Introduction…

Finding Your Property Lines —
A Guide for the Subdivision Lot Owner

This manual is intended to help you, the property owner, by showing you how to do some of the preliminary research and investigative work required for a land surveyor to conduct a survey of a subdivision lot.

Every property owner, at one time or another, has the need or desire to know the "location" of their property, that is, its boundaries and boundary corners. When planning the construction of improvements such as remodeling, add-ons, fences, walls, pools, or landscaping features, it is most important to be certain that you don't encroach upon your neighbor's land.

Most people lack knowledge or understanding of the systems used in determining property boundaries, thus, the first thing they do is call a land surveyor or civil engineer.

The land surveyor (referred to hereafter as surveyor for simplicity) will use his or her knowledge of title recording systems to perform "research", and acquire any recorded data needed to accomplish the survey in question. Next, he (male gender usages hereafter refer to both sexes) will dispatch his survey crew to the site to locate the comers of the lot. They will turn will use their knowledge of subdivision maps to find the monuments, or corners, necessary to perform the survey. Needless to say, all this work is costing you, the property owner, money.

The next few chapters will more fully describe these initial processes, and how a lay person, such as yourself, can accomplish some of this work, and perhaps realize some savings on the cost of the survey.