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- SIY13.TXT Self Defense Against Surveyors 59
-
- Chapter 13
-
- Self Defense Against Surveyors
-
- This surveying method does not use bulky instruments on tripods, nor does it
- require three assistants waving flags. It is very easy to survey
- surreptitiously. Use this ability wisely.
-
- Some other surveyors are not quite so discrete. When the government wants to
- take your land by eminent domain, it first sends out a team of surveyors. You
- can rest assured that they won't be using any "poor man's method", either. If
- you ever see uninvited surveyors on your property, invite them to leave. At
- gunpoint, if necessary. Tell them to bring a court order when they return.
-
- It is much easier to stop the theft of your land before it has been measured
- and entered onto the government's maps. You can't stop the surveyors
- permanently, but you can make them show you a court order. This will warn you
- what new grandiose project you are soon to be a part of. There are many sad
- stories of residents learning too little and too late that their home was a
- part of some new toxic waste disposal site or missile silo. Don't let it
- happen to you. And you can even use your poor man's method to keep the
- government surveyors almost honest.
-
- If you have understood how a land description is generated from a actual
- survey, and how a lost line may be found from a land description, then you will
- notice that it is not necessary to actually survey the boundary. Preliminary
- civil engineering surveys are usually done from aerial photography. It is
- quite simple, given the proper equipment and mentality, to conjure a land
- description which is not what it purports to be. Without ever setting foot
- near the property. Forewarned.
-
- When your poor man's survey is not good enuf for your purposes, then you will
- have to call in a professional surveyor. Most of these folks are quite honest,
- and do a quick and efficient job. You should read "A Layman's Guide to Land
- Surveying" (see Sources, Chapter 14) before surveyor shopping.
-
- As with any bunch, there are a few shysters and quacks hiding behind a
- professional demeanor. You should be able to smoke out these charlatans
- masquerading as surveyors by doing your own preliminary survey.
-
- Any professional surveyor should agree with you to within your limit of error.
- If he doesn't, then don't stop asking questions until you get a good answer.
- Accept no magic. If your "professional surveyor" insists that you are too
- stupid to understand what he is doing, then get a real professional. You might
- even report the quack to the state surveyors' licensing board.
-