Ask A Surveyor
If you are a landowner seeking advice from surveyors, please post your questions and issues here.... View more
Organizer:
- Organized by
-
Ongoing Survey
Ongoing Survey
Jon,
Have you Surveyed in Indiana before? Is it common or allowed for a License Surveyor to do the field work, tell someone this is probably your property line, and charge a less amount than if he was going to sign the Surveyor?
Scott,
I don’t have Indiana experience – I’m just south in Kentucky. But that scenario is exactly why I suggested the original poster confirm the license status of everyone claiming to be a surveyor. It seems odd to me to tell people approximately where their corners are located.
Maybe I’m crazy but it seems to me if a Land Surveyor crosses a fairly substantial chain-link fence and sets boundary stakes 20′ into the neighbor’s enclosure they should at least take the time to explain to the neighbor why. Granted it helps if the neighbor will listen and then maybe ask some questions. The surveyor that set the stakes is in a far better position than any of us to know why he thinks the property line is where he thinks it is located. The original surveyor at least speaks the language so he can find out the whys and the wherefores and determine whether he was correct or that he made a mistake and then explain to his client why the neighbor’s surveyor is either right or wrong.
I sympathize with the poster. I hired a tree contractor then checked his license, he had one but it was suspended because he refused to pay a judgment against him (just what I want a tree trimmer who drops trees causing damage then refuses to pay up). So I fired him before he did any work and hired another contractor with a good reputation on the recommendation of a friend and he was cheaper plus he wanted a written contract which is a good thing. So the suggestion to check licenses is a good one.
From my understanding the last owner and current owners put the fence up together, where the last owner thought the Boundary was. The fence has not been there long enough to have any weight on boundary line, expect for the last owning thinking this was the correct location.
We have all done a survey where a neighbor puts up a fence and they want us to check to make sure it’s in the correct location. Sometimes we get the chance to explain to the owners why, other times they arent home or want nothing to do with us, and they let us know that.
I do agree if she would talk to the other Surveyor he could answer her questions, and she should find a different Surveyor than the one she hired when they moved in.
We were given a directive from our owner/CEO/Legal team(also a PLS) to never, under any circumstances just ” Find and Flag” anything, especially if we hadn’t been hired to do a “legal ” survey. This practice in Colorado can land the surveyor/company into hot water just for that very thing….” well, that surveyor person tied a bunch of flagging and placed stakes, so we thought it was the boundary…..”
Yeah. the dilemma is real, people want to believe what assists or bolsters their case, and never usually want to admit that they might be in the wrong or at the very least mistaken. Good surveying is a process, not just a result. Its research, and field work, and math. And liability and responsibility.
This all makes me understand the possibilities a lot more! I am trying to be patient with the surveyors for sure. It has been almost a week now so I guess if I haven’t heard anything back by Tuesday afternoon I will reach back out.
Nate the Surveyor,
Awesome!
I have the deeds! I will try and upload them tomorrow morning. I’ll also start looking out for the other documents and information in the meantime. 🙂
Both Surveyors are licensed according to the website, so hopefully they can work this out and provide us useful information soon!
I’m not a professional so I don’t think I will be unsatisfied with the answers unless we just end up with way less land than we thought we were purchasing via the deed. I know I’m not a professional, and I hate it when people with no degree or knowledge try to tell me how to do my job, so I can respect a valid professionals results… as long as I understand the reasoning and someone is willing to explain it to us. 🙂
Oh no! It is so hard to know who is licensed and whatnot today and where to look for certain professions that you are unfamiliar with! I did check the license and thank goodness we should hopefully be good there! That tree service sounds terrifying. lol I work for an insurance company and all I can think of is the risk involved in hiring that guy…
Also we would love an explanation and an opportunity to ask questions! Our surveyor is currently communicating with the other surveyor as we were told he would not communicate with us since we aren’t the ones hiring him. I am hoping that they put their heads together and they are able to work together, as our surveyor advised the neighbor’s surveyor called him up and asked questions when they were trying to mark the neighbor’s line.
The back fence hasn’t been there long.. a couple of years.
We are still waiting for either surveyor to get back to us. It has been almost a week now, so Tuesday afternoon I am going to try and followup if I haven’t received a response yet.
I did have a question. Is there a way to locate the neighbor’s “legal survey” if that is what they got?
Also, is it normal practice or possible to only survey and mark one property line and place a new pin in the road based on that? We have cameras facing the whole back area and no one ever went to the other two corners or the neighbors property during their survey. They also aren’t marked. A few surveyors told us when we were calling around they would have to do an entire survey, not just a partial. I’m a little confused on this part.
We have been trying to avoid the neighbor when he is outside, but it makes it hard when you have animals to take care of… I’ll spare the details, but praying that we get word back from one or both of our surveyors soon! We also have a lot of livestock on the back of the property, so we will need to move the chain link in on our property even more to get hay to the back of the property if these markers are correct. I want to get to work as soon as possible if we end up having to do as such.
My surveyor mentioned that we didn’t want to have to get attorneys and judges involved unless we have to, so I’m really wondering if there isn’t an overlap on deeds or some other issue that I’m not aware of. It seems like he wants to thoroughly discuss it with the other surveyor before letting us know all the details of what is going on.
I’ll also post deeds and whatnot this week to see if it is any help in anyone’s opinions.
Thanks to you professionals so much for taking the time to make me understand this stuff so much better. I really really do appreciate it!
By all means, reach out. But understand that everybody in this business is busy these days, and it’s the busy season in our business.
Some states, like the 2 I practice in (Oregon/Washington) have “recording laws”. Survey boundary maps have to be recorded. They are public record. Your state (Indiana) isn’t one of them. But you should still be able to get, at least, a look at the map if there is one. And a thorough explaination.
A lawyer is not appropriate at this time. He would only hire a surveyor of his own. You have the right profession on the job. Maybe lawyer later , but not now.
Were you able to arrive at a satisfactory resolution?
I just read through this old thread also and it’s now leaving me hanging in suspense! I grew up and was formally educated in Indiana in this fine art of Surveying but I moved to Missouri upon graduation close to 20 years ago. One thing I do remember is that Indiana requires a beautiful surveyor’s report to be attached to their surveys. It’s to explain everything they did and why. I’d be curious as to the contents of the reports for both sides of the line. One thing I find curious is her picture of a “monument” in the road. It’s a mag nail which can’t be used a boundary monument in Missouri. I’m reading in the IN min. standards that a mag nail is acceptable though. We just run into the problem of land owners thinking your control points are their property corners or points on line ever so often. Even as stealth as you think you left them, they’ll find them and tell you that your survey is all jacked!
@jflamm I’m not sure that we are any less confused than we were in the beginning, but I will try to post an update tonight 🙂 I need to read through and see how far I explained it and what part of the process I dropped off due to communicating directly with the surveyors 🙂
Log in to reply.