How'd it go today?

[lxskllr]

That's a matter of law, and I don't know what the law says here, much less TN. However, the common sense approach would say that property markers have to be replaced, since they belong to you and your neighbor. State jobs here usually specify that any property corners that are disturbed must be replaced. YMMV with lower status jobs, and some random contractor coming through is more likely to damage stuff.

There's a lot of ifs ands and buts, but two most common scenarios are the property goes to the center of the road, or the property goes to the RoW line. In both cases, the marker is typically set at the RoW line, and that's where it should be after construction. It shouldn't be moved back unless it's a very old property that perhaps didn't have the marker on the RoW, or the RoW widened over time.

You can also get some weird situations where it isn't physically possible to set the marker on the RoW. In that case, you might move it back along the property line, and inform the client of what has been done, so even though they won't have the exact front corner, they at least have the sideline marked for a fence or whatever. That's not my favorite thing to do cause it's weird, but a competent future surveyor should be able to figure out what's going on, and not screw anything up, but it is non standard, and I don't like it.

 

[Burnham]

@lxskllr John, I have always wanted to ask you about a situation regarding ROW and property lines here on my road.

As seen from multiple surveyors staking and older quarter section posts, as well as the county's online tax lot maps; my property line is in the ditch right adjacent to the pavement. As are all 4 other properties on this north-south running segment of county road. The county ROW is all west of that.

The properties on the other side of the road, also 4 of them by coincidence, show their N-S property lines at the same place, my ditch line. The ROW is apparently taken all from their acreage, and none from mine or my adjoining properties N and S of me.

I like this as I get 40 feet or so more ground than the folks across the road from me do, but also wonder if this could really be so?

 

[lxskllr]

@lxskllr John, I have always wanted to ask you about a situation regarding ROW and property lines here on my road.

As seen from multiple surveyors staking and older quarter section posts, as well as the county's online tax lot maps; my property line is in the ditch right adjacent to the pavement. As are all 4 other properties on this north-south running segment of county road. The county ROW is all west of that.

The properties on the other side of the road, also 4 of them by coincidence, show their N-S property lines at the same place, my ditch line. The ROW is apparently taken all from their acreage, and none from mine or my adjoining properties N and S of me.

I like this as I get 40 feet or so more ground than the folks across the road from me do, but also wonder if this could really be so?

Things are different out west. I couldn't even make an informed guess. My uninformed guess is that anything is possible as long as it's lawful. Is your property along a section line? That would be a logical place to terminate everyone's property, and it's analog would be our lines going to the center of the road. In your case, the road is where it is, and it's RoW doesn't care which property it takes from, and it isn't beholden to section lines.

Out here, you might have a 50' road RoW. That usually(not always!) means that the RoW is 25' each way from CL of road. You can run into cases where the road(or other) RoW is described, and the object isn't in the center of it, eg. in your 50' RoW, you might have 12' to left from CL road, and 38' to the right. It all depends on how it was setup, and a lot has to do with history. Western surveys are more straightforward due to the way they're laid out, but are very different from what we have in the east, and it isn't something I'm familiar with. Many many years ago I started reading Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles book, but quit part way into the western section cause it didn't really apply to me, and since I was reading for fun, there wasn't a whole lot of point in going through it.

This is an updated version of the book...

https://www.amazon.com/Browns-Boundary-Control-Legal-Principles/dp/111843143X

I found it interesting when I was reading it at the time, but my recollection is very poor. I was also in the biz, so it was more likely to be interesting to me than a random person, so I don't know that I can recommend you read it, but maybe?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Kavey up in an old friend. At least he got before and such. Some good sized dead to rig out. I just worked ground and rope. Then I pruned a hazard limb out of a wiggly.live oak over the walk.

 

[Burnham]

Things are different out west. I couldn't even make an informed guess. My uninformed guess is that anything is possible as long as it's lawful. Is your property along a section line? That would be a logical place to terminate everyone's property, and it's analog would be our lines going to the center of the road. In your case, the road is where it is, and it's RoW doesn't care which property it takes from, and it isn't beholden to section lines.

Out here, you might have a 50' road RoW. That usually(not always!) means that the RoW is 25' each way from CL of road. You can run into cases where the road(or other) RoW is described, and the object isn't in the center of it, eg. in your 50' RoW, you might have 12' to left from CL road, and 38' to the right. It all depends on how it was setup, and a lot has to do with history. Western surveys are more straightforward due to the way they're laid out, but are very different from what we have in the east, and it isn't something I'm familiar with. Many many years ago I started reading Brown's Boundary Control and Legal Principles book, but quit part way into the western section cause it didn't really apply to me, and since I was reading for fun, there wasn't a whole lot of point in going through it.

This is an updated version of the book...

https://www.amazon.com/Browns-Boundary-Control-Legal-Principles/dp/111843143X

I found it interesting when I was reading it at the time, but my recollection is very poor. I was also in the biz, so it was more likely to be interesting to me than a random person, so I don't know that I can recommend you read it, but maybe?

Thanks John. I might give that a read, just to learn something.

As it happens, our property line does coincide with a section line. It's not like anything will change re the property lines and the ROW...the road is where it is, and obviously will stay there.

But it is nice that we get a full 660 feet to the east of the ROW at our ditch line, and too bad that the folks on the other side of that ROW get something like 620 feet. Our tax lots are the same dimension east to west and north to south, and we are taxed on the same acreage...they just have a little less to actually use.