Question: This past week I looked at three properties in Montgomery and Callaway Counties. In every situation, the brokers or the owners pointed to a fence line, a creek or a tree line and said that was the boundary. When I asked if the property had ever been surveyed, the answer was no. One of the sellers said that had been the line since he owned it, so that was the boundary line. These people made me feel like I was asking a dumb question. Are they right or should I have a survey of the property?

Answer: You are taking a big risk if you don't have a survey of the property before you purchase. Here's why.

Fences, creeks, or trees that are used as boundaries may or may not be the legal boundaries. Let me tell you of just one of the many experiences that we have had over the past 30 years regarding boundary lines.

About 10 years ago, we listed 200 acres in Warren County. There were several buildings on the land including a $100,000 horse barn our client had built. The building was 10 feet inside of a fence that he had been told was the boundary line.

We obtained a buyer and the sale contract required that a survey be completed prior to the closing. A few days after the survey began, the surveyor called and asked to meet at the property. There was a problem.

The survey, based upon a legal description showed that the fence near the building was not on the boundary line. In fact, the legal boundary line cut through the horse barn, placing 25 feet of the building on the adjoining land. Apparently, the fence had been built several years ago using a tree line as a boundary. No survey had ever been made of the property.

Our client was near panic when he learned that his horse barn was partially on his neighbors land. He envisioned a huge expense of moving the building and/or losing the sale.

We spoke to the neighbor who was very cooperative. He agreed to deed to the new owner that portion of the land on which the building set. The buyer agreed and the sale closed.

This experience involved building encroachment. Here's one with just raw land

There was a court case in Warren County involving a dispute between a seller and buyer on a sale that had closed 12 years earlier. The seller was suing the buyer regarding a portion of the land the buyer was claiming to own. The seller's suit stated that her intention was to sell only the land east of the county road and not the adjoining land that was east and south of the county road. The property had not been surveyed before closing and the description on the deed was vague.

The suit took two years to settle and the judge ruled in favor of the buyer. A survey at the time of sale would have saved time, money, and eliminated bad feelings between neighbors.

Surveys are not inexpensive, but they are less costly than legal expenses.

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