Creative ways to mark property lines?

"Thank you everyone for the ideas. We are armed and ready for tomorrow's Survey Party."

If tomorrow is the first visit by the survey crew to the site, they may not be marking anything. Depending on the size and scope of the project and whether or not the licensed surveyor is very familiar with the neighborhood, the first visit to the site by the survey crew may involve mere looking around and possibly taking preliminary random measurements which may need to be analyzed back at the office so that on a return trip to the site the survey crew can actually mark corners and lines.

FWIW, I'm a self-employed licensed land surveyor in WNC.

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I set round metal fence posts in at the corners. Concreted in, too. Around here the usual survey pins are either railroad spikes or a bit of rebar set in concrete and only stick up maybe 3" above ground. They are really hard to find so once I found them I planted a post alongside them on my side of the pin. If I had a surveyor along to authorize the posts, I would have set the posts directly on the property line corners. For putting up fences, I like to put them 1" inside the line on my side just so nobody else can have any say over the matter.

I know of some folks who had trees planted on the property lines. Now half the tree is on the neighbor's lot and half the tree is on their side so there is some dispute over if the tree should come down or if a branch falls and damages something who's tree it is. If I were planting trees, I'd plant them so when they were full grown they would not have their trunk in the neighbor's yard. I'd also plant fruit trees or something I could eat and put them far enough back that they wouldn't be in the neighbor's yard, but that's just me.

Oh, if using something to mark your property line, if it is metal spikes in the ground, they can be found later with a metal detector. PVC doesn't work for metal detectors. Metal spikes are also low enough to mow over if you mow the area.

(Hey, Kabri - nice dog!)

Hillsidedigger: Hello neighbor! You are close to us I bet. We are down in Saluda section of Polk County. Yes, the area has been Surveyed before. In fact, everyone out here already has plats / deeds / maps and more maps. The properties (four owners now) were part of one huge family owned tract. In the mid 1900's, they began to chop it up and according to local history (from the locals we have met and from two former owners) the property lines in question have been the topic of hot dispute for years. I am pretty sure I know where the lines are and when I called the Survey Company, he said he knows where they are too and that re-bar was put down before......at least twice!

Some re-bar is in place......in two spots and I for one (two other owners agree) believe those four re-bars to be in the correct places. One owner disagrees and he/she has been so annoying.......to now obnoxious........about it (telling the rest of us to move shrubs, not to landscape, not to maintain one driveway, that they plan to fill in two drain ditches, not to allow the children to hike in one section......and worst of all.....that we should not make use of the main Creek on the land)......that it is best to have the survey done and marked.

We cannot find re-bar in seven other places even though, when we first moved here we did find it.......someone has removed the re-bar! Be that as it may ........tomorrow we will have fresh re-bar and can mark it with more re-bar, Tpost, tires and cement.

We also plan to take digital photos and video all along the way, provide the Contrary Property Owner with copies and then move on with our lives, projects including planting more camellias right where I want to plant them!

Thank you again everyone for the ideas! Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

We lived in Texas for a time, and the rebar corner markers were a joke (when every self-respecting cattleman had a front-end loader and a chain and could just pull them up at will).

CEMENT and alot of it, deep, is the only way to PROVE your marker was moved.....

Good Luck!!

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At our desert place we have the trail in marked w tires that are stacked and filled w rock and sand. It has been marked like that for about 10 yrs now and has lasted through several flashfloods. Folks around there call that wash 3 Tire Trail now.

The corner markers of 10' lengths of PVC were there when we bought the place. They are placed over T posts. We did cap the tops of them after I removed one from it's post and found the mummified remains of a bird that had fallen down in the pipe and couldn't get out.

Galvanized culvert pipe, 24-36" tall, buried 1 foot (or deeper depending on freeze level) filled with concrete. Hard to miss and hard to move.

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You can tell what someone thinks by reading the bumper stickers on their car. You can also tell if they think at all.

When I was a kid we had property corners marked with 4-6" pipe (I just remember they were big!) that were buried in concrete and filled with concrete. Stood about 6ft tall and were painted bright yellow. There was no missing where our property line was. Visited the old place a few years ago, and the yellow has faded a bit, but there still is no way anyone can miss those corners!

If you were concerned about the entire line, you could place one of those type of posts at the corners and then one every 50-100 ft depending on topography.

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"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

Good fences make good neighbors!

