LAND SURVEY DONE

SURVEY DONE!

Had my property surveyed by https://escarezlandsurveying.webs.com/.  I was given contact information for two local survey companies from my design team I had originally contacted the other firm 3 separate times and never heard back.  Their loss and my gain as Escarez is awesome!  Ray came out with his mask on (because of Covid) and surveyed for 3 days getting all the different things he needed.  He did all of the permitting, recording with King County, etc. so my property will never have to be surveyed again.  Any future owners are good to go as everything is transferable.  The cost was $2,800.  Again, I give the cost in case any of you out there would like to have your lot surveyed and recorded with the county.  It was $1,800 if he just surveyed my lot for no other reason than I wanted to know what my property lines are.  The added cost is for the permitting/recording with the county which my design team recommended I do and I am glad I did as it is done for all time!

What I learned...my neighbor to the north and I are square.  No problems there.  My neighbor to the south, however, had an old chain link fence separating our properties which I had replaced with a wooden fence 5 yrs ago.  I assumed the fence was the property line (makes sense, right?) but apparently not!  Some neighbor in the distant past put the fence a foot onto my property and so I need to reclaim it.  Ray told me it is in my best interest to reclaim the land sooner than later because over time the neighbor can claim it as their own if they have been maintaining it over an extended period of time.  I have decided to put the fence in the proper place after the backyard cottage is built as there will be all kinds of construction and mess back there and makes sense to move the fence last.  I also learned that my backyard neighbors own about a foot of my backyard.  I figured the concrete retaining wall that separates our two properties is the property line but again, I was wrong.  This technically means they own 1/2 of the cherry tree.  I had three copies of the survey diagram made and have given each of my neighbors a copy as I think it is best to be transparent and show respect to my neighbors as we share land together.  The backyard neighbors already knew about where their land ended when the bought a few years ago which was a relief for me.  And they indicated they are fine if I fell the old cherry tree.  Hopefully this stands, although, I did suggest we cut it down, have it milled and split the cost.  They laughed and laughed so I think I am safe with this one.