survey mistakes

[blocked]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WI
I contacted a survey company to help resolve a property line dispute. I asked to have my property surveyed as recorded at the land office for the county. I also stated this was being done due to a problem with the property owner to my west. Our communication was by email and I have copies. I had 4 corner markers placed and 3 easement markers. The surveyor added 6 inches to my west property line, this also made the easement markers off by 6 inches. My property is 130 ft he surveyed it to 130 ft 6 inches.He said that he found an extra foot of land so he divided it between the properties. The bill is double the original and he stated that it is due to the long communication with the other property owner over the 6 inches he added to my property. I was clear in what I wanted marked and why. No time did he say he was adding 6 inches. I would have refused due to the ongoing problems with the property owner. The other owner had a survey by a different company and the markers were moved and the easement markers were also taken out and not replaced. I am disputing the bill but feel I owe a portion not the full amount. I only received 2 ( I can only assume these are correct) of the 7 markers and I am being billed for a completed survey plus his time with the other property owner to resolve the mistake he made. This has caused more problems instead of resolving the issue and I have a bill closer to $2,000 instead of the original $700. How do I proceed to resolve this and how do I determine the amount I should pay. I feel I should only pay for 2 of the 7 markers. I have an email that stated he will not charge me for the time spent with the other property owner. She asked him to try to locate markers for her at the same time. I have an email that the bill is high due to the time spent with the other owner to resolve his mistake.

 

[FlyingRon]

What do you mean the markers were removed? Are you talking surface flags or wooden stakes or soething that was installed in the ground?

Anyhow, I would't pay squat until they do it right. I had a surveyor preparing a variance plat for me and gosh darn it it took me four tries to get it right (in addition getting them to actually send me the plats was like pulling teeth). They did call me and say they didn't have any record of me paying, and I pointed out I didn't have any record of them sending me a bill. They promptly sent me some other client's bill that I ignored, and I never hard from them again.

As with many personal service type things: REFERENCES REFERENCES REFERENCES.

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WI
I contacted a survey company to help resolve a property line dispute. I asked to have my property surveyed as recorded at the land office for the county. I also stated this was being done due to a problem with the property owner to my west. Our communication was by email and I have copies. I had 4 corner markers placed and 3 easement markers. The surveyor added 6 inches to my west property line, this also made the easement markers off by 6 inches. My property is 130 ft he surveyed it to 130 ft 6 inches.He said that he found an extra foot of land so he divided it between the properties. The bill is double the original and he stated that it is due to the long communication with the other property owner over the 6 inches he added to my property. I was clear in what I wanted marked and why. No time did he say he was adding 6 inches. I would have refused due to the ongoing problems with the property owner. The other owner had a survey by a different company and the markers were moved and the easement markers were also taken out and not replaced. I am disputing the bill but feel I owe a portion not the full amount. I only received 2 ( I can only assume these are correct) of the 7 markers and I am being billed for a completed survey plus his time with the other property owner to resolve the mistake he made. This has caused more problems instead of resolving the issue and I have a bill closer to $2,000 instead of the original $700. How do I proceed to resolve this and how do I determine the amount I should pay. I feel I should only pay for 2 of the 7 markers. I have an email that stated he will not charge me for the time spent with the other property owner. She asked him to try to locate markers for her at the same time. I have an email that the bill is high due to the time spent with the other owner to resolve his mistake.

**A: does not make any sense. A licensed survey cannot just add property or divide among the two.

 

[blocked]

All the easement markers were incorrectly placed due to running off corner markers, so other owner removed them. I did not see her do this. guess it was her, she said I do not have an easement. It is recorded on both abstracts. The easement markers were nails in the ground with yellow tape and the corners were pipes. Her survey was about 1 month after mine. Her surveyor did not replace them because she did not ask to have easement included in survey. Her surveyor removed and replaced both corners on the west line. The surveyors agreed to the change. I am billed for time spent resolving his mistake. I have an email from the surveyor that states he found an additional 12 inches of land not recorded for her property or on mine so he said it is practice to split the difference. She came back with her abstract that said I have the exact footage described and her abstract going way back said she has the remainder. No footage is described at that time. I did not ask for or want the extra 6 inches. I was clear as to the reason for the survey. I have not asked my surveyor to replace the easement markers because he will charge me more (he seems to bill me for his mistakes and the time spent talking to teh other property owner). He caused a lot of problems with the incorrect west line. I built a fence to keep her away and set it back 6 inches or more from the line. The change placed the fence on or near the line and she cut down my fence. Charges were filed and dropped because i only saw the fence being pushed over not the actual cutting of the fence.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

No woman will accept 6 inches, when she can have a foot. If you look into relevant laws, you will probably find removing the original markers is a crime.

 

[blocked]

LOL true! OHRoadWarrior maybe that is her problem all along she needs a few inches oh um never mind. There was only one original marker on my land (mine was part of an out lot originally)and it was for my neighbor to the North to mark his South West corner which would also be my easement corner. (irregular lots) It was determined that this marker was to be relocated about 2 or 3 feet to the north and a few feet to the east due to more recent surveys in the area. This is a block on historic homes and homes built in the 40s and 50s with a new housing addition across the street. So the new lot surveys were part of what they used. So I did not have any original markers. I wanted my property surveyed as recorded at the county records office. I was asking to have the property and easement boundary determined to prevent further trespassing and harassment. already had a harassment restraining order against her and she has been found guilty of trespassing on my property(finally cited after many complaints to keep her away from me. Also two other home owners have restraining orders.

