We Don’t Do No Stinkin’ Surveys

I work with a lot of home buyers who are relocating to Tucson, and that have purchased homes in other states. In many of those other states, I’m told, it is customary to have a survey when you buy a house.

Not so in Tucson.

You might get a survey if you buy a parcel of land, certainly, but not usually for residential properties.

This has created some interesting situations in terms of our real estate transactions.

For example, in many older areas of town, people tend to put up fences or sheds where the old fence used to be. Which may or may not have been within the property line. I’m willing to bet that there are subdivisions where every single home has a fence or other structure that encroaches on the next persons lot. And that person’s lot has something that encroaches on the next person’s lot, and so on down the line of homes.

So then one person comes along and gets a survey, and discovers their neighbor’s garage sticks out one foot over the property line. So then person A goes to neighbor B, and then neighbor B goes and gets a survey and finds out that neighbor C’s shed sticks out 16″ over his property line. You see where I’m going with this.

There’s something called a prescriptive easement, where - within certain rules - someone else can claim the right to use part of your property, just by using that part openly long enough. Like, say, having a garage partially over the property line for the last 10 years. Whether you knew it was or not.

But if you really want to know where your property line is for sure, you better get that survey. Just know that it isn’t typical around here, and it could take a couple of weeks to have it done, so we’ll need to plan for that.

Photo via Flickr, courtesy of AndyMc73