10 | Saturday, January 13, 2018 | The Topeka Capital-Journal | homes.cjonline.com
Property: Surveys worth the cost Continued from 8
without a survey, and if you’re doing landscape or fence construction, it buys valuable peace of mind to know your boundaries. Angie’s List members report spending between $350 and $600 on a survey. Costs tend to vary by region and extent of the job. For example, Dennis Campbell, president of Blue Ridge Land Surveying in Asheville, N.C., says surveys of properties less than an acre in his area cost between $600 and $1,500. “A few hundred dollars for a survey and staking property lines could
save thousands in fence removal and replacement,” Thurber said. “I always tell clients that a survey is the cheapest form of insurance you can buy.”
Your responsibilities Property lines get more complicated with elements that start on one property but impact another, and insurance and liability come into play. Trees make up the majority of these problems. If your oak’s limbs extend over your neighbor’s yard, whose problem is it when the leaves fall or a broken limb causes damage to a neighbor’s yard?
This is another case where your jurisdiction matters. “In Virginia, if a tree falls from my neighbor’s property onto my property, it’s considered an act of God,” Thurber said. “The insurance companies will usually cover the damage that may have occurred to the respective properties, but my neighbor’s insurance company will not cover damages to mine.” In some cases, property lines can impact ownership of the tree and who can make decisions about it — another reason to be well aware of your exact boundaries. homes.cjonline.com | The Topeka Capital-Journal | Saturday, July 29, 2017 | 9
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