The future (this friday) owners of property next to ours had a survey done last week. This past weekend, I noticed some surveyor marks with flagging on our property (3 different areas). Apparantly they came on to our property without permission. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but now Im left to wondering what these marks on our place are for. I called the landowner who is selling to get the realitors number and from the realitor to get the future owners to get the surveyors number. Im waiting on the future owners to return my message I left on the machine or whatever. Does any one know what these marks are or if they have to have permission to cross boundary lines? They are flagging nailed into the ground.

Maybe the survey for your property line is wrong? I have seen it happen in the past with raw land- where they are looking at maps from 30+ years ago..

Most likely they are just random traverse points that don't mean anything to anyone except the surveyors, probably your property was more open and easier to traverse. And no the surveyors do not have the right to trespass without permission.

mikefin, thats my main concern. We did not have a survey done when we bought the place because one was done 2 years prior.

catfish, thats what I was thinking and what ive been told. Our property is a lot more open in the areas where the marks were left. And the more I think about it the hotter i get for them to trespass.

Could be the marked areas on your property were used by the survey crew as waypoints to find the property line pins or to view around some obstructions, or, the property line isn't where you thought it was.

If they are closing this Fri the title company should know who the survey was done by. The real estate agent should know what title co is being used.
It would be a lot easier to refer to your own survey to see whats going on.

Where do you hunt? Last year we had some big power lines go through are place in childress. They run from Kansas and heading through Dallas

diehard, I hunt in Trinity county, east Texas

Just wondering out loud here. If the property line has been moved for ten years doesn't the property line change to the current position? That may be way out of line, but just something I have heard in the past.

http://www.lonestarlandlaw.com/Adverse.html this what you mean?

I'm not lecturing you but you should always get a survey when you purchase real property. If you relied on a survey done two years before you purchased the property how do you know if fencing wasn't incorrectly put up and encroaches on a neighbors property? If you get a survey at least you have some recourse back to the survey company as your title policy will not insure for the area that the fencing might encroach on. Just because a fence is there doesn't mean it's properly placed. Good luck, hopefully they're just markers to help establish boundaries.

I thought you had to get a survey done either way when you bought new land?

You don't have to get a survey but it is always prudent to know where your boundaries are. If you borrow the money to purchase the property your lender will surely require one as they want to know exactly what they have should they need to foreclose. If you pay cash and don't get one you're taking alot of risk that fences and even structures might encroach on a neighbor's property. You just shouldn't trust that the previous owner stayed within your property lines. If there is no fence then you need a survey for sure because there is no way to tell where the property lines are. If you know the surveyor and the survey is reasonably current and nothing has obviously been constructed then you might be OK to proceed but the title company will list shortages in area and encroachments as exceptions to your coverage to cover their butts. There is no reourse to the surveyor unless you engaged him.

Keep this in mind. I bought a piece of property that had been in the same family for years and the last survey done was with a chain system which is a whole lot different than the GPS systems used now days. When it was all said and done I lost property in some area's and gain property in others, according to the fence line. It was minium 10'-15' in some arae's but wasn't going to move miles of fence for 10'. Basically I told my neighbors about it and everything stayed the same (fences). I had flags going everywhere.