Property surveyors question

sm8

Active Member
Our next door neighbor is putting up a fence because their dog bit a woman who owns the vacant lot on the other side. Trust me, I am happy about the fence but I still have issues. In the process of getting started they had a survey company come out. The survey company is saying our property line is about 4-5 feet farther towards our house. They found a metal pole under our driveway (which we happened to put in when asphalting our original drive way) and are claiming that is the original corner marker. Not only did they dig under our driveway but this also puts our privacy fence in our back yard over the property line. The surveyors also claim there is no vacant lot but I saw the plot map when she brought it to me in an attempt to sell it to me a while back and I remember when she bought it. Do I hire my own company in the hopes they were wrong or will they just side with the first one. Are surveyors biased towards the one who hired them? Any one know an approximate cost?
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
You won't need a complete survey. You just need a surveyor to locate that corner for you (and possibly the back corner).

It is equally likely that:
- their surveyor is mistaken
- whoever put your initial driveway in buldozed right across the corner monument
 

sm8

Active Member
The driveway was put in by the builder in the early 80's so I am sure technology to find the lines has vastly improved. I believe the builder did the original fence also.

We have been in our house 17 years and have been through 4 neighbors. I just feel like if our fence and driveway were truly over the property line it would have came up before.
 

black dog

Free America
It will all be done with GPS today, I was taught by a mother that sold Real Estate to pay for a full survey with permanent markers if needed instead of the standard metes and bounds survey that's normally done with real estate transactions.
For the extra few hundred there was no discussion on where the property lines were.
I'm trying to understand how so many settlements happened and this discrepancy hasn't already surfaced.
 
Check into Adverse Possession. If you have maintained a piece of property for a number of years, it can become yours. Not sure what the time required was, maybe 7 years or something?

Your original deed should have a plat map with it with the property locations.
 

Goldenhawk

Well-Known Member
Adverse Possession won't do in this case. You're three years too soon. From http://baylawllc.com/maryland-adverse-possession/
Adverse Possession, sometimes known as squatter’s rights, is the legal concept by which a person can come to own real estate by taking possession of it and holding it for a certain period of years. In Maryland, the land must be held for a period of 20 years — many other states require shorter periods. Under Maryland law, “to obtain title to property, the person claiming adverse possession must prove actual, open, notorious and visible, exclusive, hostile and continuous possession of the claimed property for at least 20 years.” The classic case of adverse possession is, as between two neighbors, one fences in or builds on a part of the property that belongs to the other. After 20 years, the property is deemed owned by the person that fenced it in or built on it. The relationship between the parties may be friendly, but the acts of one must clearly against the legal interests of the other.
 

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
The driveway was put in by the builder in the early 80's so I am sure technology to find the lines has vastly improved. I believe the builder did the original fence also.

We have been in our house 17 years and have been through 4 neighbors. I just feel like if our fence and driveway were truly over the property line it would have came up before.



Not necessarily. Property surveys are only done when buying a house if the lender requires it. We just had our property surveyed and I feel like the plot and what they have marked are different. Our starting marker was missing so they had to look up bordering properties and figure it out from there. It was a pain.
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
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Not necessarily. Property surveys are only done when buying a house if the lender requires it. We just had our property surveyed and I feel like the plot and what they have marked are different. Our starting marker was missing so they had to look up bordering properties and figure it out from there. It was a pain.

I have lived in a neighborhood were 10 years after initial construction we figured out that all the lots were about 2ft to the left of where the builder had put all the infrastructure. This came up when the one vacant lot was being built on.
- driveways ended up on the wrong properties
- sprinkler systems were on the wrong properties
- flower beds were on the wrong properties.

A surveyor came out, re-surveyed the 'as built' lots and we all met at the title company to sign a stack of quit-claim deeds and 'covenants not to sue' to adjust the property boundaries to the physical reality. The developer wrote a check to to the owner who 'lost land' in the process. I dont even want to know how much this cost in legal fees as for every property line adjustment, there was a bank and a title insurance company involved.
 

getbent

Thats how them b*tch's R
I have lived in a neighborhood were 10 years after initial construction we figured out that all the lots were about 2ft to the left of where the builder had put all the infrastructure. This came up when the one vacant lot was being built on.
- driveways ended up on the wrong properties
- sprinkler systems were on the wrong properties
- flower beds were on the wrong properties.

A surveyor came out, re-surveyed the 'as built' lots and we all met at the title company to sign a stack of quit-claim deeds and 'covenants not to sue' to adjust the property boundaries to the physical reality. The developer wrote a check to to the owner who 'lost land' in the process. I dont even want to know how much this cost in legal fees as for every property line adjustment, there was a bank and a title insurance company involved.

Now developments may be different. There's only 4 houses on our road. What a pain in the ass that had to be.
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
Now developments may be different. There's only 4 houses on our road. What a pain in the ass that had to be.

It wasn't so bad as the lawyer for the developer did all the legwork. We just told them who our mortgage and title insurance was and they coordinated the rest. Took almost a year to get everyone to sign off on it. We were lucky in that the developer lived a couple of houses down and saw it as his responsibility to fix the mess his contractors had generated (I figure he didn't want to get sued by 8 different title insurance companies).
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
I have lived in a neighborhood were 10 years after initial construction we figured out that all the lots were about 2ft to the left of where the builder had put all the infrastructure. This came up when the one vacant lot was being built on.
- driveways ended up on the wrong properties
- sprinkler systems were on the wrong properties
- flower beds were on the wrong properties.

A surveyor came out, re-surveyed the 'as built' lots and we all met at the title company to sign a stack of quit-claim deeds and 'covenants not to sue' to adjust the property boundaries to the physical reality. The developer wrote a check to to the owner who 'lost land' in the process. I dont even want to know how much this cost in legal fees as for every property line adjustment, there was a bank and a title insurance company involved.

That's always "fun". Back in '95 I bought a large commercial operation and the residence right next to it. Discovered after the fact that the property line between the two cut literally right through the side of the commercial building closest to the line. The properties in question were pieces of what had once been a very much larger property, originally deeded in 1884, and all owned by the same extended family. I ended up paying for a new survey for a total of 8 properties with boundary adjustments on at least three of them. Gawd that was a lot of paper and drawings to sign...and expensive too.
 

officeguy

Well-Known Member
That's always "fun". Back in '95 I bought a large commercial operation and the residence right next to it. Discovered after the fact that the property line between the two cut literally right through the side of the commercial building closest to the line. The properties in question were pieces of what had once been a very much larger property, originally deeded in 1884, and all owned by the same extended family. I ended up paying for a new survey for a total of 8 properties with boundary adjustments on at least three of them. Gawd that was a lot of paper and drawings to sign...and expensive too.

It's easy enough if the fluckup happened recently, once you go back to colonial descriptions involving creeks or trees to find a property line there is never ending opportunity for excitement.
 

black dog

Free America
Speaking of property lines, did anyone have any dealings with D Horstick when he was working in St Mary's..
 
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