Surveying

Easement

A right, by grant or agreement, which allows a person or persons to use the land of another for a specific purpose

Affirmative or Positive Easement

*Permits the possessor of the easement to do some physical act on, under, or over the lands of another party

*The land that benefits is called the dominant estate and the land on which the easement is attached is called the servient estate

Negative Easement

An easement in which the holder of the dominant estate can prevent the servient estate holder from some use of his property

Negative easement example

easements for light, air, or scenic value

Appurtenant Easement

Benefits the dominant estate or its holder and attaches to the parcel of land, not the holder; usually “run with the land.” Rights get transfered with the title (ownership)

Appurtenant Easement Example

An easement acquired by the owner of a landlocked parcel for the purpose of gaining access to a road is appurtenant to the land

Easement in Gross

easement that serves a person or legal entity but does not attach to the land

Name how Easements are created

*By reference in a deed or will

*By separate document (Subdivision plat or executed agreement)

*By implication

*By necessity

*By prescription

Easements created by will or deed

*Easement rights can be made part of a deed or will

*Easements can be created by an “easement deed.” This deed describes the interest conveyed

*Easements can also be created by an express reservation or exception in a deed of conveyance

Easements created by subdivision plats

May be created by other documents such as subdivision plats (as shown on the plat and by dedication documents that get filed along with the plat)

Easements created by implication

general rule of law, when the owner of a tract of land conveys part of it to another, the owner is said to grant with it, by implication, all easements that are apparent and obvious and that are reasonably necessary for the fair enjoyment of the land granted

Easements created by necessity

The court have held that if two or more parcels are so situated that an easement over one or more is “necessary” for the enjoyment of the other parcels, they will find that an easement of necessity exists

Easements created by prescription

*Adverse use without permission

*Open and notorious use

*Continuous use

*used for a specific purpose

*Used for the statutory period

Easement Termination

*may be potentially unlimited in duration, or it may be created to last for a period of time. In that case, the easement expires according to its terms

*easements created for a specific purpose expire when the purpose has been accomplished

*a release agreed upon by the parties involved

Merger (easement termination)

when the dominant and servient estates are united in one entity, easements are extinguished and are not revived by a later separation

Right-of-way

Any strip or area of land, including surface, overhead, or underground, granted by deed (in fee) or easement, for construction and maintenance according to designated use

Right-of-way examples

*Highways and other roads

*Drainage and irrigation canals

*Electric power, telephone, and catv lines

*gas, oil, natural gas, pipelines

Subdivision

…is establishing new smaller parcels of land within larger or previously established tracts of land

Different ways subdivisions can be created

*By description

*By “plat of survey”

*By “Right-of-way Acquisition plats”

*By Subdivision plats or “final plats”

By Description (Subdivision)

*PLSS with a dimension; basically, the whole South 200 feet of east 300 feet etc. etc.

By Description (Subdivision)

*Metes and bound

*Restricted by state and municipal codes

*Auditors and Assessors could not always follow them

Chains

*1 chain= 66 feet or 22 yards

*1 mile=80 chains= 5,280 feet

*1 acre=10 square chains=43,250 sq feet

*Chain is divided into 100 links

Initial Point

the reference point by which an area to be divided, today there are 37 initial points

Principal Meridian

A true North-South line run from the initial point

Baseline

An East-West line extended from the Initial Point as true parallel of latitude

Townships

*Subdivided into 1-mile square sections

*36 sections make up a township

5th Principal Meridian

The prime meridian running north and south (this is the one Johnson county is on)

Standard Corner

One that was established during the creation of the township

Closing Corner

A corner established when the sections were created

Quarter-Quarter section

*40 acres

*Straight lines are run between opposite quarter-quarter section corners established at the midpoints of the four sides of the quarter section

Original Surveys

Original colonial deeds OR to subdivide the remaining unsurveyed U.S public lands

