That area of land is known by surveyors to be problematic. Generally charging higher fees because of the amount of research needed I was told. Most of the trees and ditches are long gone.

I was told by a good friend that’s been in the land/timber business all of his 60 plus years of life that the way land gets surveyed certain sections gain or lose depending on the starting point. He’s mention the 7 year deal and fences and also that once 20 years has passed then that survey will tend to hold in court more so than a new one.

I find it strange that there are many variables or then again maybe it isn’t.

You could be like me..i trimmed one limb an my neighbors proceeded to tell me that wudnt my tree and id been mowin over their line..said i needed to get a survey done..I apologized..said id honor whatever they deemed the line to reasonably be..oh no we want it surveyed..ok..well i got my hole place done in the proces..i went from 11-14acres and i got that tree back too🤷🏻

It's good to see how dependable Aldeer experts. are. Give them a fence, a tract, and some pink flagging, and they've got it handled. Not only the original scenario, but you learn all the ins and outs of real estate law, too!
I don't understand why anyone would pay a surveyor, an appraiser, an attorney, or for that matter, a doctor.
Just come here, and get your answers! (Usually more than 1, and all conflicting, but I'm sure they are worth every cent you pay for them!)

Thats because Tennesee and Gerogia are both Metes and Bounds states. Alabama is based off the PLSS system.

Atta boy!!

I have a similar situation on a ROW. Guy came in and bought the lot and house ajoining . Our ROW was surveyed when we bought it, well before he came along. Road was built and in use many years before he came along. One of the nosy , trouble maker neighbors tells him his property comes over about 20 feet on our side. Me and that feller have had a couple of heated conversations about it. I told him we have a deeded ROW and right to cross and if he has a problem it's actually with the owner. He told me I needed to get the ROW surveyed. I told him it was before we bought it and it is correct . I told him to have his place surveyed and he'll find the corner of his detached garage is over the line on our side. We haven't had any words about it for a couple years now since I called the sheriff on him.

There’s fences all over our property and most certainly on the land lines. Maintaining fences and raising cattle on property for 50 + years is grounds for adverse possession at least IMO. My dad started marking our landlines when I was 13 or so around 1985. We’ve marked them every 10 years since then. Keeping our property boundaries visibly marked for everyone to see. A lot of them are old fences. If someone wants to take us to court over it one day so be it. My biggest concern is having to take someone else to court one day for a ROW. We’ve used old woods roads for 100 years to access our land, but all it’s gonna take is the right person to buy it and slap up a gate.

When we bought our house in downtown Tuscumbia we found out the city owned a portion of our pending house purchase. We would own a portion of the neighbors house and they’d own a portion of next neighbors house. Our purchase exposed the issue since those house had been handed down to the families since the early 90s.

It took the city attorney and hired surveyor to straiten it all out. The issue was Tuscumbia had laid out their road based on four lanes on all city streets.

Why don't you go ahead and secure a deeded ROW as to avoid future problems? Not many years ago stuff like that didn't matter. Landowner / neighbors got along as far as using old roads and hunting each others land and such. Times have changed.

I’m seriously considering it while the old folks are still around. We know all of them. I’d be willing to do the same. Several folks cross us in certain places.

You’ll regret it if you don’t.
I just went through this on a piece of my land.
It was really simple because everyone was in agreement, but it could have been impossible with certain people.

Yeah fences can't always be trusted. On my land, I bought a house on about 5 acres. The property line was WAY to close to my back deck and my workshop. It had a fence on the line. Behind the house was woods. I bought 1 extra acre from that neighbor. It amounted to adding a 50 ft buffer behind my house. So..... if I go to sell and a lazy surveyor came out should he call that fence the property line? Of course not. But plenty here would want it to be. By that logic, I have to remove the old fence and put a new one up 50 ft away. Maybe I should.... but that extra acre is mine either way.

Alabama is a sectionalized state being post Louisiana purchase. Old Fences don’t mean very much in sectionalized states. Now, in metes and bounds states old fences mean a lot. But every survey has its own nuance. The surveyor probably shot the section corner and couple pins and laid his deed in according to the guys previous legal description and maybe the fence isn’t on the property line.

I think the "every survey has its own nuance" is the best answer. I could easily come up with a scenario for someone to put a fence inside a line, and 2-3 owners later, somebody starts thinking that's a property line, The scenario where it BECOMES the property line, through adverse possession, is far less common in real life.

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