How do I know if I need a land surveyor’s services?

Alaska statute Sec. 08.48.341. Definitions(15) “practice of land surveying” means the teaching of land surveying courses at an institution of higher learning, or any service or work the adequate performance of which involves the application of special knowledge of the principles of mathematics, the related physical and applied sciences, and the relevant requirements of law for adequate evidence of the act of measuring and locating land, geodetic and cadastral surveys for the location and monumentation of property boundaries, for the platting and planning of land and subdivisions of land, including the topography, alignment, and grades for streets, and for the preparation and perpetuation of maps, record plats, field note records and property descriptions that represent these surveys.

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, usually the bank, Borough, City, etc will advise you that you need professional land surveyor services.

How long does it take to complete the subdivision of my land?

It currently takes about 6 months to a year to guide a subdivision project through the Kenai Peninsula Borough platting process and have it recorded with the State of Alaska, or longer if it’s within City limits or delayed due to controversy.

To learn more about subdivisions in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, read this document.

What do your cost estimates include or exclude?

I give a cost estimate price range.  The low end is if everything goes smooth, without delays or problems.  The high end encompasses the cost of problems that we could encounter and protects the client with a price cap.  The cost estimate will include the applicable fees, travel time, supplies, etc. needed to accomplish the task.  The cost estimate does not include permitting or soils engineering.  About 15% of my clients end up at the low price, about 30% finish with the high end of the range, and about 50% fall in between.

How do I resolve trespassing or encroachment issues?

If you believe a neighbor is trespassing or encroaching or is planning new development that is on your property, you could approach them and see if they would split the cost of a surveyor to mark the line(s) in question.  If relations are already tenuous, you could hire a surveyor yourself.  Often the neighbor will desist or remove their improvements after the property line has been marked by the professional surveyor.  In my experience, if the landowner brings these issues to the City or Borough, they will be advised to seek a land surveyor and/or lawyer.

What are easements?  What is Right-of-Way?  What about building setbacks?

An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B.  The most common easements in Alaska are either Utilities or Access (Public or Private). There are a large array of easements used for many different purposes in Alaska.

Right of way, is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage, to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar right of access also exists on land held by a government, lands that are typically called public land, state land, or Crown land.  In Alaska, Right-of-Way mostly is used to refer to land dedicated to the public use, i.e. a named roadway.

In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the 20 foot portion of your land adjoining the public Right-of-Way (streets, roads, highways, etc) is usually subject to a “building setback”, as a general rule.  This means you still own that land, can plant grass, pay taxes on it, and generally use it, but are restricted from putting “permanent” building structures within the setback limits.