I moved into a small town inmichigan about 8 months ago. When we looked at the house the realator had put flags in all 4 corners of the lot stating that these were the property lines. The neighbor next door just had his lot survryed and come to find out I no longer have a back yard or really no yard at all. The survey cut about 30 feet of my yard. Since then this neighbor has been a real jerk. He has dug up 2 of my bushes that are right on the line and had the police over here 3 times in the past 4 days. Is this the fault of the realator because I would have not bought this house if I had known there was no yard to even put a dog house. I feel like I have been took on it. Are these property surveys always correct? I am thinking of having one done on my lot but don't want to give him the satisfaction of being right.

Well it appears you did not pay to have a survey done before you bought the property. What is your lot size? Have your own survey done to be sure if there is a doubt.

Well let me see, you won't have one done because he may be right? Well he already has his right so you have nothing to lose.

I have to say, when I bought my place, one of the things that I got was plat survey, showing all the fences and easements, so that I could be sure what I was buying. Didn't something like that come along with the rest of your closing documents? You might want to double check and see if you have one, and what it says the boundaries are.

It is, of course, possible that your neighbor is lying for some reason. Did you see the surveyors? Or did he just tell you that his yard goes that far?

My sister has a small farm, her neighbors tried to say that a lot of their property was theirs the neighbors had it surveyedand marked it off with red flags. My sister got her own survey and the old deed and offered to meet them in court. They backed down.

Did you pay cash for the house? If you financed it the lender almost certainly required a survey. Have you spoken to the realtor about this yet?

What about your title company? Didn't you purchase title insurance? The insurance company should have told you what the dimensions of the house were. Didn't you use an attorney to cover you at closing?

Talk to the Realtor and ask that they arrange for a survey and share in the cost since this issue should not have arisen.