What is this land survey telling me?

Aside from the size of the lot being 123' X 354'?

I have a few ideas, but this is not really my thing.

The back story is, this lot was severed from my property many years before I bought it and a house was built. The old couple living in the home died a few years ago and the place was sold. I'm in the process of cleaning up my property over winter, took a few measurements and discovered that the mature trees surrounding her property, the reason the current owner liked it so much, may actually on my property. 

Last year the land owner on the other side cleaned up his fence row and they got into it over some of the trees on that side. So knowing that I gave her a heads up at that time regarding the ones on my side,  and told her it looked like they were actually mine, hoping it would prepare her for the inevitable. It did not.

We may have worked it out, and she still thinks I'm an shiny happy person for ruining the one thing she really enjoys, but I would like to know a little bit more about the language and anything else relevant on this survey

My buddy is a licensed land surveyor. I sent him your pic. I'll forward you what he says.

To me it looks like northings and eastings. Think latitudes and longitudes.

Get one of these and some small flags:

I think Harbor Freight has a cheappie one with a small wheel for under $15
https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-ft-measuring-wheel-95701.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12144821732&campaignid=12144821732&utm_content=113736761221&adsetid=113736761221&product=95701&store=2967&gclid=CjwKCAiAh_GNBhAHEiwAjOh3ZCAFBj-uoh93iCcwRLYpXoD5vlLYibc2vc9RXHmIGkrloVLWfhr6HhoC-DMQAvD_BwE

From your map, find one "sure thing marker" and then wheel measure the rest adding flags at the corners or add some middle flags to keep your walking line straight.  

The right hand corners that say "IB" are iron bars marking the corners which were located during the survey. 
 

The left hand corners marked "SIB" are iron bars that were set during the survey. (They didn't locate the pre-existing ones, so they set new ones).

The descriptors are basically telling you how they found the points. They took it off another drawing (identified by number), and measured. 
 

That's an incomplete drawing. There should be a key describing the abbreviations and symbols, and a title block describing the info specific to the surveyor and survey. 
 

It also references several other drawings that are important. These can be found on file at the County Clerk's office. 

In reply to John Welsh :

That's dangerous. Without real measurements, government documents,  and proper math, you can easily locate the wrong things and assume its correct. I see it daily. Never assume they are accurate.

"Iron bar" is usually a 18"-2' long rebar. 5/8" or 1/2"in diamete. Rarely larger, and tiny 3/8" bars are suspect. Any thin walled pipe is probably electrical conduit. Investigate that its not being used as a locator to the real marker. A surveyor will NEVER use conduit. Thats homeowner set, and complete bs.

Note that the "Old post and wire fence" shown is not a good landmark. But it will give you a clue where the iron bars are. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Appleseed is right. 

If you can find the iron bars, that should settle the dispute with your neighbor. 
 

The best and most accurate way is to hire a surveyor. 
 

It might also be worth checking to see if the survey you have matches the survey your neighbor has. If they match, the iron bars are pretty reliable. 
 

Note... the iron bars will not be sticking out of the ground. They will most likely be buried a little, and may need a metal detector to locate them. 

If you are lucky the survey company put a plastic cap with their name or ID of some kind on it on the iron bars. If you have a new survey done, have them do it so you can find them easily later. "See that orange/green/yellow cap on that bar in the ground, that is the corner of the property"

Oh, please heed SV reX 's advice. Get a survey. Around here that might run 6-7 hundred, but location is everything. Very cheap insurance for any disputes.

Thanks guys, I knew we had expertise here. SV nailed it. I was looking for what the abbreviations, etc meant. I have a complete survey, that's only one corner of it. I was able to locate a few points to measure from and at this point there's no dispute. She's not happy with me but she doesn't have a survey and she's not disputing mine. It's actually not even close, one row of trees is easily 6' or more over, and one of the stakes is in the middle of another row. I don't want to cut anything down, but they're really growing into the field and something needs to be done.
You'd think she would be happy that I took the time to consult her, but she doesn't get it. She wonders why I'm trying to ruin what attracted her to the property in the first place. 

I hate to say this openly, but there is very little she can do once the trees are cut down. 
 

I owned a property once. Really loved the little wooded area on one side. The builder on the next lot bulldozed them down without my permission. He was almost 50' onto my property. I was furious. 
 

The reality was there was very little I could do. The trees were gone. I could have sued him (and probably won some damages), but the trees were still gone. And the truth was, I had no desire to go through the aggravation of dragging him into court. So, he got away with it. 
 

You are on much safer ground. 

In reply to Mr. Peabody :

It sounds like she's wondering why you're trying to ruin what attracted her to YOUR property.

I think you're doing the right thing here. Nobody should be seen as a bad guy for playing by the rules.

