Survey Stakes

[new owner]

What is the name of your state?OHIO

Is it against any law to remove survey stakes. As in, after a survey is done, can the neighbor get in any trouble by removing them?

Thank you,

 

[wolfgang69]

Survey stakes as in wooden stakes, no problem. Unless of course you are still building and your builder is lost without them. Also, if you paid for the survey it may be illegal, but see my comments in last paragraph about that. If you look at your Plat at the county courthouse, you should see IRF (Iron Rod Found), IRS (Iron Rod Set), IPF (Iron Pipe Found), IPS (Iron Pipe Set), or Stone, or tree or some other permanent marker you can find on your property corners. The pipes or rods are usually slightly visible on the surface unless the ground was recently graded, then they could be covered by some dirt (maybe even a foot or so), but you can always find them with a metal detector. Sometimes the stakes are actually taped or strung to the rods/pipes. You should also see LONG/LAT coordinates and then you can use a GPS to find your pipes/rods or whatever. I don't believe that it is legal to remove any permanent marking, but the wood stakes would eventually rot and fall away.

All that said, I am not a surveyor or the like, but I have been doing a good bit of research on my own land and have developed tidbits of knowledge like this, but if you think your neighbor has removed any permanent markings, a new survey should do the trick. The surveyor should be able to find the corners based on records and then set new rods/pipes. Whether or not you can sue your neighbor or he/she can sue you is probably not worth worrying about since a surveys only cost about 300 - 500 and it'll cost you that in aggravation of taking someone to small claims court. Maybe Judge Judy can handle it for you. The RainMan would recommend Judge Whoppner, but I heard he retired a while back.

Hope all goes well for you.

 

[jimmler]

What is the name of your state?OHIO

Is it against any law to remove survey stakes. As in, after a survey is done, can the neighbor get in any trouble by removing them?

Thank you,

It is illegal in most states to remove survey corner points. It could also be illegal to remove wooden stakes placed by the surveyor, if the person that removes them is not the one that paid for them in the first place. The problem lies in proving it. Unless you have photos or video of the person removing them, it is very difficult to prove.

As far as pricing goes, you would be better off getting the original surveyor to replace the points that were removed, but expect to pay by the hour, and a full boundary survey costing $300 to $500 is pretty much unheard of in most states, expect it to be more than that.

I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying for 15 years.

 

[HomeGuru]

I agree. The stakes are the property of the homeowner who paid for or otherwise benefited from the survey.

 

[surveyormontana]

Surveyor stakes and hubs are very cheap so I dont see the problem. You can get stakes for about 20 cents according to this surveyor site http://www.a1woodproducts.net/.

 

[stmfitr636]

True.

The cost is in the labor. $6 worth of stakes and $1194 in labor installing and recording accurately.

 

[seniorjudge]

Why are y'all necroposting?

 

[HomeGuru]

Maybe they want to live in the past.

 

[Ctryder]

It is illegal in most states to remove survey corner points. It could also be illegal to remove wooden stakes placed by the surveyor, if the person that removes them is not the one that paid for them in the first place. The problem lies in proving it. Unless you have photos or video of the person removing them, it is very difficult to prove.

As far as pricing goes, you would be better off getting the original surveyor to replace the points that were removed, but expect to pay by the hour, and a full boundary survey costing $300 to $500 is pretty much unheard of in most states, expect it to be more than that.

I am not a lawyer, I have been in surveying for 15 years.

I had a survey done on two properties that I had that sat side by side, I wanted to give more land to one of the houses and that cost me close to $800 for a simple 8 feet of land to go from one side to another...

 

[drewguy]

Maybe they want to live in the past.

Or because Montanaguy has a surveyor stake business (in Libby, MT) he wants to advertise.

 

[HomeGuru]

I had a survey done on two properties that I had that sat side by side, I wanted to give more land to one of the houses and that cost me close to $800 for a simple 8 feet of land to go from one side to another...

**A: and that sounds about right.