I had one guy move a corner, he beat the cap back into the ground with a hatchet,,,,,,,,the sharp side.
That one was easy the old hole was still there with flagging peaking out of it.
For the last twenty years we've labeled the lines and lot #'s on the cap.
Saved us many times.
A disturbed monument does not mark the corner position, but it does throw doubt in the location.
Based on your posts I believe the profession needs more surveyors like you. I urge you to apply as soon as you consider yourself ready.
Read an obituary last week for a fellow who was guilty of pin moving after the fact. He was present during our survey and told us precisely where each corner should go. it was plus or minus 10 acres so area was not critical as he owned all the ground surrounding the new tract except along the county road. A few weeks later we get a call from the buyer's lender for a mortgagee title inspection to verify improvements. Go to the northwest corner, no bar, but a hole. Precisely 20 feet to the south we find our bar, cap and flag all mushed around but present. We pulled our bar and slid it right back down into the original hole. We said nothing but showed the northwest corner to be in a fence line XXX,XX feet from a corner post. We also set a t-post we happened to have along very deep as a guard stake.
The original client carried a real estate salesman license for several decades.
When original corners are found undisturbed I was always taught that was without error.
That's right. I don't think anyone here is disputing that.
My point is suppose the monument is the 36" wide tree you mentioned. Am I supposed to mark a 36" wide tube (the width of the tree) from that monument to the next closest monuments and expect the landowner or his adjoiners to be satisfied with that?
Would it be a cone instead of a tube? Lol.
I’d suggest they contact Ole Man River or use the center of the tree.
Well it depends. I have on one of my properties where a common line between me and 2 neighbors is a 54” white oak. 3 chops on all 3 sides. We all call the center of it the corner. Now how well can we all measure that center it’s not a perfect circle at any height. I strung string line around it so string was on both sides and pulled it to the front pin. As I built my fence I split the two strings all the way back to set post. I had a surveyor come out before setting all post to check. I get along great with my neighbors I don’t want to cheat them or whoever comes here after me. He located most all other corners and the tree and said look I can’t see you encroaching anywhere nor are you off the line. He said I could comp this all sort’s different ways but you are all over the center of your tree along that line. I think you are good. He had no idea I had any survey background until he saw my steel tape and chaining pins under the shade tree. He said where did you get those. I said I use to survey and have some sets of my own. Now let’s say this was not rural America and a zero lot like subdivision. I still am not setting another pin I am holding that tree to the best of my ability. Now of course I will look at the bearings off other corners so what I measure as center might float a bit inside that tree it’s common sense in my opinion. That tree is the corner has been almost literally since Lewis and Clark father settled here. They lived right here Clark family farm or was born not a quarter of a mile along a road here. Now exactly no one knows the exact location but the markers are here.use to be a old stone fireplace that had tree growing up around it that all old timers all said had been Clark’s birthplace home it was finally destroyed when the land was cleared 10 years ago
A line has no defined width. So a fence that follows a line is it on or off as different size post diameter or do you call it on line. If it meanders yeah but if in all practical sense those post are on the line the fence is online.
When you use google maps or whatever do you follow it’s exactly or its intent? If I followed it exactly everywhere I could be in the wrong lane or dive off into a no road exist for another 100’.
Would it be a cone instead of a tube?
Maaaaybe.
...or use the center of the tree.
How dare you! You flyspeck fixator ruining the profession! 🙄🙄🙄
When we bought this place we had the previous owner who is our neighbor do a boundary line adjustment so we gained a bit more space and acres. We all literally walked out his wife him me and realtors on both sides. I had a 3’ stake and hammer and some old flagging. We all got to about where we thought the line should go. I paced off the cl road that is in a curve and drove the stake. The surveyor arrived and I said shoot for this line roughly and whatever you need to do for ROW. He called me 5 or so days later I was back in STL working and said how close do you think you were I said a foot he said well you got lucky then we had to move the stake a bit to set your new pin. He is now about 85 years old and still is surveying. Well has a couple crews. Lives not far from me. We chat sometimes when I am driving tractor by his house when he is checking the mail. He always asks when I am going to buy him out so I can take over his business. I still have a lot to learn for sure. Hopefully before I am forced to retire I can get licensed. I do miss the searching for stones and reference marks. In the PLSS .
Have you ever set a lot corner in a subdivision and when you drove by the next day observe that it was in a different location? It had been moved approximately 5 feet and it wasn’t nature that moved it. Not all property owners are honest and I would have never known if I hadn’t set it myself. I learned a long time ago that it’s important to be able to read the person you’re talking with.
I had a guy that kept moving the rebar. I even contacted the city attorney. They had never heard of the law that makes it a crime to move a corner monument, and they had no stomach for attempting to prove someone had done so. Wouldn't even send out a cop to see if the guy admitted it. So we let it drop.
On a kind of other note, I read one case where the guy's persistence in moving the corner marker contributed to his winning his adverse possession claim.
The days of property owners knowing their bounds are rapidly fading into the past. Without reliance has the corner set been accepted? I try to avoid showing angle points in the parent tract line. The legal principles may not have changed but the actions of the owners certainly have.
Walking or Beating or Perambulating the Bounds is a tradition that anyone without longstanding fences should follow with their neighbors, especially before purchasing the property. First of all, being in good graces with the neighbors is very helpful in having a happy life. Second, affirming and reaffirming the bounds is good practice.
