Contesting A Property Survey

[onestr8]

I live in Missouri.

The house next door to me is owned by a large corporation. The house is to be aquired an demolished for a county road improvement. The corporation that owns the house recently sent their company-employed surveyors out and they set property boundry markers, corner stakes etc.

The problem is, that even measuring by hand, it is obvious that they have marked the property to be approximately 48ft wide when the county records indicate a 38ft lot.

This would mean the loss of approximately 2250ft of my property. While that doesn't seem like a lot, this property is located on the corner of an extremely busy urban interchange that is experiencing more than $200 million in infrustructure and commercial improvements, so the land is becoming exponentially more valuable.

What options do I have to challenge the survey? Should I wait to see the purpose behind the recent survey or take action immediately? Is so, what action?What is the name of your state?

 

[jimmler]

I live in Missouri.

The house next door to me is owned by a large corporation. The house is to be aquired an demolished for a county road improvement. The corporation that owns the house recently sent their company-employed surveyors out and they set property boundry markers, corner stakes etc.

The problem is, that even measuring by hand, it is obvious that they have marked the property to be approximately 48ft wide when the county records indicate a 38ft lot.

This would mean the loss of approximately 2250ft of my property. While that doesn't seem like a lot, this property is located on the corner of an extremely busy urban interchange that is experiencing more than $200 million in infrustructure and commercial improvements, so the land is becoming exponentially more valuable.

What options do I have to challenge the survey? Should I wait to see the purpose behind the recent survey or take action immediately? Is so, what action?What is the name of your state?

If you want to challenge the survey you will have to hire your own surveyor to perform a boundary survey on your property. It would be a good idea to order a title report and provide it to your surveyor before they do the work.

Your surveyor will research your property, and the neighboring properties to figure out how they should fit together. Then they will come out to your property and locate any available property evidence, it may take several trips to the site before they can set the corners.

Do not hire the cheapest surveyor you find, you do get what you pay for. Ask the surveyors you call if they have experience being an expert witness in court, because that is where you will be headed if the surveys don't agree, and a convincing expert witness can often win your case for you (of course, along with your real estate attorney).

jimmler
I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying since 1989.

 

[ralph31]

I had a similar experience where the solution was to get another survey done.
The second survey which was plotted from a different direction resulted in a different boundary, the newer boundary line favored me. The purchaser to be of my property went along with the second survey without hesitation.

I was advised that the would be purchasers had no desire to question the
correctness of either survey as it was a small amount of money [30,000] to pay out relative to the project they were planning. The buyers just did not want to have a parcel of land where there was any question to the accuracy of the title.

I didn't have to have a different and competing survey done with another engineering firm. I just asked the firm that did the survey to double check what they had previously done. They, in this case, were happy to double check their own work. In doing so, coming from a different direction, the result was in my favor.

 

[JETX]

Don't delay. Get a survey AND get an attorney.
If it as you claim, an attorney can contact the other owner on your behalf.... and file for injunctive relief to stop them from taking any action that would affect your property rights.