Land Survey....

[d96j97]

Hi everyone! I live in a small town and am having trouble with neighbors overstepping their bounds on to what my DH and I believe is OUR property. Therefore, we would like to get our land surveyed to know exactly where our property line lies. I called 3 different companies today. Two gave me estimates of between $800-$1000. We live in town on approx. 1/4 acre. Are you kidding me???? I had NO idea getting your land surveyed cost this kind of money. Is there another way around getting the exact property marks without paying that much? Thanks!

 

[deakam]

check with the tax office---I know that when I bought my house I recieved a copy of the plot survey but each state is different.

 

[swilshire]

check with the tax office---I know that when I bought my house I recieved a copy of the plot survey but each state is different.

The records at our county are totally wrong, so beware of that.

25 years ago surveys here started at around $2500. I would expect them to be much higher by now.

Also beware of letting the neighbors use the land that you own. After so many years, there are some laws that allow them to lay claim to the area. I don't really know the particulars.

Sheila

 

[herdtoDisney]

Hi everyone! I live in a small town and am having trouble with neighbors overstepping their bounds on to what my DH and I believe is OUR property. Therefore, we would like to get our land surveyed to know exactly where our property line lies. I called 3 different companies today. Two gave me estimates of between $800-$1000. We live in town on approx. 1/4 acre. Are you kidding me???? I had NO idea getting your land surveyed cost this kind of money. Is there another way around getting the exact property marks without paying that much? Thanks!

That does seem like a lot-we had our yard surveyed 2 years ago for $500. Do you have to have pins set too? (I think that is what it is called-our surveyor easily found ours which had been there for 50 yrs). I don't know if there is any other way around it. It's probably a good investment, if you are having neighbor issues.

 

[labdogs42]

Can you just look for the pics yourself first? They might still be there from the original survey. I'd hate to spend all that money if you don't have to.

 

[d96j97]

We have actually lived here for 19 years. When we moved in we were newlyweds and the ladies on either side of us were the sweetest (in their 80's). When they were living, they told us where they believed the property lines were and we've always gone by that. However...since their passing, new people have bought the homes and our property somehow got "smaller". We haven't had a confrontational issue, but feel like it is coming on. I did call the assessor's office and she said there was no "platt" on our land. Therefore, she said, it would need a survey. I just never expected it to cost as much as they were telling me. I wanted to get an idea of what you all have paid elsewhere and if there was another way around getting the exact layout without dishing out all that money. Keep the ideas coming....thanks!

 

[a1tinkfans]

By law in our state, the land survey must be valid from the last ten years when selling. So, if that neighbors house was purchased within the last ten years, you "should" be able to get that thru the tax assessors office, where it had to be filed. it is public information (they can charge a very nominal fee for a copy). Can you try that? I have heard that if you allow someone else to "overtake" your land after a certain period they "own" it, but after speaking with a family attorney, we found out that is not accurate, but that once known, should be remedied to protect your interests/land. I assume your original purchase papers are not avail or lost?? That will have the layout, so many feet/degrees from a certain point, (usually the homestead/building, etc)
Good Luck, around here I have heard a new one is about 1200 or so....

 

[Gigi22]

Agreed with the PP--your original purchase documents should contain a copy of the survey that was performed when you bought your house.

 

[Swimalie]

Any chances there are metal property markers in the ground? I know we have them here. We had to mark one of ours since a new neighbor was allowing his mowing company mow in to our yard by several feet. They mow a lot shorter than we do and it was killing our grass. They mowed so short, we could see the metal stake in the ground. We then put a wooden stake there and no more mowing of our yard

 

[lovemylife]

My DH and I just bought a house. The lady that we bought it from had lived here for 56 yrs and the neighbor behind us for 36 yrs. Our relator pushed us into a survey. He said it normally cost $300, turned out to be $750 for the first one. It differed from the survery stakes that were there before, which all neighbors agreed was the property line. It was resurveyed for another $300, to find out that the lean-to on the back of our garage which had been there for 60+ years was on the neighbors property. It became a HUGE nightmare in terms for the bank letting us buy it. We had to take down the lean-to part of the garage and get another survery to prove that it was no longer encroaching on the neighbors property. All in told, it was well over $2000. Just be prepared that if it is different than what you think it is, there could be MAJOR hassels with your neighbors. Good luck to you.

 

[TheRatPack]

For those of you with the metal stakes, can they be easily moved? I would just hate to put up a fence and then find out that the markers had been moved over the years.

Never mind....saw the previous post about the stakes not being accurate....answers my question

 

[labdogs42]

For those of you with the metal stakes, can they be easily moved? We have them but our neighbor still mows quite a bit of our yard and another neighbors too LOL He's always pointed out the stakes so he knows they are there, we were going to have it re-surveyed and put up a fence but if the markers are true then we can just go on those. I would just hate to put up a fence and then find out that the markers had been moved over the years.

Never mind....saw the previous post about the stakes not being accurate....answers my question

Where does it say the stakes aren't accurate? They should be. They aren't super easy to move (at least ours aren't, they are pretty long). If they are mowing past the stake, I'd talk to them. If they want to dispute the stakes, have THEM pay for the survey!

