Suing a surveyor

[ddewey]

We have a property line dispute because of the neighbor's surveyor. By his own admission, he used some questionable control points and neglected to check some clearly marked dimensions on a plat map, but he maintains he's correct. To get our property back, a circuit court judge will decide on the accuracy of the survey, or we will press for adverse possession. Price tag? About $10K. Our title insurance has an exclusionary clause. We're told we can't sue the sureveyor in small claims court because he didn't enter into a contract with us. A case for slander of title is rarely used and hard to prove. Is there any way to hold the surveyor responsible for our legal costs, or does he just walk? The real laugh is that the neighbors could sue him for their legal bills for losing land that never belonged to them in the first place! How do I recover my legal expenses? Help!

 

[JETX]

Why would you have to sue him??? Hire another (your own) surveyor and have a 'correct' survey made.

Also, I would suggest that you register your complaint with your states regulatory agency that is responsible for licensing surveyors (most, if not all, states have them). Detail your circumstances and send a copy of your complaint to the offending surveyor (maybe he would 'amend' his survey or reimburse you for your's in turn for not pursuing your complaint).

 

[ddewey]

I had wondered about a complaint. Thanks. Had our surveyor out before we built in 5/83, and he "set" the house in 9/83. Same man recertified the survey both times we refinanced. After the neighbors' survey placed their rear line 11 ft. onto our property, our surveyor came out again and resurveyed. He maintains that the control points he used and the corners he placed are correct. Our surveyor's controlling irons are 2 county monument markers. They haven't moved, according to county boundary recertification surveys. One of these markers marks a line for the center of a street right-of-way in front of the neighbors' property. A 130 yr. old plat map shows the r.o.w. split 22 ft. east and 44 ft. west of that corner. The neighbor's surveyor set their front property line at 33 ft., not 22 ft. east of that r.o.w. - a difference of 11 ft. Despite the evidence, their surveyor says that he is correct, so we're faced with going to court, since only a judge can determine what is right. I believe the judge will OK our survey, or we can win the property in adverse possession, but why should we have to be responsible for the cost of cleaning up a mess caused by someone else's incompetence?