I have been working on a very small survey of just ±4 acres for a while now, it is owned by a local realtor. It has been a mess, but I've got it nearly done - just need to finalize a small 20' wide strip that runs between two houses to the property I'm working on.
One of the neighbors that I spoke with is a jittery little dude. I stopped at his house before starting and let him know why I was going to be in the woods that are on two sides of his house. He was nice enough to me and showed me a couple of spots he thought were corners (they were). But he was so twitchy and talking so fast that I was certain he must be on some drugs. He told me I was welcome to park in his second drive where his RV was and has been as nice as could be to me the whole time I've been working out there.
After I had been out there, someone had apparently parked in his drive and went to look at the property to maybe buy it. He thought it was the realtor sending people out there to purposely annoy him and called the realtor up. They apparently had a huge cussing fit at each other. So the realtor called me and asked if that guy was causing me any problems. I was surprised they had cussed each other out as I've not had an issue with either of them.
It had been a while since I got back on this job. So, I go back out to try to wrap up the portion around his house and I park in his lower drive again. I started walking up to the house to just make sure he was okay with me parking there after his run in with the realtor. Before I could get there, he is already out his door and walking towards me. He greets me in friendly fashion. I tell him I'm trying to wrap up this area and ask if its still okay to park in his drive. He is just as nice as possible to me, but he does relay his side of the same story the realtor had told me (not surprisingly the antagonist and protagonist roles were reversed).
I don't know who is portraying the more accurate account of events, but it is always strange to me how often two parties can't get along with each other and they'll think think that means the other person is also going to be troublesome for the surveyor. It has been very rare for me to run into a reputed "horrible person" that was not at the least accommodating to me.
The vast majority of adjoiners have been polite. Then there are those you make a point to avoid by doing stealth surveys. Find out where they work and when they might be absent.
@holy-cow undercover surveyor. Huh. . I may or may not have done some of that type work before. I got big in the calf once and the owner said she would put the dog up the next day as we had to go get stitches for me. Came back next day and she was gone and no sign of dog. I entered the back yard and here that sucker comes out the garage door in the back yard. I cleared a chainlink fence. We only had a shed and patio left. I set up a baseline and taped over to everything through the fence. We didn’t have reflective total stations in those days. And i was not messing with that dog anymore.
John you are most definitely doing the right things. Talking with people before hand. Just plain old fashion courtesy and respect. That prevents most issues right there. At least it did back in my first years of surveying. We were always told go knock on the neighbors doors be nice explain what you are doing and ask permission. We would give them business cards of our boss so they could call if they were suspicious of us dirty field guys. Back then we all smoked and our boss was also a smoker. He would say don’t leave your cigarette butts in someone else's yard pick up behind you and anything else they might mistake of your trash. I have picked up dirty diapers and coke battles and all in a backyard. Just because we left it cleaner than when we entered.
I chatted with an adjoiner, just to be friendly and let her know I was next door, and complimented her on her lovely roses. Huge mistake, furious I dared to look at her roses. Some people are just nuts and you never know what is going to set them off.
She said she had a divine right. He told her she had a heavenly left as well. That's when the fight started.
That's when the fight started.
