Why You Need a Land Survey

Earlier in the week while trekking the vast virtual expanse that is the Internet, we stumbled across a very helpful article from the CourthouseDirect.com Blog that really got us thinking here at King’s Land Surveying. At KLSS, we behold the glorified title of Land Surveyors. The title is fairly self explanatory, but even though you may know what we do here,  it’s equally important to understand why we do it. Finally, the time has come for us to pass along a small piece of wisdom from our  great knowledge of one of the world’s oldest professions. Don’t worry, we don’t plan on spinning you a perilous yarn about the great flood that washed out the farm boundaries of ancient Egypt or anything like that. With your best interest at heart, we think you’ll prefer a much shorter, much more pertinent summary of just the important parts.

Why

Most importantly, you want to know why you need a land survey, and the answer is we don’t know, but you’ll want a land surveyor around to find out for you. Maybe we’ll find unknown easements or rights of way to use someone else’s land for a specified purpose. Maybe we’ll find that a building not included in the legal description of the land is encroaching on your property. Maybe we’ll find a case of adverse possession where someone only gains ownership of a piece of land because they squatted there and were not evicted. Whatever purpose we discover for your land survey, you should never use an old survey. In our constantly changing environment, an old survey will most likely be outdated and not include any changes that have happened since it was conducted.

When

Now you have a pretty clear understanding of why you need a land survey, so let’s talk about when you need it. In the most dire situation, you absolutely need a land survey if there are no  permanent boundary markers or noticeable boundary structures (i.e. fences). A proper boundary must be easily recognizable by someone on the ground. That means even if there are boundary lines, but they’re a bit ambiguous, it’s time for a new survey. Those are the most critical cases, but there are other less crucial reasons for needing a survey, which we’ve covered below:

1. Before land is bought, sold, or subdivided
2. Before a boundary dispute arises
3. Before designing major improvements (i.e. roads, buildings, pools, fences, etc.)

What

So you know why you need a survey, but when the time arises, you need to know what to actually do. It’s quite simple, really.

“Before the survey, you should walk the land yourself no matter what the size and see it with your own eyes.”

After your workout, you should request a profile of the property from the realtor that contains ownership information, a plat map, a legal description, and tax information. Then, sit back and let your land surveyor go to work to provide you with peace of mind.

The moral of the story is that your property is your investment and a land survey is a worthwhile precautionary measure for protecting your investment. Now equipped with this new found wisdom, you should recognize the importance of a land survey and here at King’s Land Surveying, we’d be more than happy to help!