There’s nothing like a property line dispute to turn formerly cordial neighbors into enemies overnight – and they can be surprisingly hard to resolve.
Imagine, for example, that you want to build a fence on your property line to keep your dog in (and other dogs out), but your neighbor sees the lines for the structure laid out and hurries over to tell you that you’re about to build on their land. After a bit of back-and-forth, your neighbor gets a surveyor to render judgment – and it doesn’t go your way.
Can a property survey be wrong? Absolutely.
What can lead to inaccurate surveys?
If you disagree with a property survey that shows the boundary lines between your property and another, it’s important to ask questions. Some common reasons for errors include:
- Unqualified opinions: Unlicensed surveyors are only allowed to offer their opinions if they’re working under the direction of a licensed surveyor or engineer. If your neighbor didn’t want to pay for the cost of a professional surveyor and got their information from an amateur, you don’t have to respect it.
- Human error: Surveys are trigonometry-heavy, and surveyors are only human. They can miscalculate. They can also misinterpret historical records that are used in their determinations.
- Equipment failures: Poorly calibrated survey equipment can lead to inaccurate measurements – which naturally produce inaccurate results.
- Moved markers: Natural events like earthquakes and landslides, as well as human interference, can cause boundary markers to be moved over time. Any reliance on a boundary marker that is no longer in its original position will cause bad results.
If you believe that your neighbor’s wrong about the boundary lines between your properties, you can hire a qualified surveyor of your own to see what results you receive. If there’s a discrepancy, it may be time to seek legal guidance.