Resolving A Property Line Dispute Before A Fence Installation

If your new neighbor has placed wooden stakes where they want to build a fence and you believe that the fence will be located on your property, then you need to have the land professionally surveyed. It is important that you know where the legal boundaries of your land are and that you prevent your neighbor from building structures that encroach on your property.

Here is some information to help you better understand the land surveying process:

Professional Land Surveyors

Land surveyors are licensed professionals who have specialty training that gives them the legal authority to determine property boundaries. Surveyors determine the lot lines in a variety of ways, including:

• researching property deeds and descriptions
• assessing physical lot lines
• corner marking land boundaries

One of the first steps your land surveyor will take is to visit your county tax assessor's office and view the recorded deeds and lot descriptions for your property. Every property deed contains a legal description that explains to the surveyor exactly where the property is located on the surface of the earth.

Using their tools, the surveyor will assess the physical lot line locations. Once the property boundaries have been determined and verified, then the surveyor will mark the corners of the lot using permanent markers. While markers used to be nailed into trees, today they are placed into the ground. Legal markers vary by state and municipality, but they will contain a note that they are a legal boundary marker and that it is illegal for someone to remove them.

Tools Used by Professional Land Surveyors

To measure horizontal and vertical angles, land surveyors use a tool known as a transit. Transits are the tools that you often see mounted on the tripods of land surveyors who are working on the side of highways that are under construction.

Land surveyors also use a very sensitive level that is designed to determine the changes in elevation of the lot that they are surveying. And, finally, they also use a specialized solar compass that is made to find true north and latitude location.

Conclusion

As you can see, land surveying will solve your boundary issue once and for all and allow your neighbor to build their fence on their own property. If you have any additional questions about determining the lot lines of your home's property, then you should speak with a licensed land surveyor, such as those at Krause & Gantzer.