how to find your property line for free

July 22, 2021 July 26, 2021 past

Updated on July 26th, 2021

As a homeowner, you likely have a general idea of where your holding begins and ends. You may be using your driveway, the border of your lawn, or a debate as a reference indicate. But are y'all sure those are the official property lines? They actually might not be.

So before you dive into whatever outdoor projects like a garage improver, fence replacement, pool installation, or landscaping upgrades , it is important to have a pace back to assess your property's boundaries. You'll desire to exist able to enjoy the improvements to your firm or m without disrupting property lines and potentially causing bug with your neighbors.

What are property lines?

Property lines are necessary during construction by the programmer, city, canton, or country to show where ownership of one plot of land starts and ends. A surveyor establishes the formal boundaries and marks them. When the property is legally split, the new property lines are established in a survey. The property line at the front of your business firm is known as your frontage, the measured distance beyond the forepart of the plot y'all own. The property lines on the side of your plot are known as sidelines. Local zoning laws oft dictate these distances.

Why is it of import to know the location of your belongings lines?

Property lines are in identify to keep ane property owner from encroaching on another possessor'southward state or compromising their privacy by building too close to their house. A typical encroachment might be tree limbs that grow past your property and overhang into a neighbour's one thousand or a driveway poured to extend onto a neighbor's property. When you lot know exactly where your property lines fall, you'll avoid accidentally encroaching on your neighbour's land.

If y'all programme to build a permanent construction, you lot'll want to exist as accurate as possible, and ordering your own country survey is the best option. In about states, you lot are required to call a diggers hotline 811 to request buried utility data before you build a fence, plant a tree, or extend your driveway. This telephone call ensures you know the location of any cached wires or irrigation systems to avert causing damage. Within a few days' notice, someone from your local utility company should be able to mark canton wires or pipes with spray paint or flags.

Since belongings line information can be valuable to someone you may sell your firm to, you will desire to proceed all records. Keep a copy of a new survey you've completed, a plat map, or any data from the city or county offices in digital or hard copy format. If yous do a new survey, yous may too demand to register it with your county assessor or recorder. During the auction of a belongings, the title company volition search for encroachment of i property into another. They may refuse title insurance to the seller if they find a belongings line dispute.

When you lot know how to find your property lines, you'll proceeds peace of listen for any project that could come shut to the edge of the property. Showing respect for your neighbor and their property rights can help you avert a lawsuit.

12 ways to observe property lines

To avert bug with property lines and prevent confrontation with your neighbors, here are 12 easy ways to notice property lines.

1. Hire a licensed land surveyor

The most accurate fashion to know where your land begins and ends is to hire a surveyor to determine your property lines. The property surveyor will first bank check canton records to sympathize the history of the lot. And then they will find out about easements , subdivisions, and any other important factors that could touch your land and what yous choose to do with it. The price to hire a licensed land surveyor typically runs betwixt $330 and $670 per survey and depending on the location, size, and belongings history, it could be upwards to $1,000 per survey.

2. Review your holding deed

Your belongings human activity will give you a taxation description of your belongings. This taxation clarification explains the boundaries of your plot of land. The description oftentimes references the names of subdivisions and other land references that may no longer be in the expanse, such equally a row of trees. Y'all can become a copy of your human action online or from your county recorder's office for a fee.

3. Bank check the metes and bounds survey

A metes and bounds survey identifies a landmark to define the property boundaries, such as a tree, creek, road, or intersection. This is the "place of kickoff" or POB. You tin can then use a compass to follow the directions provided. This survey tin can be hard to sympathise considering it often uses landmarks that may no longer exist. For case, the survey may country that a property line extends "fifty meters from the tall maple." Even so, that maple tree may no longer be standing.

four. Read the property line map, or 'plat'

When you buy a firm , you typically receive a plat or property line map. If you don't, you can find it at the county clerk'south office. The plat volition give you the exact dimensions of your lot related to other lots on your cake. For a belongings on a residential street, expect to see similarly sized rectangles lined up on each side of the street, showing each privately endemic property. Every private property will exist labeled with an identifying number. This number is divide from the parcel number for revenue enhancement purposes. Your neighbors may be able to help as well. You can ask them if they accept a copy of their plat map, which would evidence the neighborhood.

5. Ask for the property survey from your mortgage or title company

If you finance your dwelling purchase through a lender, the lender will typically crave a property survey. Your mortgage company should accept a copy of this survey from the purchase transaction. The championship company volition as well run a property search and may have a re-create of any surveys or property line maps completed for your property.

