The Threat of Shopping for Land With out Having a Survey Carried out

Query:We bought our property three years in the past. Not too long ago we had it surveyed and located that our neighbor’s fence crossed onto our aspect of the property line by over six toes. She had it constructed about 5 years in the past and neither the vendor nor the title firm stated something to us concerning the encroachment. The neighbor provided to have the fence eliminated after the survey was achieved, then surprisingly after we agreed it must be eliminated, she retaliated and informed us she wished lower than 2 sq. toes of our concrete driveway eliminated which lapses onto her aspect. The contractor who constructed each our properties had laid the concrete for the driveways, 20 years in the past. What’s the greatest resolution for us?Reply:When shopping for land, two issues must be going down concurrently. The primary is buying title insurance coverage, and the second is having a survey carried out. Title insurance coverage, amongst different issues, will reveal the authorized holder of the property together with an outline of the property. The survey will use the recorded written description from the vendor (often within the type of a guaranty deed) and supply you, the client, a declaration (often within the type of a map) of the ‘traces’ provided as ‘title rights’ versus the property traces as positioned on the bottom. The traces within the written description and people laid on the bottom must be the identical. With older property, these traces are sometimes obscure.There are specific dangers related to proudly owning land with out the advantage of having a survey of the property. The primary is that having title rights from the vendor is not at all a assure of land possession. The opposite is what turns into yours within the written conveyance is usually not the identical bodily piece of land current on the bottom.One of the best line of protection in your peace of thoughts and earlier than you make investments huge bucks into landscaping or that pool deck, is to have a survey carried out as a part of the sale and buy settlement. This fashion, each the title rights from the prevailing proprietor and the survey may be examined – previous to – buy of the land. In a great world, the survey will discover them to be the identical piece of land. Simply as a title dedication will disclose issues affecting possession rights, the survey will reveal these possession rights by bodily inserting monuments on the bottom relative to the writings within the deed.How a survey protects you.Earlier than inserting these monuments, the surveyor examines the land description (deed) for a lot of issues. The outline should possess the next parts:1 – The written description should be able to a mathematical closure. Merely stated, traces and corners should meet. A sq. or rectangle should shut. That is true the place geometric values are given – usually within the type of bearings and distances. Issues come up when the outline is void of any numerical values permitting a verify for closure.2 – It should be able to standing alone with out the advantage of adjoining land descriptions or “parol” proof (oral proof). That is generally often called the ‘4 Corners’ rule, referring to the 4 corners of the paper having the outline of the property.As soon as the written description is examined, discipline measurements are taken to put on the bottom the property traces as outlined within the deed. Throughout this course of, the surveyor could also be confronted with resolving conflicts of proof found when inserting the deed description on the bottom. The instance being your errant fence.Three fundamental parts are recognized as guides for the surveyor within the decision of conflicts.1 – Occupancy of the land ripens right into a authorized proper thereby extinguishing or turns into superior to the written phrase.That is the previous “possession is 9/10 of the law” argument. The survey doesn’t decide the validity of this merchandise, as these offers with adversarial possession/prescriptive rights, and requires the help of authorized counsel. The survey can and may reveal the property traces and people geospatial options relative to at least one one other. Because the surveyor is a truth finder, it isn’t throughout the surveyors licensing authority to find out whether or not land rights have modified palms. Nevertheless, armed with these sorts of findings, you change into a better-informed shopper.2 – In a land dispute between personal events, a senior proper is superior to a junior proper.The place the property being surveyed is land that was created via sequential conveyance, the surveyor will ask for added data relating to the outline of the lands adjoining topic property. If, in the course of the course of the survey, discrepancies are discovered, reminiscent of overlaps or gaps, they are often dropped at the eye of the events concerned.3 – Intentions between the events as written are paramount.The surveyor works throughout the confines of the written phrases of the deed. Nevertheless, there are occasions when there’s ambiguity within the writings. In an effort to make clear the outline, it could change into essential for extrinsic proof, i.e. proof of matter exterior the writings provided to clear up an ambiguity.Subsequently, the particular reply to the query requested to start with is: When there’s a boundary dispute as a result of a declare of encroachment on one other’s property, a declare of adversarial possession or prescriptive easement could also be raised. “Adverse possession” claims search to realize title to property, whereas “prescriptive easement” claims search the correct to continued use of, relatively than the title to the property. A survey determines the traces of the property together with bodily options under, at floor floor or above relative to the property traces. To ensure that a neighbor to assert one other neighbor’s property by adversarial possession, there are numerous parts as to the particular use of the claimed property that should be met. Because it seems you’ll not be reaching a pleasant decision, now could be the time you search the recommendation of an legal professional.