Mr. Peabody said:

Thanks guys, I knew we had expertise here. SV nailed it. I was looking for what the abbreviations, etc meant. I have a complete survey, that's only one corner of it. I was able to locate a few points to measure from and at this point there's no dispute. She's not happy with me but she doesn't have a survey and she's not disputing mine. It's actually not even close, one row of trees is easily 6' or more over, and one of the stakes is in the middle of another row. I don't want to cut anything down, but they're really growing into the field and something needs to be done.
You'd think she would be happy that I took the time to consult her, but she doesn't get it. She wonders why I'm trying to ruin what attracted her to the property in the first place. 

No one is happy when property lines are involved.

The guy that bought behind us literally has no easement but since he assumed he could use our driveway I've had to involve the sheriff with him. I talked nicely to him, had another conversation with him where he was pissy and yet.....not wanting to let it go. 

He has to cross thru 5 people's property to use this road and idaho has some of the most draconian property/trespassing laws around, it's incredibly stupid to tresspass up here,my neighbors won't show as much restraint as me.

Basically though, there is no salvaging that, the neighbor will always gate you for it I'm sorry to say

I've only ever found one pin on my property and it's right in the middle of a line.  My guess is it's there because the garage was built exactly on the property line in the corner and surveyors couldn't get to that corner to mark it.  The three neighbors' properties behind me have a mess.  The three houses there were built in the 1910s by a family and their two kids' families.  They put their outbuildings and garages wherever they wanted without any regard to lines and now that the properties are all separate families, it's a mess.  The garage that is directly behind me actually belongs to the property that is behind and to the right.  12' of it is over the property line and only 6' of it is on his actual property.

My property came with a recent survey (2012, and I bought in 2017) so I just accepted it.  There were no SIBs on my survey and only 2 IBs, neither of which I can find with a metal detector.  I did find the one that isn't on the survey.  Around here they often put the IBs in the street/road, then use the descriptor of something like "14 feet from IB to property edge."  Is that common everywhere?

Not common in Northern Illinois,  but thete are regional norms. Most surveyors won't smash a bar or pipe in asphalt, because thats stupid difficult. We use MAG nails. Magnetic nails that metal detectors love.

That pipe in the middle of your line might be an old pipe from the original families or a witness mark. Those are most often seen near water's edge  because waterfront property extends into the water, and you dont set pipes under water. The witness helps locate a line, but nothing more. Or it could just be random trash. That happens a lot in old neighborhoods.

So how did this lady buy property without a survey?  Usually the title insurance companies require a recent survey.   

Another issue is some states have "Adverse possession" laws which basically state if a person doesn't notify the neighbor that their fence is over the property line within a certain amount of time  then the property becomes theirs and the original owner loses it.  If the adverse possession predates the new owner of the infringed property its usually too late.    I know this from personal experience of a close relative who lost $100,000 on a property sale because of these laws in Washington State due to a fence that was there when they moved in.  They knew about the fence being in the wrong place but didn't know it could come back and cause them to lose that part of the property when they sold it.  

In reply to jharry3 :

He didn't say there wasn't a survey.  He said she didn't have it.

That just means she failed to read her closing papers.  Typical.

The survey is of my property but since her property was severed from mine it shows hers as well. She doesn't have one. As far as I know you no longer require a survey, which was usually just a bank requirement. Title insurance, at least the last time I bought, was not common here. 
 

I feel like an idiot. I took that pic a few months ago and didn't unfold the entire survey. I did last night and all the info I was looking for was right there in the legend. At this point she has proposed that she pay me rent for the land the trees are on, probably close to an acre, and we'll probably do that. Unless she starts acting like a bitch again, then the chainsaw's coming out
 

Out of curiosity... What percentage of the trees that she likes do you want to cut down, and why do you want to cut them down?

On the south side of the property, the 350' on the bottom, close to 100% and at the back about 50% of the trees are on my property.  I lease the land in that area to my buddy who farms it and he's slowly losing Land he's paying for, but I think I've said a few times, I don't want to cut them down. Ideally she would trim them back and everybody would be happy but she doesn't think she should have to. 

umm...

I kinda agree with her.

Why should she trim your trees?

Does she want to buy some land from you?

And I'm curious too.. why she should trim your trees  

Ok, I'm kinda confused what the issue is here. 
 

Is this the right breakdown?

• She likes the trees
• They're your trees.
• You need to trim the trees, or at least one row of them.
• She doesn't want you to trim them (but that isn't relevant)
• You want her to pay to trim them, despite them not being hers, and her not wanting to trim them
• She is going to lease the trees from you because she doesn't want you to cut them down? But you're not cutting them down?

SV reX said:

umm...

I kinda agree with her.

Why should she trim your trees?

I didn't say she should, I said it would be ideal if she would, then everybody would get what they want