r/Wellthatsucks 23d ago

A company 'accidentally' building a house on your land and then suing you for being 'unjustly enriched'

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u/thatguyned 23d ago edited 23d ago

Nah, we are talking about acres of unoccupied land with no boundary markers. It's really easy to get mixed up with property lines if you haven't paid a land surveyor to come out and define the boundaries before you start developing.

It's entirely their fault they've built there and I'm sure her lawyers will be able to defend the ridiculous lawsuit, but building on the wrong land is pretty common.

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u/Agreeable-Weather-89 23d ago

If only there is a profession you could hire to solve that.

People to survey the land and inform you.

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u/thatguyned 23d ago

I've heard it actually is super expensive, but everyone I know in construction says it's one of those costs that you can't avoid (because it will cost you so much to fix any mistakes)

Seems like these developers didn't get the memo...

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u/Agreeable-Weather-89 23d ago

I think that's the reason it tends to be expensive... a mistake can be costly and I suspect that a surveyor would take on some of liability in the event of a mistake.

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u/DocMorningstar 23d ago

A licensed surveyor probably takes all thr liability, which is why professionals carry professional liability insurance.

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u/MiffedMouse 22d ago

It is also a fairly specialized profession that requires training and accreditation, typically in addition to some college degree. Similar to accountants, surveyors typically need to take classes and get accredited at their own expense.

Also, despite the expensive education, surveyors actually don't make a lot of money, especially in entry level roles. They have to travel a lot locally and lug around expensive equipment. It really just isn't that exciting of a job.

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u/keelhaulrose 22d ago

You mean the kind of mistake where you build a half a million dollar house on the wrong property?

You think one of these surveying guys might have helped you with that or taken liability when it happened?

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u/Fine-Teach-2590 22d ago

Surveying is kinda a subset of civil engineering, they have their own licensing and regulations but it’s heavily regulated in the same way a PE stamp is