Property Survey

I am trying to get a copy of the last property survey done in my home. Can anyone give me advice as to how I can do this? I got a copy of the plat from the court house and I found out it's not what I need because it contains the whole subdivision. I am the second owner and I can't contact the previous owner since he moved out of state. When I bought my home I don't believe there was a survey done. (I couldn't find a copy of one in my closing documents from 12 years ago) Is there a possibility that one doesn't exist? Or could it be possible that one was done when the house was built back in 1981? Where would I find this info? Please help! Mrs. Rose

Reply to
Mrs.Rose
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If you took out a mortgage when you bought the house the bank would have insisted on a new survey. Start with your mortgage holder and if they don't have a copy, they can tell you where you can get a copy of yours.

Reply to
jerryl

The original subdivision survey is an important beginning. Any subsequent survey of your individual property will rely upon that.

Start with the Town/City hall. Maps on file are typically kept in the Town/City Clerk's office.

Peace, Mark

Reply to
peaceofheart

You bought property without seeing any survey, dumb. If you know the previous owners name contact all the survey companys around to get a copy if your land records office has none. Get your own survey done, that is the way its done.

Reply to
m Ransley

You have a mortgage right? Then there must be title insurance. Find the title insurance documents and look through them. The title insurance company and/or mortgage company would have required a survey. Somewhere in that paperwork there should either be a copy of the survey of the name of the company that did it. Also, check your old checks from the closing period. You may have written a check to the survey company.

Reply to
trader4

My mortgage cited a numbered plan on file with the Town. I believe the bank had that checked but in any event, I was forced to purchase title insurance.

A few years ago, after the mortgage had been discharged, I decided to see exactly where the corners of my lot are and paid for a survey. Surprise -- I own about 10 more on the sides than the "obvious" lines are and the back of my land goes back another 150' from what was assumed. That gave me a nice pond at least from Fall through the Spring. This year has been so wet that it is still full of water. (Global warming, no doubt.)

m Ransley wrote:

Reply to
Stubby

In my area a survey ordered for a property transfer is usually paid for by the seller, with a copy to the title company and the buyer, and the surveyor will usually not release a copy to anyone after some set period, here it's generally 5 or 10 years depending on company policy

As a survey is a snapshot of the conditions on the day the survey was performed they have a point; improvements, and in some cases even the land itself, may have changed since the survey, that's why building departments generally require a current survey as part of the building permit application for exterior modifications, putting up fences and the like.

Michael Thomas Paragon Home Inspection, LLC Chicago, IL mdtATparagoninspectsDOTcom

847-475-5668
Reply to
MDT at Paragon Home Inspection

Depending on the city and how the property is configured, the original survey of the subdivision may have been sufficient for any lender or previous buyer. It may be all there is. If so, if you want a more detailed drawing, you need to hire your own survey.

If you just need a bigger drawing for say a site plan to get a building permit, then you can likely do it yourself with AutoCAD or a good drawing program. Be sure to include a note that the identifying marks were not surveyed and reference the document that you took them from. In this case, they mostly want to see the structures relative to the property lines and setbacks and have the area of work to be clearly indicated.

In the case of my (Milpitas, CA) house, property lines are very obviously deliniated by fences. A detailed survey would be a waste of money for me as there is really no chance for error with these small regular sized lots (55' x 100')

Reply to
PipeDown

My sidewalk has marks on the sidewalk which appears to be just like they took a masonry saw/angle cutter and marked the lines with a two inch cut. Eyeballing the thing seems like the mark runs down the middle of the block wall....city life.

I just don't think I own a vertical half of three block walls. I'm trying to determine who needs to fix some things (later topic) on a particular wall.

Oren

Reply to
Oren

That's a custom that varies greatly by state. I'm not aware of any lender in Washington that requires a survey for home financing. Even raw land can be financed without a new survey.

The last survey of my property was when the city was first platted, just under 100 years ago. Neighboring properties have been surveyed and those surveys left enough monuments and records to reliably locate the property lines.

Reply to
Joshua Putnam

That varies greatly by jurisdiction -- I haven't needed a survey for financing, title insurance, or building permits. The last survey of my property was the original plat, just under 100 years ago.

Reply to
Joshua Putnam

My co-worker that spent $15,000 in legal fees over a property line/fence issue on her small lot will be gad to hear that. Will she be getting a refund?

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

"in my case" dosen't mean "in her case" too

I sure hope she recovered $15,000 worth of land or it was a waste of money (defined as when you spend more than you recover). Around here property is about $50 to $100 per SF depending on if you count the structure's value or not (just taking my assessed value and dividing by the total SF). But when you fued with your neighbor, those things are moot. Future gains in land value will eventually mitigate that cost.

She won't get a refund unless the lawyer was negligent and she sues him too for legal malpractice. Or unless the settlement included payment for said charges.

Reply to
PipeDown

Be careful -- just in our short street, several errors have been discovered in recent surveys, done at different times for different owners, which resulted in one homeowner (who built right up to the then-surveyed setback) finding out after-the-fact that his house was actually 1 1/2 feet into the setback. What this will do in the future for a resale is problematic. At the least he'll have to try to get a variance approved -- Regards --

Reply to
JimR

We have the advantage that our house was here *before* the city was platted. The town has grown up around it, many other surveys have been done near it, but it has not needed a survey of its own since the original plat.

For an owner who inadvertently built too close to the property line, if the construction was properly permitted and approved at the time, it should be a legal nonconforming use, not requiring any variance to continue. Any *additional* nonconformance would be a different issue, but at least around here, he wouldn't have any trouble selling if it was legal when he built it.

Reply to
Joshua Putnam

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