6. Review the existing belongings survey from your canton or local municipality

Property surveys are public records and you lot can asking a copy of any existing surveys from your county or local municipality. If the canton or municipality has completed a survey for your plot of land, they volition take a re-create. They normally charge a fee to reproduce information technology.

7. Locate a hidden survey pivot

During construction, builders often use survey pins to mark the plot of land. Await for thin iron bars staked into the ground in the general surface area yous look your property lines to be. A metal detector can be a helpful tool for your search along the perimeter of your property. Y'all'll often observe survey pins close to a sidewalk or the adjourn of the belongings. However, survey pins tin exist misleading as utility companies, tree-removal companies, and other contractors may have moved them in the course of their work.

8. Look for property line markers

Locating property line markers is another alternative to finding survey pins. Holding line markers can be made of metallic, wood, or concrete. For a relatively new habitation, the property boundary markers might still be in place. If you find survey pins or physical boundary markers, they are probable to exist more accurate, every bit wooden stakes are more easily moved. Cheque your plat map to encounter where to expect for belongings line markers.

nine. Check sidewalks and street lights

Sidewalks and street lights tin can requite you a good visual reference if you don't know how to observe property lines. While they are not a perfect reference, installers may have aligned sidewalks or streetlights with the property lines. Offset by looking at the lines cutting into the sidewalk in front of the firm. A contractor may take cut lines to come across up with the border of the property or used slightly dissimilar concrete to separate backdrop. This method is a good starting indicate but be sure to apply it in conjunction with a survey or plat map to ensure accuracy.

10. Visit the local zoning department

Your municipality's zoning department records plats showing country partitioning. They will have maps drawn to calibration for your property. Unless your home was built over a hundred years agone, yous tin ask for a copy of your neighborhood and lot plat for a minimal fee. The zoning department records volition requite you the exact dimensions of your lot.

11. Search online for your property line

Looking online for your holding line might be one of the fastest ways to learn belongings information today. Many counties and municipalities have plat maps on their Geographical Information System (GIS), attainable through the official county or assessor'south website. This information tin be a helpful guide as a start and could get you shut enough for your intended purpose. Usually, you tin input your accost to search upward a copy of your property map. It should show your firm and any other structures, along with your holding lines.

Other GPS apps tin provide you with accurate plat maps. LandGlide and Landgrid are two used about usually past belongings owners.

• LandGlide app – The LandGlide app uses GPS to pinpoint your property's location accurately. The app includes bundle records in 3,000 counties throughout the state, covering more than 95% of the United States. The app is available on IOS and Android devices; it offers a complimentary trial, and information technology is a paid subscription service afterward your trial expires.
• Landgrid Map – The Landgrid app allows users to view more than 149 one thousand thousand backdrop nationwide and includes ownership & address data. The app has a survey editor that volition let y'all to create your survey. The pro version allows users to access premium fields, bookmark properties, run surveys, and utilise diverse web features.

12. Measure the Holding Yourself

You could measure your lot by mitt. To do this, you'll need a long measuring tape, a compass, and perhaps an banana. Retrace the surveyor'southward steps past locating the starting point labeled on the plat. This volition exist the "common signal" or POB. Once you find the starting point, use the measuring tape to follow the plat, recording measurements equally you become. The plat measurements should correspond with the ones yous tape yourself.

Why you might want to locate belongings lines before yous purchase a house

Every bit a homebuyer, practice caution regarding holding lines equally you motion through the purchase process. The previous owners may have failed to account for holding lines before they started diverse dwelling house improvements and could take encroached on a neighbor'south property. Ask your lender for a copy of the completed survey – you may larn that the property is smaller than you expected. Or, an encroachment issue could prompt you to renegotiate the deal or walk away birthday.

If y'all love the home, a suitable compromise could involve a boundary line agreement later the purchase. A boundary line understanding is a legal contract to settle disputes between neighbors over belongings boundaries and provides an agreement on belongings line usage without going to court.

There are fast, easy, precise, and toll-effective ways to notice property lines, whether it's for a property yous own or one you plan to buy. Make sure to assemble accurate information when buying a home or starting any construction or landscaping projection.

Source: https://www.redfin.com/blog/how-to-find-property-lines/

Posted by: coatesperis1986.blogspot.com

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