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Out here, surveying is taken pretty seriously when it involves timber rights. We had our land surveyed just before purchase and discovered that the northern boundary was about 20 feet off in the last survey (about 20 years ago). Our property line now goes through a neighbor's back yard. On the eastern side, it cut across the corner of a garage.

Fortunately, we were able to come to amicable settlements with the other property owners and we're all still friends.

Surveying years ago apparently could be pretty sloppy. Much depends, however on the legal description of your land.

Also be aware that some states have "adverse possession" laws, essentially saying that a sufficiently old fence defines a property line even if a survey says otherwise. A neighbor lost almost an acre of his own land because of that technicality.

About 20 years ago, I added an above-ground pool and a very large deck onto the north side of my home. About two years later, I applied for a permit to build a five car garage on the west side of my home. Little did I know that a zoning commissioner lived just down the road from me. She had noticed that I had added the deck and questioned whether I had gotten a building permit for it. I knew that no permit is required here for an above-ground pool but I didn't know I was in violation on the deck construction. She simple told me to submit the deck plan along with the garage addition plan and they would approve all at the same time. Just a formality. Now comes the rub:

I have my home in AutoCad and have the house plan superimposed on the plot plan. When I added the deck to the drawing, I found that it would not fit on the lot! The survey stakes were all there but the road on the north side of my lot was about 20' farther north than the plot plan indicated! It turned out to not be a 'big deal' as it had been that way for over 80 years. However, surveys each time the property changed hands failed to note the problem. I've owned the property about 30 years.

bloke wrote:"real" trees - ie. hardwood

Those "real trees" aren't nearly strong enough to build something like this:

My neighbor to the West disputed our boundary in common so I,stupidly, told the surveyor of the dispute and he doubled his fee in case he had to appear in court.

Iron spikes go missing all the time. It's often caused by a neighboring property owner pulling it up to force a surveyor to really do a survey (it doesn't work because that's not why the survey is done).

But a property description survey is done merely to confirm that the metes and bounds of the property in question fits the legal description, and the house isn't close enough to a boundary or easement to threaten its value. Surveyors are allowed to trust prior surveys. If you want a survey that firmly locates the corners of your land to known surveying benchmarks (which might be miles away), you'll need lots more money. $3000 is not even two days of billed labor for the registered surveyor, and pays nothing for the field crew that has to measure to known benchmarks.

I was able to find my corner marks, but it wasn't easy. The marks were buried under many inches of dirt and forest duff. A metal detector should find it, but only if you look in the right place. The surveyor had marked the boundary with ribbons, but my best estimation by pacing and direction finding didn't get me closer than 50 feet and I had smaller distances than you, and that wasn't close enough to make finding the ribbons all that easy in dense woods. (As a civil engineer, my pacing is within about 5% accuracy, and I know how to aim along a property line, but forests are tough.)

Forest boundaries are estimated by sketch, or sometimes from an aerial photo, and cannot be trusted beyond a general description of the land (such as how many acres are wooded, etc.). You'll do better with GPS, though even that is accurate only to the nearest 16 feet even if you use WAAS--more if you have differential GPS available in your area. But it won't work under much of a forest canopy.

When you do get it located, I would post No Trespassing signs along the line to establish it in the record, and so you can find it easily.

Rick "not a registered land surveyor, but trained" Denney

If your state has "adverse posession" laws, you're best off fencing along the property line. Here in Oregon, the time period that establishes a fenceline as a legal boundary is about 7 years.

http://real-estate-law.freeadvice.com/a ... ession.htm

I think it was that way in Pennsylvania, too, and about 3 houses ago our back yard had been fenced into somebody's woods. It was all above board, though, and the people we bought from told us about it even before the surveyors.

All we did was agree to the neighboring owner that we all knew it, we gave 'em a buck for perpetual rent, and that was it. We got a much bigger yard, they kept the property, which was all brush anyway, and we went on with our lives.

Got to meet the neighbors, too, who lived w-a-y down the road!

In New Jersey it was acceptable for a surveyor to mark the land with wooden markers for the purpose for which it was being surveyed. Marking with metal spikes was an optional service (that I purchased each time I moved if the spikes weren't there). I have moved to seven different houses and the permanent markers were there in 4 of the properties. I assume the rules are different in different states, but it's possible, at least in NJ, for a surveyor to do their job and there not to be permanent markers.