 

[herdtoDisney]

For those of you with the metal stakes, can they be easily moved? We have them but our neighbor still mows quite a bit of our yard and another neighbors too LOL He's always pointed out the stakes so he knows they are there, we were going to have it re-surveyed and put up a fence but if the markers are true then we can just go on those. I would just hate to put up a fence and then find out that the markers had been moved over the years.

Never mind....saw the previous post about the stakes not being accurate....answers my question

Mine are in the ground-I didn't even know we had those until we talked to the surveyor (he called them pins, aka stakes). In our case, they were in the place that they were supposed to be, per the platt sheet. He found them with his metal detector. He put up wooden markers over them (poor guy had to wade into a heap of forsythias and shrubbery and woods to get to them). We want to eventually put up a fence so it was worth it to us, but the going rate here is $500 -suprisingly since things here are usually higher than elsewhere.

 

[Swimalie]

For those of you with the metal stakes, can they be easily moved? We have them but our neighbor still mows quite a bit of our yard and another neighbors too LOL He's always pointed out the stakes so he knows they are there, we were going to have it re-surveyed and put up a fence but if the markers are true then we can just go on those. I would just hate to put up a fence and then find out that the markers had been moved over the years.

Never mind....saw the previous post about the stakes not being accurate....answers my question

Our metal stakes are deep in the ground and barely sticking up - maybe 1/4 inch. I don't think they can be moved easily. At least not without a lot of digging. They were put in by the developer and every property in the neighborhood has them here. If you don't think they have been moved then you can use them. But, in order to get a permit to build a fence here in our county, you still have to have a survey done. I would double check that.

 

[Andeevan]

I work for a land surveyor, and you can try to locate the metal stakes with a metal detector if you know approximately where the line is, but they aren't always easy to find. Depending on when the original survey was done, they can be really deep or even have been dug out at some point. I don't think that's too bad a price for a 1/4 acre piece. Some surveys can go pretty high, depending on what their location is and how the piece is described.

 

[jedijill]

I paid $350 about 5 years ago. My developer had sodded a straight line even though my property actually went off on an odd angle. We were putting up a fence so it was worth it to not fight with the neighbors when they came home from wintering in Texas to find that I had fenced a portion of "their" yard.

Jill in CO

 

[Rogue26]

I just wrote the check today, our yard it 1/2 acre and it cost $650.

 

[01spirit750]

Getting a survey can be expensive but a good idea.

kinda long--

I think my parents paid $500 back in 1995.

My parents live in a normal tract house type of neighborhood. The next door neighbor wanted to move the property line so that the side fence would be right against my parents house. This was so that the neightbor could get a motorhome on their side yard. They wanted to do a "z" type of lot line where at the back of the property the property line would jog over 6 feet into their property (city code does not allow this without a variance). This was all so that they wouldn't have to pay out any money.
My dad declined the offer (property swap or cash). He just told them that he wasn't interested.

That is when all heck broke loose. Here is what the neighbor came back with in a certified letter:
1. The existing fence was not on the property line anyway and needed to be moved so why not accept their idea
2. My dad was trying to take advantage of the neighbors because the husband was a cancer survivor.
3. Their son was a surveyor and they would have him confirm the property line.

My dad responded with a letter letting them know that he had worked his whole life to pay for this house & property and he was not interested in parceling it out. He also advised that he would hire and pay for their own independant surveyor.

Of course the surveyor came back that the fence was on the correct and true property line.

About 6 months later a big storm came in and blew the fence down. The neighbor refused to pay for the replacement fence so my dad paid the entire cost of the fence, but had the fence installed just inside my dads property line. Thus the fence was entirely owned (and paid for) by my dad.

About 3 months later the neighbor hung a big steel gate on one of the new fence posts and caused it to crack. They then listed their house for sale. My stepmother called their realtor and informed them that the fence was their property and demanded immediate payment for 50% of the fence or remove the gate. The gate was taken down the next day.

 

[TheRatPack]

Where does it say the stakes aren't accurate? They should be. They aren't super easy to move (at least ours aren't, they are pretty long). If they are mowing past the stake, I'd talk to them. If they want to dispute the stakes, have THEM pay for the survey!

The post above mine said the new survey showed different spots and their stakes were off. That's why I edited to add that they were not accurate. Our neighbor mows about 3 strips in to our yard (big wide riding mower) and he mows the whole back fence line and part of another neighbors yard LOL He's a nice guy....it's just he mows his grass so short and it irritates my husband to have all the dead brown spots when our grass is cut a bit higher. We have a pretty big yard and only one stake at the front and one in the very back corner, are you just supposed to run a string between those? I really think we'll get a survey just to make sure....with vinyl fence being so darn expensive it'll be worth it for us to make sure it's on the right side of the property.

 

[manhattan]

I used to work with a company that did surveying and it is very, very slow right now, so you might be able to negotiate that price. Call around, even large commercial companies will do residentials right now, just to keep the surveyor busy.