Neighbor removed my property line pin

[buckeyefarmer]

I think property line disputes are the most popular topic on TBN. I'd have the surveyor put one back in. When I was building my house the excavator took out one of my corner pins. I paid for the original surveyor to put it back.

[schmism]

the survey company my wife used to work for would come back and relocate a "missing" corner post if he did the org survey. He would then notify the neighbor that the pin has be replaced, and include the text for the state law indicating it was illegal to remove survey pins.

have it put back, drive a 4 or 6' lengh of 1" rebar next to it. use a standard offset 5' on your side of the property line and drive a second.

[Redbug]

the survey company my wife used to work for would come back and relocate a "missing" corner post if he did the org survey. He would then notify the neighbor that the pin has be replaced, and include the text for the state law indicating it was illegal to remove survey pins.

have it put back, drive a 4 or 6' lengh of 1" rebar next to it. use a standard offset 5' on your side of the property line and drive a second.

Good advise.

And I am sitting in my armchair...

[henrybuchanan]

Use 8' mining roof bolts and drive them 6' deep head first. It's a hard drive, but you can't pull it out, you would have to dig it out like a tree stump.

[J_J]

I had a similar problem.

My new neighbor thought his survey was more correct.

For the last 20 years the property line on my side of a 40 acre parcel was a straight line for 1024 ft.

After they divided the parcel in 4 ten acre lots, the straight line somehow became a zigzag line with great variations.

I was ordered to meet with him for an arbitration, where home owners can state their disagreements/claim.

After presenting a copy of the original survey, and pictures of the marker, he had to swallow his pride and acknowledge the facts.

He did, however pay a surveyor to check out that straight line.

I watched him and the survey crew recheck the straight line.

I then set the stamped marker in a 4 ft cement casing showing the surveyors stamp just below the surface.

I can find all my markers using a Subsurface yellow metal detector.

I would keep that marker flagged at all times.

http://www.geotechenv.com/pdf/field_...c_locators.pdf

[homedad]

Man this must be a suburban thing. None of my neighbors have fences or arguments. Domestic tranquility is priceless. Most of our pins are gone due to overgrowth or freeze/thaw movement. They were all recorded with the county as well as the township.

[dmccarty]

In NC it is a crime to mess with a marker. The problem is you have no proof on who moved the marker so there is nobody to charge.

I would talk to a lawyer about the utilities on your property. We have talked to many lawyers over the years for advice and never paid a cent. We asked to pay but they would not bill for the few minutes of time we used. I am guessing a half dozen lawyers have not charged us. Their opinion was certainly worth us paying but they would not send a bill. The utilities on your land with out an easement would bother me.

What is to be gained by talking to the neighbor? If you have not read MDBARB's long running discussion with his easement dispute, a case he lost in court which cost him a bunch of money, I would encourage you to at least skim that discussion and tread lightly with the neighbor.

I might have the surveyor replace the pin but do you need to know the exact line at the moment? I would hem and haw on this one especially if I had to spend money to replace the pin. I put T posts near some of our corner markers. Someone stole the T Posts. When I have time, I will go back and put in rebar in the ground and set some wood posts. The pins are still in place but someone wanted the T posts.

Later,
Dan

[sdkubota]

The legal term is "adverse possession" and is very real and puts you in danger of losing the disputed property. Maybe not disputed now but someday...

Have the survey pin reset and ask for an additional pin placed below the top pin (pounds one on top of another). It is typically done where property will be farmed and there is a good chance the top pin gets destroyed during farming operations. You could also set a wooden post alongside the property pin so there would be no benefit in removing the actual pin again. Call the original surveyor and give him time to piggy back it when he is in the area to save on travel costs.

And yes it is illegal to remove survey pins in any state. I would openly ask the neighbor if he removed the pin then mention the law and ramifications.

[dodge man]

I am a land surveyor, and I've read some ideas in this post that are both good and bad. My opinion is I wouldn't worry to much about adverse possession in this case. He saw the survey marker, you talked to him about it, and this puts him on notice that you know where the line is.

I wouldn't drive anything near the corner yourself. You might know roughly where the corner is, but not exactly. Don't offset the corner either. There is always a chance someone might think its the real corner.

Talk to your surveyor, he will probably reset the corner at a fair price since the original survey isn't that old. If I think there is a problem with someone removing one of my pins, I drive a corner down deeper, say about 12", then set another one on top of it. The person will pull the top pin, but not know the lower one is there.

Last of all, you are correct, don't mess with lawyers yet. You can't prove he pulled the pin, and if you get a lawyer involved, things have a way of escalating in a hurry.

[JerryK]

I'm with the re-survey the corner, then drive a long rebar next to it folks. Even if he pulled it, a kid walking down the road yanked it to scratch his back, or it came out via the phone line guy... it doesn't really matter. Put it back in and keep an eye on it... If you drive in another rebar, drive it six inches under ground level so you can find it with a metal detector. That way, you will know it is there a he might not, for if there is a 'next time'.