They say fences make the best neighbors. I recently had several people reach out to asking for land surveyor recommendations in Central Mass. Everyone who asked had a story – – my neighbor is dumping their yard waste on my property, my neighbor installed a fence while we were away and I think it’s at least 1 foot over my property line, my neighbor is a jerk….
I recently learned when I took the real estate broker course there is a rectangular survey system in other parts of the country–you own whatever portion of that you own, and it’s very easy to identify where the parcel is in general from the description. “The rectangular survey, also called the Public Land Survey System, is how the U.S. General Land Office system measures and names land. The survey created a matrix of six-mile-square townships designated by their relationship to a north-south line called a meridian and an east-west line called a baseline.” –WisconsinHistory.org
Here in New England, we’ve got legal descriptions that are quite the detective work. 45° north west of a pin in the ground in the land formerly owned by Hiram Alonsius Merriam. Rods and pins are often mentioned, as are stone walls.
People get really funny about private property and anything that encroaches on their land. When I was a kid, we sold our house in Baldwinville to my Auntie Mary. In those days, when you sold your house, it came with whatever land it did. Now, you see that people either subdivide any additional buildable acreage off of the parcel for sale or price the property as having an extra building lot.
At some point after my aunt bought our house, she sold off a building lot. This was in the Back Bay neighborhood in Baldwinville. If you have any connection to that area, you might remember this situation. Whoever bought that land got at least as far as pouring a foundation before learning that they encroached on one of the adjacent properties and the entire foundation needed to be taken out and a new one poured a few feet over.
As an adult, we lived in a cove on Wyman Pond in Westminster for about 20 years. Again, protective of what they own, people really pay attention to their road frontage and their lot lines. Imagine the scenario that I lived in a cove with very small lots, and I had 71 feet of water frontage. My neighbor had 50. The problem is it was really only about 115 linear feet of the waterfront, so we had to watch the pin very closely because it was known to move when no one was looking.
In real estate transactions, the buyer’s lender will order what’s called a tape survey. It’s not a full survey, it’s a cursory review of documents and the physical property to provide a mortgage plot plan, or tape survey. When buyers are signing at the closing, the attorney will say look at this map here. Does this look like about what you’re buying? The buyers always say yes and initial it. If the tape surveyor sees a neighbor’s shed on the subject property or anything that looks like it might interfere with the lender‘s ability to obtain clear title on the property, that can put the transaction on pause until it’s figured out.
I once had a transaction in Westminster, where my client had bought a new construction house and used the lot map she had gotten from the builder to expand the driveway and have a shed installed. When she went to sell the property a few years later, the tape survey came back and said that a small portion of the driveway and the entire shed were actually on the neighbor’s property. We don’t know how the builder managed to give her an incorrect site plan, but we got this news on a Friday morning for a Tuesday closing. My client had to get a driveway company over with almost the same day notice. She discovered that there’s actually a company called movemyshed.com and they did. She also managed to get a surveyor to come over and certify that everything was now within the bounds of her property, and we closed on Tuesday. That seller is one of my favorite clients. She gets stuff done!
Do you have lot line issues or a brewing neighbor dispute? I’ve put together this list of land surveyors in Central Mass, none of them I’ve used myself, but all came recommended by at least 2 people. Please let me know if you have any recommended updates to this list.
I’ve heard it said that some of the larger firms cater to their regular clients and are difficult to get for small one-off jobs, but I have not experienced that myself either way. I have seen that as some of the old small office surveyors retire, it’s more difficult to find someone to do a small job. I’m hopeful that between us all, we’ll be able to build a list that is a helpful resource for homeowners and people being encroached upon.
Haley Ward
WEBSITE
Hancock Associates
CONTACT FORM
WEBSITE
Hub Survey Associates
Ronald Thunberg
(508) 835 6260
Jarvis Land Survey, Inc.
(508) 842 8087
EMAIL
CONTACT FORM
WEBSITE
GOOGLE REVIEWS
Pera Land Surveying
Christopher P. Pera, PLS
(978) 410 9775
EMAIL
RealMapInfo
WEBSITE
CONTACT FORM
GOOGLE REVIEWS
Szoc Surveyors
(978) 632 0233
GOOGLE REVIEWS
