In 2012 I had a small job in this subdivision to stake some ROW for my client and when I remember well looking at the plat and cringing when I saw who had done it. I had a baaad feeling because of past experiences retracing this guy's work. 1971 plat, all hub and tac. Sure enough I couldn't find a trace of anything remotely original. Over the years it seems every surveyor to ever set foot in this neck of the woods at taken a swipe at one lot survey or another and I was finding corners 20'-30' out from where I had computed them. Finally found two that matched record within a couple feet and held my nose and put some wood in the ground. I quietly prayed I'd never have to go back....
Fast forward, half the utility poles in this area don't meet spec for clearances and have to be changed out. Permit requires that that they are all located and their precise position in relation to any relevant easements and rights of way be documented.
This should be fun. Welcome to 'No Buena Vista Subd.'
I've got one of those. As far as I can figure out no monuments were ever set by the original surveyor. I was dumb enough about 25 years ago to go out to a lot in the middle of the subdivision and find pins at each corner of a tract. Those were surveyed by a local surveyor who lived a mile or so from the subdivision, by then he was long gone. I flagged up the monuments and left. No roads were built where they were platted, all the access was happenstance. I told them they need to get all the subdivision owners together and replat it.
Next thing I know I'm getting threatened by an attorney for "staking a road across his clients land". Seems someone decided a lath I put on a corner way out on the county road marked a road somehow to the parcel I flagged up (one lonely lath was a road staking). The whole thing was insane, I was forced to turn over my field notes so I sent a PDF of my 150 page DC file. They couldn't figure it out.
All the lawyer stuff faded away over time and I put a big X across that subdivision and the office is barred from ever working in there. It's in a real expensive area, but the lots are so devalued by the crappy development that it's mostly a big red flag of how not to subdivide.
I think that everybody has one of those "why me?" stories. In short, mine revolves around a 20 acre parcel at the Jersey shore. My function was to recover corners though to exist and lay out an existing access easement to another property to the rear. Little did I know, when I pulled up, I drove directly into WW III.
I was there not 15 minutes before the cops showed up. They went away and I proceeded to traverse for the rest of the day, finding absolutely nothing. When I returned the next day, all of my traverse points were gone and the cops showed up again.
After finding no markers, having to deal with insane neighbors who were bound to block me from working any way that they possibly could, I abandoned the job and gave the client their retainer back to make that job just a bad memory.
About two years went by and I got a demand letter from an attorney that the neighbor from hell hired, he wanted all of my records, emails and computer files relating to the survey and I pretty much, in uncertain terms, explained that I had not finished my work and I was turning over nothing as I had no professional determination. That started relentless certified mailings with demands from him and I ultimately had to hire an attorney to make him go away. I lost $5K on the whole experience.
