I had a couple show up at the office. They had purchased a tract of land the office surveyed 15 years ago. They were looking for a drawing. I told them the drawing would be filed at the courthouse. One of the reasons we always do a drawing with the description is to have a clearinghouse for this exact scenario. We usually will do an Exhibit A and B with A being the description referencing the drawing as Exhibit B which are filed together.
The husband was a surveyor probably in Cali. He said he went through the tract books and didn't find anything.?ÿ
I couldn't do much for him.
I'm not giving him a new drawing from 15 years ago.?ÿ
I didn't have time to look through the tract books to find the drawing then as I had a meeting on a subdivision.?ÿ
So today I had time to do a little research and there is the Exhibit A and B in our files.?ÿ
But the deed that got filed stripped the drawing from the document.?ÿ
Not only that but whoever did the deed stripped references to Exhibit B from the description. Retyped it!!!!!
%!!@$%!! that's totally unacceptable.?ÿ
As far as I'm concerned we have no interest in that parcel in anyway. The description was altered, it's not this companies anymore, that belongs to whoever retyped it.?ÿ
Had the title people left it the way we designed it, those people wouldn't have shown up, the drawing would be recorded and my time wouldn't have been impacted, their time wouldn't have been spent. But it get worse, I did some more looking and the same thing with easements, two adjoining tracts, the entire original tract that we split up was stripped of all the drawings.?ÿ
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The description was altered, it's not this companies anymore, that belongs to whoever retyped it.?ÿ
Had the title people left it the way we designed it, those people wouldn't have shown up, the drawing would be recorded and my time wouldn't have been impacted, their time wouldn't have been spent. But it get worse, I did some more looking and the same thing with easements, two adjoining tracts, the entire original tract that we split up was stripped of all the drawings.?ÿ
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that sums is up.
When title clerks and attorneys take free license to trim the files of 'stuff' that doesn't matter or might kill a deal, the powers that be(Attorney General) should be investigating but won't because it's a victimless crime...sort of.
that's a huge pile of suck for them, and whomever gets to resurvey that.?ÿ wow.?ÿ wont be cheap either.
This problem is avoided in states that require surveyors to record their surveys.?ÿ The reference from the deed might get omitted but the drawing is available and indexed.
Told a neighbor lady the other day where to go.?ÿ To the County.?ÿ Had a very different destination in mind, though.
I bet that dirty deed was done dirt cheap, too
This problem is avoided in states that require surveyors to record their surveys.?ÿ The reference from the deed might get omitted but the drawing is available and indexed.
Even better, where surveys can be recorded, the description can just be a reference to the recorded survey.?ÿ
We are now required to insert our name, license number and date into the body of the description of a new tract.?ÿ Sure, someone can strip it out.
That's what happened.?ÿ
No signatures, no seal, nada.?ÿ
Not our survey or responsibility anymore.?ÿ
The landowner stopped by today.
He did some research.
Seems the title company that did all this nonsense is no more.
He tracked them down and they are out of business now. The whole mess just gets stranger, I don't know how some out-of-state title company got mixed up with this local conveyance.?ÿ
Who does the title company represent at closing other than themselves? ?ÿI??m a fan of having an attorney who represents me and only me.
Not only that but whoever did the deed stripped references to Exhibit B from the description.
It is my experience that the Exhibit B takes about 5 times longer to prepare than the Exhibit A. So it really frosts my britches when the Exhibit B gets tossed.
The only reference now that the parcel is even tied to this shop are the calls to the monuments in the description. The seals, signatures, surveyor's statements...........all gone.
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Just to excite y'all, yesterday I signed off on the preliminary title/escrow docs for a house we're buying. There was a "surveyor" line item....$160.?ÿ (Ohio)
I'd like to see the $160 survey...I'm always looking to have a good laugh.
what did the surveyor do in that half hour?
Just to excite y'all, yesterday I signed off on the preliminary title/escrow docs for a house we're buying. There was a "surveyor" line item....$160.?ÿ (Ohio)
Hell, that's half of what we were charging back in ~2005, even after the recession prices didn't drop much...wonder if that's just what I used to know as a "plot plan", because I don't know of a single surveyor who could make money in 2022 at that price.
Even the "plot plan" or "mortgage surveys" should be more than $160, even if they were "drive by" data collection surveys.?ÿ Tracing amenities from Google Earth imagery and inserting GIS tax parcel lines for a pretty map would be more than $160, fraud, but more than $160.
I'm not very familiar with how this process goes down but can't the landowner or buyer fight this nonsense??ÿ How is it that a title company has any say about what gets recorded??ÿ Because of the insurance interest?
@rover83 I am pretty sure it's not going to consist of anything more than pulling the deed. Closing is a month after the offer was accepted.?ÿ
The current owners have owned it for 24 years. It's fenced on 2 sides and occupation lines, which appear to match the description, are reasonably clear.
I managed to find the subdivision plat online. The bearings are to the nearest second. The distances are to hundredths of a foot.?ÿ
And, I know y'all will be disappointed in me, but I won't get a real survey in the short-term. Moving cross-country before our current house is sold, to a more expensive one with much higher property taxes, is going to stretch our finances a little--not badly but I'll want to let everything shake out for a while first.
I believe before the 1960s the Title Companies were the legal description generators. I did a survey in a small Humboldt County town (a blip on US101). The local surveyor circa 1950 did an unrecorded map and there are pipes out there that all the fences match. It only vaguely matches the title company??s legal descriptions. One m&b lot is 150?? long, 40?? in the back, 50?? in the front. The surveyor made it a rectangle and it??s been fenced like that ever since. He also picked up a 1920s church lot (40x80) and shifted it several feet to a more convenient spot, there??s a house on it and the adjoining newer lot. Legals and surveyed locations were two different things, one was an expediency to transfer title, the other was so the buyer could build their house and fence the lot.
A title company changed a detail in the description of our parent tract in the 1950s. Our parent tract and the 164?? wide adjoining on the north had the same owner. First he sold the north 85?? then he sold the remainder (79??) but the title company changed it to 165?? except the north 85??. I don??t think the buyer and seller realized what happened because the fence was never moved. To this day the Assessor shows the lot as 79?? wide, not 80?? wide. 165?? would be a more standard number so I think the back office technician ??fixed? it without telling anyone. The T.C. covered their tracks in 1958 by changing the description of our parent tract on the next transfer.