Posted by Long Beach Ed on September 27, 2002 at 19:39:45:
Gary,
I’m no attorney but I spent many years as a land surveyor. The question you have is very state specific, but it is one that can probably be best addressed by the surveyor who measured the adjacent property.
This may be difficult to believe, but the precision and accuracy of boundary lines is a rather local affair. Some areas are so loosely described in their deeds that the surveyor has lots of discression in where he interperts the line to be. In other places, as in most city lots, the lines are accurate to the 100th of an inch.
You are in a rural area, one where perhaps only one surveyor owns records for the community. His career is based on solving problems such as yours.
If there are laws concerning adverse possession, the surveyor would know them as they affect many of the maps he draws. And if he’s any good, he’ll know when and where you should go to find competant legal help should your problem require that.
The surveyors I’ve known are a pretty good bunch, who welcome visitors with problems such as yours. Most love to share the knowlege they have in this specialized field.
Give the guy, or his predecessor, a call. And if he helps you and refuses to take any money, buy lunch for the office.
Ed