Determining the exact boundaries of your property is a crucial aspect of land and home ownership, whether you're planning to build a new fence, installing a pool, or simply curious about where your land ends and your neighbor's begins. Clear property lines can prevent disputes, inform future projects, and ensure compliance with local regulations. In this resource, we'll explore several methods to help you accurately find your property lines, ranging from historical records and maps to professional surveys. Understanding these boundaries can give you peace of mind and a solid foundation for any land-related decisions you need to make.
What are Property Lines?
Property lines delineate the legally recognized boundaries of your property, providing an exact definition of land ownership that shows exactly where ownership of one plot of land starts and ends.
Property lines are set through careful legal and surveying processes. Licensed surveyors measure and map boundaries with advanced tools, placing boundary markers and creating detailed maps. They research historical records and deeds to ensure accuracy, resulting in a legal property description, which could be in metes and bounds or a rectangular system, marked permanently on the ground.
These findings and the legal descriptions are filed with local land records or with the county, becoming public record. Property deeds include these descriptions, and any updates must be recorded in these deeds. In disputes, survey plans are key for legal decisions. Maintaining accurate property records is essential for owners and buyers, and it's important to work with a qualified surveyor and know the local laws.
Why are Property Lines Important?
Property lines play a crucial role in property ownership, offering clear and definitive demarcations. These delineations guarantee an accurate comprehension of the land being purchased. For residential real estate purchases, mortgage lenders and title insurance companies depend on authenticated property lines to streamline the mortgage approval process.
Before initiating any outdoor projects, such as constructing a garage, replacing a fence, installing a pool, or enhancing your landscaping, it's crucial to thoroughly assess your property's boundaries. Understanding the precise limits of your property is key to ensuring that new extensions or fences do not unintentionally infringe upon your neighbor's land. This diligent evaluation guarantees that you can enjoy the upgrades to your home and garden without inadvertently overstepping into your neighbors’ space or sparking any potential disputes.
How to Find Your Property Lines
To avoid issues with property lines and prevent potential conflicts with your neighbors, here are 4 easy ways to find property lines:
1) County Recorder Or Assessor’s Office
County recorder or assessor's offices keep detailed records of property boundaries through deeds, surveys, and maps, ensuring public access to this information. Many regions provide free online databases for homeowners to view property lines and zoning regulations, accessible through county websites.
2) Review Your Property Deed
A property owner can refer to a copy of their deed, which is a document that is typically provided during the closing of a home purchase, to help locate their property lines. This deed often includes essential information about the property’s legal boundaries, either in metes and bounds descriptions or by referencing survey markers and adjacent properties. The tax description within a property deed explains the boundaries of your property.
3) Read the Plat Map
Upon purchasing a specific property, you are usually provided with a plat map or a property line map. If not, it is available at the county clerk's office, but they may charge a small fee. This map precisely details your lot's dimensions in relation to neighboring lots on your block.
4) Hire a Surveyor
The most accurate and effective method to determine your exact property lines is to hire a surveyor to determine your property lines. The surveyor will begin by visiting your property. Then, they will examine county records to understand the lot's history, uncovering easements, subdivisions, and other critical factors that could impact your property and its potential uses. The cost of hiring a licensed land surveyor typically ranges from $330 to $670 per survey, but depending on the location, size, and history of the property, it can exceed $1,000.
When financing your property purchase through a lender, a property survey is typically required. Your mortgage company should retain a copy of this survey from the purchase transaction. Additionally, the title company will conduct a property search and may have copies of any surveys or property line maps related to your property.
Uncovering Property Lines for Due Diligence
Understanding property lines is an important part of the due diligence process for purchasing property. As a prospective property owner, it is important that you exercise caution regarding property lines as you move through the purchasing process. For example, in the case of residential properties specifically, the previous owners may have failed to account for property lines before they started various home improvements, and could have encroached on a neighbor’s property. A severe encroachment issue could prompt you to renegotiate the deal or walk away altogether. It's recommended that you ask your lender for a copy of the completed property survey before purchasing any property to determine its true size and if there may be any future problems with any developments you'd like to make on the property.
LandApp can help prospective property owners conduct due diligence on any U.S. property that they are interested in purchasing. Although LandApp's parcel maps do not replace a professional property survey and should be used for reference only, the tool has many other in-depth property data points to help you conduct accurate and efficient property due diligence:
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