I don't think a lot of the peeps really understand what surveys are all about.
Just because some dude surveys your lot and submits a small plot plan, does not mean that the engineering office changes the bigger area plot to reflect what he claims is a new boundary line. In many cases it probably just goes into the folder for that house address.
Think about it. The township lines might have been in error from way back when, the sections lines are also in some type of error. The original big picture plot plans showed all the individual owned acreage as it was originally thought to be. Does that mean the county goes out and does a comprehensive total survey to completely update the wide area bigger plot on some whim. I doubt it. In many areas the deeds say, on or about.
In my last old neighborhood we had this problem in spades. There was way more land recorded for all the sum of the deeds in the general neighborhood than there was actual land on the ground. How do you make it all come out in the big picture? In actual practice the last guy in loses big time. They sort of fake it, pretend it all the deeds add up to the total of the big picture. Super amount of problem if it doesn't. It takes a lot to change the big picture plots. Probably some major comprehensive wide area survey, adjustment of all the deeds, tax ramifications, etc. Just don't happen that much. The county has no interest in it, lots of expense. Everybody will get a survey showing exactly what they deed sezs it is. The big lie, to protect the tax man.
Any survey can come in, grab some local benchmarks, shoot a bunch of lines and claim that is where your plot of land is. If the surveyor is smart, he already has the prior plots shot for that location, plus he will know the general lay of the land for the far bigger picture and be aware of major foobaas to that bigger picture. He will satisfy the client more or less. Another day at the office. The results are just going to get filed in some folder. All the lawyers and him will get to make the next car payment.
In my present location we have that. Back a ways, the county did a huge comprehensive survey of many sections around the town to update the big plot plans in the county office. Things got adjusted, new benchmarks established. That overall plot is in stone for the day / age / technology of the times. We still have all those markers for individual lots all over the place. Rebar with yellow headed engraved serial numbers. You ain't going to change squat of the big plot maps by hiring some surveyor to attempt to change your property line. They will just produce some paper to make you happy, it will get filed. Everybody can believe what they want.
The advice is being given like there is some absolute. Part of it is sort of a political problem. Part is a technology problem, part is administrative, part just plain old common sense. The powers that be are going to leave sleeping dogs lie and attempt to satisfy everybody. The lay and type of land also affect the outcomes, flat totally level land is best, the more hills, poorer the line of sight, the worse it will be. The technology as it changes will be able to identify the errors and minimize the margins of error but in the end you have the same problem. The sum of all deeds is not accurately reflected in the total sum of all acres on the big plot plan.
You have to understand your own local situation first before jumping into a survey game. It may be very straightforward, it may be loaded with Catch-22's. That lil strip of land they are claiming is so important can be moved all over the place, depending on a wide variety of views and maybe all of them be right, as long as nobody relates it all to the big picture at the same time.
Common sense is the order of the day. In the end you just get to use what is there. Best if everybody can agree and get along. Can get extremely nasty if they do not.
They built a house down the street from me, did a local plot plan. That survey showed I own couple more feet to the south than I should. I've looked at my deed, compared it to the old in stone full area survey, everything seems to jive. And I am about to run out and jump into the fire because some survey is in conflict to the wide area. Yeah, right like that small amount of dirt is that important. We take turns mowing it, nobody talks about it. Somethings are not worth worrying about, sure as Hell are not worth fighting over. That last lil plot plan sure ain't going to change nothing on the bigger plot in the county office. Into a folder and forgot about.
In the end, if you fought for years and years in some court, the judge in the end would realize it is a bogus problem, the real problem lying in a far bigger picture and divide the difference down the middle just like Solomon. Forget this fighting over fences and small slivers of land, a fools game, especially if you don't have a burning use for it.
Go to the county office and look at the big plot plan that assumes all the deeds are correct. You ain't going to start pushing a lot of the property lines around in a cascade type effect just because you got some small plot around your dirt surveyed. No matter what anybody else tells you.
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