I have experience the irons being dug up because they didn't want to deal with the truth. Over $1,000 to have the irons put back in. Felony offense in Wisconsin. Law made be on your side but that does not mean they will in force the law.

Put the fence sametime you pay for the survey. Very hard to pull up a fence and not have it noticed. Any thing else can be moved, removed or destroyed. Even a single strand of barb wire on T-post is better than some homemade markers that are not legally recognized by laws. Fences are recognized by laws, police and the DA. Move or destroy a fence and people take notice. Move or destroy markers and it's just a simple civil dispute involving lawers not the police or DA.

PUT UP A FENCE!

Here the kind of fence to use with some neighbors

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080804/...zkTnyIf9as0NUE

Free Ranger.... you beat me to the post.... I've been waiting all day to "share" that story... : (

razor wire works, keeps the bad guys out or in, whichever way you want to look at it.

Today we spent 7 hours out in the heat with the two men sent out by the survey company. None of the property lines are where we were told the lines were. The former owners we bought from showed us lines but those are apparently not the lines. The former owners on two other sides also showed us lines but those are not the lines either. Part of "our" actual land goes over the other guys road (to which I was told I had no right to go......but if it is my land, then I would think I have some rights to it even if someone built a road on it?)......and then part of their land is on my "side" of the road and up in landscaping/planting areas where even the former owners had planted. So, now should I move all my camellias? Further down, where we had been told the creek was the line, the survey today said the line is actually not in the creek but is up the bank.

We are not sure what we can do next. We are disappointed but will think it over and try to decide what to do next.

Before buying any property - go get a new survey and MARK IT right then with something that cannot be moved.

Thanks everyone.

If it is MY land ... I will do as i please . Road ? Thank you I needed one. If you want to stop people driving on your land on an illegal road, call the sheriff & ask him to come out & talk. tell him you want to fence all your land in and you want to keep every one on there side 100%. He will go notify the guy next door to get his road off your land.. DO IT NOW!! because they are out there tonight moving the stakes!! WHAT?? Move the markers?/you bet they are . call the law Not for trouble BUT just to have them ON YOUR SIDE.. and for petes sake plant your bushes On your line Dan

So was the property owner you have been having the boundary dispute with right since yours lines where not where you thought they were? If so, are you still going to send copies and pictures as stated before?

You are definitly right though, always have a survey performed before buying a place.

I hate to say it but I would be consulting two people ASAP. Lawyer and second surveyor.

One look for a legal advice on land disputes. Here in Wisconsin, the irons in the ground don't mean as much as you think they do..neither does the presents of a recent survey map...look for all the historical legal descriptions. That's really were the laws of possession apply. Most property lines at or near creeks are described as the "center of the creek" with know acceptance that the creek moves so does the property line. Any irons are just markers for a certian date and reference.

Send the surveyor into the records to look for these legal documents. You can do it your self if you know what to look for. Then have the land surveyed again noting all existing fences. In Wisconsin the fence over rules the legal description sometimes as well as the existing irons in the ground. All of which stay that way after it's surveyed.

So the existing fence is the property line...get out there and look for old fence posts that have been knocked down. Take your metal detector.

Nathan104: My lines are not where we thought they were and neither are hers! She does not own Creek One (that she thought was her's) and I do not own Creek Two (which I thought was mine!), and she does not own one embankment with drains (that she thought was her's) and I do not own one post of a gate that I thought was mine, and her road bed is on MY land and my camellias are on HER land! It is a mess.

Total land wise, it is about an equal mess. The Creek Two problems creates more problem for me in that I need the water. We plan to ask them to help straighten out the lines to benefit us both. BUT first we plan to ask the two former owners to come out, walk lines with us again, to see if the survey man made a mistake and yes, we need a 2nd survey too.

Yes, FreeRanger, we plan a trip to the courthouse to gather up all the documents.

Thanks everyone.

a good Rail Road tie will last for about 70 years,

We've found hundred + year old markers on our land. They are cement & not very big. Some are partially covered in dirt. Don't know if they were the legal 'markers' at that time or not.

Patty

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Ilike to put a rod in the grond as deep as I can but at least a foot below the dirtlevel then put a Pipe with a cap over that at least 5 feet tall and 4 feet in the dirt.
If someone moves the pipe the rod is still in the ground undetected yill you look for it with a metal detecter