Boundary surveys are key to keeping the peace with neighbours in many cases. While disputes can be about anything, boundaries and neighbours encroaching on other people's properties have got to be among the more common problems that you find in residential areas. Knowing exactly where your property's boundaries are solves a lot of problems in this regard, especially if you are changing your property somehow. When you do any work around the edges of your property or decide to sell, you need to have a boundary survey done if you haven't already done one.
To Verify Easement Boundaries
If you and a neighbour share an old easement that you've both been using for years, you can gradually forget where the actual boundaries of the easement are. Should your neighbour move, for example, you've got to have a boundary survey that shows the easement so that, when new people move in, you can let them know what privileges they and you have regarding using the easement to access part of the property. Hopefully, your neighbour or the new owners will have done a boundary survey as well, but in case they have not gotten one, you can have one at the ready. It's also helpful if they claim that their survey shows different boundaries.
Before Changing Your Landscaping
Adding a few container plants to your verandah doesn't require permission from your neighbours. Adding a fence around your property or planting new trees near your property line shouldn't require it, either, but if your neighbours are particularly protective of their property, you may want to have an updated boundary survey taken if you can't find the one you got when you bought the property. When you can show that all the work you're having done is on your property only, the neighbours can't complain about you encroaching on their land. (They may still complain about other things, though, boundary surveys can't stop that.)
When Selling Your Property
Just as you should have a boundary survey taken of new property that you buy, you should also have a boundary survey taken of a property you sell if you can't find that original survey from when you bought the place. If there have been additions or other changes that would affect the boundaries, such as an easement ending, a new boundary survey is definitely called for.
You don't have to do multiple boundary surveys regularly. You want to have one that's up to date, which means you may have to call a surveying contractor if you can't find your previous survey or know that changes have taken place in the meantime.
Reach out to a land surveyor near you for more information.
