How can different surveyors come up with different locations for my boundary?
The surveying industry in Wisconsin is self-regulated. There are no continued education requirements. More than 50% of surveyors do things “the way we’ve always done it” and are not aware of the current laws and codes that govern their work. A common corner cut is the duplication and adoption of information on record without proper field verification. This results in perpetuated errors that can go on for years. Ultimately, your surveyor should be very confident in representing the location of your property lines in court. If the mention of legally defending your survey in court causes apprehension or an uncertainty from your surveyor, run, run, run! If you hear things like “in my opinion” or “I’m pretty sure”, question what part of law, administrative code, or technical methodology your property line location is based upon.
