've done previous work in the area, thought they knew where they were, set up on the wrong front corner, and just checked the distance to another front corner either to avoid the brush back there or the back corners hadn't been set.

I'm proud of us

I have staked the wrong lot before. It was a comedy of errors where L5, B4 and L4, B5 wound up on the NW corner of two different intersections...one street was Cottonwood Terrace, the other Cottonwood Circle. Both lots had the same street number. Gladly the mistake got rectified well before anything got built. Some of you all probably have stories also.

From what I've read, this guy screwed up. And there hasn't been one post here that attempts to defend the mistake. I guess that is one part of our many tasks that can't be argued or adjusted...you have to find the right parcel.

If the general public can't trust a surveyor to find their property, who can they trust?

Just a cloth tape checking any of the side line distances would have tipped them off...any of them

It would be bad enough if the lots were cookie cutter copies but this is just lazy incompetence with zero oversight

I'm proud of us

This is an awful situation. I agree with Paden - we all live in glass houses...

This surveyor will probably lose his company over this, and all his employees and their families will probably be out of work and go without food on their tables.

Not a single surveyor who posts to this board is absolutely perfect, as we ALL have made mistakes before.

Let's try and remember we are all imperfect humans, and maybe take it easy, and stop kicking the poor guy while he is down.

Wrong lot

I completed a Existing Conditions Plan for the wrong lot once. I had all the right information but just had the wrong address. Went back, surveyed the right lot. Six months later I had a call from the owner of the first lot who needed an Existing Conditions Plan.

I'd rather be lucky than smart.

Back in my PC days when we had a job on one lot out of a long string of lots, usually all with the exactly the same road frontage, the wise old man I worked for instructed me to always take a shot on the nearest intersecting road. Nothing precise, just get a shot on something approaching the PI. I'm certain that this is exactly what he had in mind to avoid. Complacency is our No.1 enemy.

http://news.yahoo.com/florida-million-dollar-home-nice-view-built-wrong-222355539.html

For a good laugh, read the comments section.

My favorite so far:

Angel Momma 2 hours ago

The GPS is most likely correct. When the original pins were placed in the days of old, the instruments used back then had to be properly adjusted for altitude and season to get accurate readings. When the Earth tilts on its axis it effects the results of the readings on old surveying equipment and "north" isn't always true north.

Here's what I know. We are asumming he didn't tie to a block corner or as the prudent surveyor would have tied both ways. All the subdivisions I ever did in Florida required concrete monuments at all PI's PC's PT,s and every so many feet. How about this situation. Builder says I need a vacant lot survey on this address. Builder or title co has the address wrong. And I need it yesterday. Oh yea certify it to me or these 3 entity. But now it is easy to point at the surveyor when somebody finally realizes opps they don't own that lot. How many have ever had a realtor or somebody give you a wrong lot number? I'm not going to pass judgement on the surveyor until we hear "the rest of the story"

:good:

Wrong lot

I have made a similar mistake by having been given bad information, got the survey done and then got the correct information and had to do a different lot. Turned out OK in the end. Actually needed the first lot surveyed later.

I have also had that happen and had the title company, etc., pay for the first survey based on bad info.

I don't know how many I caught the bad info, usually a mismatch of address and lot description, before we actually sent out a field party.

B-)

except that the article states that every survey map had that clipped corner shown from the two surveyors. If that's true, then they must have faked the field work. Minimum tech says you have to monument every change in direction. How could this be an honest mistake?? At best it's gross incompetence on the part of the signing surveyor not to actually review the field work being done.