The 1996 Rebar and the 1911 Pipe
You are retained by a purchaser to survey Lot 12, Block 4, Maple Grove, platted and recorded in 1911 with 50.00- by 210.55-ft lots and 'iron pipes at all lot corners.' The 1978 deed runs S 04°22' W 210.55 ft, N 85°38' W 50.00 ft, N 04°22' E 210.55 ft, S 85°38' E 50.00 ft, 'containing 0.24 acre, more or less.' Original 1911 pipes are recovered at the NW and SE corners, each within 0.05 ft of the record geometry. At the NE corner you find an uncapped, badly corroded 3/4-inch iron pipe 0.15 ft from the position computed from those two pipes, and a 5/8-inch rebar capped 1996 located 0.95 ft southeast of the pipe. The SW corner lies under a concrete driveway. A fence maintained by the westerly adjoiner sits 1.3 ft inside Lot 12 for its full depth, and that owner has planted and mowed to it since 1999. The listing agent says the fence 'has always been the line.'
1. Which monument controls at the NE corner, and how do you establish the SW corner? Show the reasoning, not just the hierarchy of calls.
Read the worked answer
NE corner: the 1911 iron pipe controls.
- It is the monument the plat itself calls for, and it is corroborated: its position is 0.15 ft from the corner independently computed by holding the two found original pipes at NW and SE and running the record courses and distances between them. That is identification with reasonable certainty, not a guess.
- The 1996 rebar is a later monument. A monument set decades after the plat cannot displace the original it was meant to mark unless the original is genuinely lost. Here it was not lost; the later surveyor evidently failed to recover the pipe and set a new corner 0.95 ft off. Do not adopt it.
- Accept the pipe's position as found. Do not 'correct' it to the record distance - the 0.15 ft offset is monument position, and the record geometry yields to the monument.
SW corner: the driveway is not a monument and its presence does not make the corner 'lost.' Investigate first: probe, use a metal detector or ground-penetrating radar, check the recorded plat for offsets or ties, and check for a witness or a curb-line tie. Only if the corner cannot be recovered do you fall back on proportioning the record distance between the two found original corners, or on record bearing and distance from them, and you must state on the plat that the corner is set by record, not found.
2. The client wants a plat showing a clean 50.00-ft width with no mention of the fence. What do you show, and what do you tell him?
Read the worked answer
Show the fence and quantify it.
- The fence is inside Lot 12 by 1.3 ft over 210.55 ft = 273.7 sf (0.0063 ac). It is an encroachment by the adjoiner onto the subject lot, and it must appear on the plat as a line of possession, annotated as an encroachment, along with any other evidence of possession you observed.
- The boundary does not move because of the fence. A fence is evidence, not a conveyance. Whether 1999 onward supports adverse possession, boundary by agreement, or a prescriptive easement is a title question for counsel and a court; the surveyor locates and discloses and does not adjudicate. You may note that the occupation period is roughly 25 years and flag it; do not opine on its legal effect.
- Refuse to omit it. Suppressing a known encroachment misleads the purchaser, the lender, and the title insurer, and it is the kind of omission that gets surveys and seals challenged. Put the refusal in writing and explain what closing protection or a boundary line agreement would require.
- Offer the legitimate path: if both owners execute and record a boundary line agreement or quitclaim, a later survey can show the agreed line. That requires the adjoiner's signature and legal advice - not your unilateral adjustment.
3. The client asks whether the lot is '0.24 acre like the deed says.' Answer him, and state how you will annotate area and dimensions on the plat.
Read the worked answer
Computation: 50.00 x 210.55 = 10,527.5 sf = 0.2417 ac, consistent with the deed's '0.24 acre, more or less.' The deed area is a descriptive call and yields to monuments and courses; the 0.15-ft monument offset at the NE corner does not change the 50.00-ft record dimension materially.
But the answer is not just 0.24 acre. The client is buying a lot subject to a 273.7-sf (0.0063-ac) occupation by his neighbor. Net land he can actually possess is about 10,254 sf (0.2354 ac) unless the claim is resolved. Say that plainly.
Plat annotation:
- Distances and bearings between monuments as found, to 0.01 ft and 1 second.
- Area computed to 0.01 ac with a note that the area is computed from the monumented boundary, not from the deed recital.
- The fence shown and labeled as an encroachment, with dimensions.
- A note stating the SW corner was set (not found) if recovery fails, and the basis used.
Area is the weakest call in any description; report it as computed and say so.