A couple of years ago, when I bought a house in a post-WWII development, I was amazed that part of the agreement to purchase consisted of a photocopied piece of paper dating to 1951 that was a hand drawn sketch of the property I was buying. I was only the third owner so I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised that no one had done a proper up-to-date survey, even though in the intervening years a garage had been built and the backyard had been totally fenced in.
While, my real estate lawyer strongly suggested that I buy title insurance on the property, I was never told that it would be useful to commission a property survey. Luckily I haven’t had any problems with the neighbours encroaching on my space, but I have been thinking about taking out a home equity loan to put a pool in the backyard. Looks like I’m going to have to upgrade from my sketch to something more modern.
