Well-reasoned Boundary Survey? Staking the Deed? What’s the Difference?
In a perfect world, all of the information necessary to locate the limits of title on the ground would be included on the Deed. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the previous installment, this is not always the case. Deeds can be written by anybody, regardless of their familiarity with the law, the land, or the people involved. The descriptions within those Deeds can also be written by anybody, regardless of their familiarity with land surveying, real estate, or grammar. No matter who the author is, the Deed carries a certain amount of evidentiary weight that must be taken into consideration when a surveyor performs a boundary survey. Over the next two installments, we will take a look at two ends of the spectrum for descriptions, and what the differences are between a “Well-Reasoned Boundary Survey” and the “Staking the Deed”.
Scenario 1
Twenty years ago, a landowner decided to split his property and hired a Land Surveyor to help him out. Field work was performed on the ground and survey markers were set at the corners of this new parcel. The Land Surveyor then wrote a legal description for the newly created parcel based on his careful measurements. Assuming the surveyor who wrote the description did satisfactory work, any surveyor who comes after him should be able to retrace the description verbatim and find the survey monumentation he set at the corners of the parcel.
Fast forward to today - a real estate agent is trying to sell the 10-year-old house on the property. A potential buyer requests that a boundary survey be performed. The real estate agent contacts a couple of local surveyors on behalf of their client and asks for quotes to complete the work. They provide each surveyor with a copy of the Deed for reference. Each surveyor reads the description on the Deed and, without doing any more research, recognizes that the description is based on survey work and was most likely developed by one of their own. How do they know this?
It is not really that difficult to tell, and with a little knowledge, anyone can spot the differences. When reading the description, there are a couple of typical hallmarks to look for that it was prepared either by a surveyor, or at least, based on a boundary survey. The first one - the distances are reported to the nearest 0.01’ (for example 57.43 feet). Second - the directions are reported to the nearest 1” (for example N 0° 52’ 27” W). It should be noted that exceptions to these hallmarks are common, however, it is a good place to start.
We are now starting to get to the nitty-gritty of the issue. Both surveyors that the real estate agent contacted are duly Licensed Professional Surveyors in good standing with the state. One would think that any difference in fee would be based on familiarity of the area, nature of the professionalism level of the company, and distance to the job site. This is all true; however, there is another hidden factor - the philosophy of the surveyor as to what constitutes “Boundary Surveying”. There are two camps:
Surveyor A believes that the analysis begins and ends with the Deed and the words written upon it. Otherwise known as “Staking the Deed”.
Surveyor B understands that the role we play in society is quasi-judicial in nature, that the Deed is but one piece of evidence of title, and most importantly, that when hired, folks are looking for solutions, not problems. This is the previously mentioned “Well-Reasoned Boundary Survey”.
Interestingly, given the conditions of Scenario 1, the quotes that the real estate agent gets back and then forwards to their client are going to be relatively similar. Both surveyors recognize a good description, both surveyors will estimate a similar amount of time that it will take to get things done, and both surveyors will come up with answers to the question of the location of the boundary that are very nearly identical. All is right with the world. Isn’t it …….?
