Many Northwoods property owners know the importance of getting their land surveyed.
As President of the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors Jeff DeMuth describes, surveying can become especially prominent in determining boundaries of shore land properties, which are often limited in space.
“So to know where those boundaries are is pretty important to those people, they have to maintain the setbacks from the side yard lines, maintain the setback from the lakeshore. They’re confined to an envelope within which they can build, and if they get outside that there could be ramifications.”
DeMuth says disputes can arise because historic property lines were often drawn and measured only to within the nearest foot, while current surveying techniques are much more precise.
As DeMuthexplains, surveyors can often become mediators.
“They get a call from a client, who has some sort of property question, perhaps their neighbor is encroaching or they think their neighbor is encroaching, and they want to know where their boundary lines are.”
DeMuth says discrepancies often arise when historic property delineations don’t match what’s on the ground.
“Just because the plat depicted a nice orderly layout of land, doesn’t always mean that that’s where the road was built, or that was where the occupation started to happen, as people built their cottages or their homes.”
He says land surveyors use land deeds and records to calculate and map precise property lines.
Mayor Dick Johns has declared it National Surveyors Week in the city of Rhinelander.