 

[blocked]

My question is do I wait for the surveyor to take me to small claims to demand payment or should I send a letter and offer an amount. How do I determine what would be fair? I did not get a survey. I was given a preliminary survey that shows 5 of the 7 markers to be in the wrong location and with all the mistakes he made I do not know if the other 2 are correct.

 

[justalayman]

plus his time with the other property owner to resolve the mistake he made.

it doesn't sound like he made a mistake, at least concerning the property lines. It sounds like he was resolving a discrepancy that showed up when comparing your survey to the survey of the neighboring property. That can happen and it is the right of the surveyor to do this. This is not relevant to your situation IF you asked him to simple plat the lines as described in your deed. Unless you asked him to reconcile any differences and specifically asked him to locate your property per the written description within the deed, you would owe him for only what you contracted him to perform.

So, you need to decide if you want a survey of your property, including the reconciliation of the discrepancies or you simply wanted your property, as described in your deed, marked.

based on this statement:

I was asking to have the property and easement boundary determined to prevent further trespassing and harassment.

You wanted the reconciled boundary lines

 

[blocked]

My lot is recorded to be 130 ft x 98 ft 6 inches. and I have a recorded easement of 18 ft x 76 ft across the property to my west (coming off my rear lot line behind my neighbor to the north). No survey markers existed. The property owner to my west said she owned the last 18 x 98.5 ft. My lot is 18 ft deeper than my neighbor to the north. She demanded we get a survey and prove it was my land. my surveyor placed nails for the easement and iron pipes for the corners. I built a fence according to this survey. I asked to have it surveyed as recorded at the court house. A month later he said he gave me an additional 6 inches because he found an extra foot of unrecorded land and she wants it back. I did not ask for an additional 6 inches only what was recorded. The markers were not placed by the surveyor but by her boyfriend. Why should I pay for his time with her? I did not ask for the extra foot to be split and if he did as asked and surveyed what was recorded he would not have had to talk to her My original estimate was for $700 the bill is almost $2000 he said due to time spent resolving the issue with the 6 inches he gave me that I did not ask to have added to my land. does not seam right that he can pad his bill by making "mistakes"

 

[blocked]

The moving of the west line 6 inches to the west wound make the easement off by 6 inches to the west also leaving 6 inches of land between the property to my north and the easement. My easement runs along the west property line of my neighbor to my north. would not add up he also has a set number of feet on his decripton.. The e mail said " I found an extra 12 inches of land not on either property discription so it is standard practice to divide the extra land between the two properties." I was not told this untill she complained. I would not have accepted the extra land due to the ongoing problems. The same surveyor I hired did a consept map for the problem property owner in 2004 and was familiar with the area

 

[justalayman]

The markers were not placed by the surveyor but by her boyfriend. Why should I pay for his time with her?

Huh? Are you suggesting the simply because her boyfriend physically drove the pins, the survey is somehow not valid? Was the placement under the direction of the surveyor? There are often assistants that help with a survey. As long as the surveyor signs off on the survey and associated actions, it is a legally valid survey.

bottom line:

it comes down to what you contracted for. If you said:

mark my property as it is recorded

then the surveyor went beyond what was asked for.

If you said:

survey my property

what was done is standard practice and legally acceptable.


We can't have unclaimed land all over the place. It belongs to somebody and the proper thing to do is for the surveyor to correct the description of adjoining properties to remove all the various little slices of land that were somehow mistakenly missed when the land was divided.

 

[blocked]

justalayman thank you. my e mail and conversations were "survey my land as recorded at the land office" I even have an email from him that states he is going to the land office to review the documents. The boyfriend was digging around the markers to place fence post in concrete and the markers so they were disturbed (Not really relevant sorry just I am not sure how much he moved the markers.You can not dig a hole in soft sand up against the iron markers and place cement and fence post with out moving the markers. don't care if he did just want them to leave me alone) I want to settle this with the surveyor. But I did not get a survey, the preliminary has 5 of the 7 markers in the wrong location. and I have $1000 + bill for property damage due to the fence I built . based on the surveyor adding the extra 6 inches. Do I refuse to pay the bill? or just a portion? or will I have to pay it all plus he is now charging interest and still have no markers or survey to record.

 

[justalayman]

You have more than one issue. As to the property damage due to the alteration of your boundary line: you would not be liable since it was determined, by a licensed surveyor, where your legal boundary is. Where the surveyor placed the boundary line is dependable in court.

That is a separate issue from the contract with the surveyor though.The damages situation is defensible based on the surveyors reconciliation efforts but if you want to utilize the surveyors reconciliation action, you need to pay for his efforts to reconcile the boundary lines with the adjoining property.

The surveyor is not liable for what you might owe the neighbor since he did what was legally acceptable and allowed to reconcile the boundary lines with the neighboring parcel.

Whoever moved the stakes when planting fence is liable for correcting their damages but I will say, a properly placed surveyors stake is not going to be moved by planting a fence post next to it. They are driven deep enough that they would not be moved by such nearby actions, unless the hole was dug so as to expose the pin and the exposed portion was bent away.

unless your original contract included interest for unpaid fees, he cannot impose them now.