We have so many resources that are right at our fingertips that it makes it hard not to trust what the Internet is telling you. When it comes to looking at aerial photographs of your property and using tools such as Google and the assessor for the county, I must advise that you take that information with a grain of salt.
Most of the time those sites are within a few feet of showing you what your property looks like. However, there are times that it is absolutely wrong and when it is wrong…
It Is Wrong.
A few times every year we have people who call us, freaked out that the assessor is showing the property line running right through their house. Chances are this is not actually the case and that there has been a shift in the overlay of the graphic information system (GIS) onto an aerial photograph. But if you are a person who believes in Murphy’s law, then you don’t want to risk being the one case where the property line does run right through the middle of your house.
In this example, the current homeowner had been operating under the assumption that the assessors map was correct for over a decade. When they went to sell the property, the new buyers decided to get a boundary survey performed. While performing the research we noticed that the deeds did not “draw the same picture” that the assessor was showing on their map. We worked hand in hand with the assessor’s office to correct the error and to accurately depict the true location of the property.
Keep in mind this had no legal bearing on what was owned by the homeowner as the deed information had been accurately recorded. As always, the goal of having a boundary survey performed is to make it known what you own. Just another example of how impactful a boundary survey having performed can be.
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Cardinal Surveying would like the opportunity to earn your business. They service the greater St Louis Metro area, have been rated A+ with the Better Business Bureau since 2003, have surveyed over 35,000 properties and are a family-owned company who prides themselves on producing accurate results with exceptional customer service. They can be contacted via email at [email protected] or phone at 636.922.1001. They look forward to working with you for all your land surveying needs.