{"id":1715,"date":"2021-09-29T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:19:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:19:25","slug":"boundary-line-problems-you-cant-build-that-here-its-my-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/boundary-line-problems-you-cant-build-that-here-its-my-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Boundary Line Problems: You Can\u2019t Build That Here. It\u2019s My Land!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Two<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, a couple in Texas stumbled upon an unusual\nopportunity. They got a tip that certain rural plots of land in Smithville \u2014\njust 50 miles east of Austin \u2014 were available for $500. They went for it. Soon,\nthe couple would order their manufactured home. That\u2019s when the trouble began. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Their loan approval came through and they signed an\nagreement with Titan Factory Direct Homes in July 2020. They had a land survey\ndone in August 2020. The couple gave the land survey to the Titan company. They\nalso filed all the paperwork \u2014 properly \u2014 with Bastrop County, which in turn signed\noff on the building\npermits<\/a>. The local utilities approved the couple\u2019s new electric, septic and\nwater systems. The home was move-in ready by November 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the happy couple had lived in their new home for the\nbetter part of a year, a visitor showed up and said: \u201cYour home is on my\nproperty.\u201d The visitor produced proof of ownership: a map from the Bastrop\nCounty Central Appraisal District. It plainly showed the land the visitor owned\n\u2014 where the couple\u2019s home was installed. The survey commissioned by the couple was\nfine; but somehow, the home builder and utility technicians set everything up\non the adjacent land, and not theirs. Nobody, at any step, ever carefully checked\nto be sure the home was being put on the land showed by the survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A property survey offers clear direction. It consists of an\nexpertly drafted diagram of measurements and boundary lines. It shows precisely\nwhere the real estate is and lays out its dimensions. It shows all major features\nof the land, and clarifies where one party\u2019s land ends and another\u2019s begins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deed\u2019s legal description would have also made the real\naddress clear, had it been carefully examined. The surveyor\u2019s work starts with the\nlegal description, which situates the property lines of a parcel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b For a home buyer, reading the legal description of a\npotential new property, and finding the latest survey, is important. Read more\nat <\/em><\/strong>How Real Estate Legal Descriptions and Surveys Work\nTogether<\/em><\/a>, on Deeds.com. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property Taxes: The Plot Thickens <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Titan, the manufactured home builder, acknowledges that\nsomething went wrong. Yet they did not produce an explanation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titan\u2019s next move was to approach the legal owner, and to\nask whether the owner would consider a land swap with the couple. A title swap\nmight seem like the \u201cbut of course!<\/em>\u201c solution. But a legal owner \u2014 here,\nan owner whose land was intrusively changed \u2014 is under no obligation to\ncompromise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titan, or any negligent actors in this story, may need to\noffer quite a bit more to make the legal owner whole again, and meet the couple\u2019s\nexpectation of receiving a home to live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s still more in this tangled story. The legal owner of\na rural piece of land now has a lot with a house on it. Watch the property tax\nassessment shoot up. Indeed, the looming tax bill may be one factor influencing\nthe legal owner\u2019s interest in agreeing to a swap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is not unique. It\u2019s just an extreme case in a\nlong history of owners making improvements on the wrong land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u261b\u00a0<\/strong>Buying real estate? Depending on the location of the property, a mortgage company might require a survey. Even if it is not required, the seller or the buyer may want to have an expert <\/strong><\/em>produce an updated survey<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. There\u2019s a strong case to be made, especially when abutting lots are happen to be rural or undeveloped, for having a new survey done \u2014 and carefully examined.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Value of Checking the Survey: A More Typical Case<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In most cases where someone uses someone else\u2019s real estate,\nthe owners know where their properties are and how much land each has. But it\ncould be that the person next door is claiming the right to use, place structures\nor equipment on, park or travel some part of the property that\u2019s not theirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey is geographic evidence of whose stuff is on whose\nland. A survey can also expose easements \u2014 areas where one owner has the\nprerogative to use another\u2019s property \u2014 that can\u2019t be seen in a virtual or\nin-person tour of the property. Common examples are these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n