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Originally posted by DrDan:
Before I begin, I know the correct answer is to hire a licensed surveyor for my property, but here is a situation I don't really understand. Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on what might be going on.

Back during COVID times, the spousal unit and I used the COVID check from the tax-payers to buy some property we could play on, since everything else was locked down. The property, now two lots, are in a platted subdivision that, until recently, was very sparsely developed. We own two lots on the same street, but across the road and a couple of lot spaces apart.

Here is the short form of the situation that puzzles me. When we first bought our property, I downloaded from the county tax appraiser's office the plat of the subdivision and located our lots. Using that, I was able to locate what I am nearly certain are the original boundary markers (platted circa 1980) of the lots, even one permanent reference marker. I located and exposed close to a dozen markers, making them plain as day. A few months later, someone buried all the markers and put something akin to a surveying stake, painted orange, etc in a pattern resembling lot boundary markers. The trouble is, the stakes were at least 20' off the boundary markers, and well into county right-of-way of the road. At the time I assumed a real estate agent put those there to attract attention to listings, or something. I didn't get concerned, since the affected lots weren't mine and were not adjacent to mine. Fast forward to last week. The lots adjacent to one of mine recently sold, and I happened to be at my lot when the new owners arrived to inspect their property. At the same time, a contractor showed up to give a bid on clearing the lots for the new owners. I pointed out the exposed boundary marker between our respective lots, and had a nice discussion with them. Now, a week later, I came to my property and there are surveyor stakes delineating the property corners of my neighbor's lots, but, you guessed it, set about 20' onto my side of the boundary markers, and one well within the county right-of-way. I took a picture of the stakes and markings, looked it up on the web, and they are prototypical property corner markers set out by surveyors. Whats more, they even placed a pink flag at the boundary marker I had exposed, indicating they saw it.

What the heck is going on? I can't imagine an actual surveyor being so incompetent. According to a friend that is a retired licensed surveyor, the original platted markers should govern any dispute on locations. How could a surveyor be so far off? Maybe it's the contractor, but what advantage would he get by being so far off? It's nuts.

Specific questions, if anyone knows the answer:

1) Are surveyors required to mark their work with an identifier as to who did it? I found some other surveyor markers that had a number on it that identified the company that placed the markers, so one could at least call them with any questions.

2) Would it not be unusual for a real estate agent or contractor to put up their own survey stakes for a property boundary? Layout within a job site is one thing, property boundaries would be different, I suspect.

3) Is it legal to remove a stake that is not marked? I know it is illegal to mess with actual surveyor markings, but how can one tell the difference between some stake driven into the ground and one put by a surveyor?

For now, until I can get a survey done, I put up a corner fence of bright orange snow fence (yeah, kinda funny in FL), beginning at the platted boundary marker so at least no one can claim "they didn't see it." I also put up no trespassing signs with my phone number on it so a legitimate contractor might notice the discrepancy in boundaries and call me before they encroach on my property. Most likely sloppy work and an innocent mistake, but I rather address it now, rather than find my lot cleared and have to deal with the aftermath.

Thanks in advance.

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Originally posted by Timdogg6:
you got mail

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

You may need somebody with the ability to dig through all of the previous surveys to check for inaccuracies which set future errors into motion.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:
“He said that the problem stemmed from a "rock" used as a marker, which would have originally sat in the middle of a modern two lane paved road that now exists. Because that rock was moved/buried during the road construction, a "guess" was made as to roughly where it would have been resulting in the 20' error.”
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Originally posted by oldbill123:
My front two property line markers are in the center of the street in front of the house.