Regardless of whether you live in the suburbs or you have hundreds of acres of land, you will likely have to interact with your neighbor at one time or another. Whether you are close friends with your neighbor or you only see each other in passing, it’s important to maintain an amicable relationship with the people who live around you. Having disagreements with your neighbors can create tension and may even make you less content in your own home.
One of the most common sources of discord between two neighbors is a disagreement regarding property boundaries, especially when development or construction is involved. The good news is that you can defuse a tense situation with your neighbor by taking a few key steps towards resolution in the event that a boundary dispute arises.
Defusing a boundary dispute
The first thing you should do when a boundary dispute comes up is assess the situation. Instead of insisting on the location of your property boundary, try to understand the extent of the disagreement. Ask your neighbor about where they understand the boundary to be and try to maintain a calm, level tone during interactions with your neighbor.
Since you and your neighbor have diverging opinions about the actual boundary of your property, your neighbor will likely respond to a survey with skepticism unless it’s performed by a certified and trained survey professional. Make sure that you hire a land surveyor in Texas who has a current license and extensive background in surveying services. They will gather all of the relevant documents, including previous surveys and deeds to the property, in order to establish the legal boundary of your property. After the survey is conducted, review the results. In the event that the survey is not reflective of your own understanding of your property boundary, it’s important to abide by the results. It’s much easier to admit defeat and rework your plans for development than it is to become even more involved in a dispute when the facts aren’t on your side.
If the survey confirms your belief about your property boundary, you should bring the survey as evidence to your neighbor and see if you can settle the issue without undertaking any legal proceedings. If you aren’t able to reach an agreement during an in-person meeting, or if the dispute has become acrimonious to the point that meeting with your neighbor one-on-one isn’t possible, mediation may be a good choice. Mediation is an out-of-court meeting between two parties and a third objective party who is there to help you reach an agreement. As long as you come equipped with the results from an official survey from a certified land surveyor in Texas, the meeting will almost certainly work in your favor.
Speak with a land surveyor in Texas
Don’t let a boundary dispute escalate into a full-blown feud with your neighbor—get the dispute resolved quickly and fairly with a boundary survey from D.G. Smyth & Company. We are proud to be a family owned and operated business with decades of experience providing comprehensive boundary and land surveying services. We are equipped with the tools, knowledge and resources necessary to assist our customers with everything from small construction staking projects to major oil and gas pipeline surveys. We would be happy to answer any questions you have about our services and what you can expect from a land survey—give us a call today to speak with one of our trained and certified professionals.