Buyers advised to have new property survey completed
This week’s column was written by Gary Isom, executive director of the Arkansas Real Estate Commission.
By far, one of the biggest mistakes buyers make when purchasing real estate is choosing not to have a new survey completed.
Several complaints have been filed through the years with the Arkansas Real Estate Commission about property lines, driveways, access to property and other issues of confusion as to whether a certain strip of property was or wasn’t included in their purchase of land. Of course, for the AREC to have jurisdiction over the issue, the complaint has to be filed against a person licensed by this agency, usually a Realtor.
All too often in these situations, the buyer thought it was unnecessary to obtain a survey of the property at the time of purchase.
Sometimes a buyer will simply ask for a copy of the latest survey done on the property, which was usually done for a current or previous owner when that individual purchased the property. Simply getting a copy of this report is not advisable, however, as the property may have been affected by various events since the latest survey. Other times, a buyer may see no reason to assume the property lines are anywhere other than where they appear to be, and will choose to save money by not ordering a survey.
It’s understandable that a buyer might decide this. After all, if the property is in a subdivision, shouldn’t property lines have been clearly sorted during the development phase?
And what of fences? It’s perfectly logical to assume that a fence at the edge of a property was positioned on the property line, or that a driveway that is shared with the next-door neighbor has a property line running down the middle.
Another presumably safe assumption would be that a fairly new storage building was built within the property lines.
When purchasing real estate, however, assumptions — logical or otherwise — are never safe. The only way to determine for sure what you are buying is to have a new survey completed.
In any of the situations listed above, the buyer will almost always be left holding the bag.
Simply put, it’s difficult to hold anyone else at fault when the buyer learns after closing that there’s a problem with some element of the physical location of the property, rights of access to the property or usage of the property. The real estate licensee cannot vouch for all the geographical aspects of the property.
Sometimes, even the seller may be confused.
The AREC once had a complaint in which the seller actually believed a portion of property nonadjacent to her property belonged to her. She had tended the area as though it was hers. Unfortunately, the