Surveying in a [non] Perfect World

A lot of people mistakenly think surveying is a perfect science with exact measurements. Well, it isn’t. Yes, we can make exact measurements but that is not the science behind the profession. That is just the technology.

Nowhere does this appear more often than when an unqualified person writes a new legal description for a portion of a previously described tract of land. Such as the “South one-half of Lot 2” That looks like a fairly straightforward description until someone wants to sell the remainder of Lot 2 to someone else. Lot 2 is platted as 100’ wide so the second [unqualified] person writes the descriptions as the “North 50’ of Lot 2” Probably thinking to themselves “Hey I will make this description even better and super-duper accurate”

The problem Is, Lot 2 was laid out in 1970 and never surveyed on the ground. When it is finally surveyed, Lot 2 is found to only be 99.5’ feet wide in real life. So the “South one-half” is really only 49.75 feet and the “North 50’” is just that, 50’. Now we have an overlap of 0.25 feet between the “halves”

If Lot 2 would have been found to be wider than 100’ in real life, then there would have been a gap between the parcels. That wouldn’t be much better.

The same thing can occur if someone sells a portion of an aliquot description, such as the East half of the NW/4. Later someone will attempt to write a metes and bounds description for the remainder (thinking that a half section is always 2640’ wide; 1320’ x 2640’ (wrong!). Again we have a gap or overlap, guaranteed!

The best solution is to have the entire original tract surveyed at the time the division is done so a qualified professional (Land Surveyor) can write the description for both portions at the same time and there won’t be trouble later down the road.