Retracement Surveys

to recover and monument or mark boundary lines which were previously established

Subdivision Surveys

to establish new smaller parcels within lands already surveyed

Descriptions of Land

*part of deed which is to determine physical location of the property

*has to be sufficient to delineate a unique parcel or tract of land

*must be written to stand the test of litigation

*must be concise and must make intent clear

List the Structure of Descriptions of Descriptions of Land

*The caption or heading

*The body

*Qualifying clauses

*Augmenting clauses

Caption or Heading (Description of Land)

The caption usually identifies the general area of the land to be described

The body (Description of Land)

*body of the description will identify a specific tract in the area described in the caption o heading

*will identify a specific tract in the area described in the caption or heading

Qualifying Clause (Description of Land)

takes something away from the tract described in the body of the description

Augmenting Clause (Description of Land)

adds something to the tract described in the body. Could be for something outside the tract described

Metes

*to measure or assign by measure

*usually this is an angle or direction and a distance

Bounds

refers to another boundary either artificial or natural

Block and lot system

*used in areas where the land is to be divided into smaller parcels

*part of the original towns or subdivisions added to the town or city over the years

Real property

the interests, benefits and rights inherent in the ownership of physical real estate. Real property is fixed, immovable and permanent thing

Personal Property

is consumable, can be destroyed or is moveable at will

“Title”

means whereby the owner of land has the just possession of his property

Land Titile

Denotes the quantity and character of the interest or estate, which a person may own in land

Ownership of land

*ownership of a collection of rights.

*Ownership and rights are related but don’t mean the same thing

*you may own land and convey some of the rights which you are entitled to by “ownership”

Elements of a contract

*Competent parties

*Mutual assent or meeting of the minds

*Compensation

*title to real property must be in writing

Constructive Notice

Notice as is implied or imputed by law, usually on the basis that the information is a part of a publiic record or file

Deed

An instrument in writing which, when executed and delivered, conveys an estate in real property or interest therein

Elements of a deed

*Must be in writing

*Must be signed by the grantor or by his agent

*Grantor must be designated in the body and must be competent to contract

*Grantee must be a person in being, natural o artificial, capable of taking title

*must contain operative words of conveyance, evidencing intent to pass title such as “grant,” “release,” “remine,” “quitclaim,” etc.

*property transfeed must be sufficently described

*deed must have been delievered

Warranty Deed

carries an implied warranty that the grantor is the owner of the title purporting to be conveyed. A warranty deed also caries protection after acquired title

Quitclaim Deed

conveyance of whatever interest the grantor has at the time of the conveyance. There is no implied warranty

Land Tenure System

*The manner in which rights to land are held in any given country

*Must have a means for transferring or changing title and rights to the land

*Permanently monumented or marked boundaries which enable parcels to be found on the ground

*Officially retained records

*an official legal description of each parcel

Geomatics

encompasses the disciplines of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, and geographic information systems

Geodetic

high accuracy, usually long distances, and computations must take into account the curvature of the earth

Plane

computations are made based on the assumption of a flat surface or plane

List of Types of Surveys

*Control Surveys

*Topographic surveys

*Land, Boundary and Cadastral Surveys

*Hydrographic Surveys

*Route Surveys/Alignment Surveys

*Construction Surveys

*As-Built (record) surveys

Land Surveying

The activity of locating, establishing and delimiting boundaries of real property

Engineering Surveys

Surveying associated with engineering/architectural projects such as roads, bridges, utilities, parking lots, railroads, buildings, etc.

GIS

Geographic Information Systems

NGS

*National Geodetic Survey

*National control surveys, monumentation used for mapping, navigation and other uses

USGS

*U. S Geological Survey

*Mapping agency

BLM

*Bureau of land Management

*Responsible for managing the public lands

Code of Iowa

Minimum standards, licensure requirements

Administrative Rules

Helps define the code and sets up certain procedures

Engineering and Land Surveying Examining Board

Disciplinary rights, helps define the administrative rules, exams

Iowa Legislature

Passes laws (code) and Administrative Rules

Professional Organizations

*International Federation of Suveyors

*National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) absorbed the American Congress on Surveying and mapping (ACSM) in 2012

*Society of land Surveyors of Iowa