I'd like to address a few concerns regarding unwritten rights that arose in response to my three-part series "Property Rights and the Land Surveyor" that ran in May, June and July. First and foremost, let me note that adverse possession is not the only means by which property can and will be transferred by unwritten means. As a matter of fact, it may be the hardest way for unwritten transfers to take place because of the statutory requirements that must be fulfilled. Adverse possession is a statutory right and/or remedy that must be argued in court; it has prescribed qualifications that must be met in order to take effect, and a specific time period in which the codified rights and remedies will ripen. These are issues that a surveyor will not normally be able to determine in the field or through courthouse research. Therefore, adverse possession is not an unwritten transfer that is recognizable during the course of a survey, even though evidence that such a transfer has taken place may abound. Nevertheless, in the comments I receive there seems to be a preoccupation with adverse possession.

I think it is extremely important for professional land surveyors, especially land surveyors who perform boundary surveying services, to understand their state law as it relates to adverse possession. But adverse possession is not the only way in which title to land will transfer by unwritten means. I can only conclude from this preoccupation that in the minds of many surveyors this is the primary way in which unwritten transfers take place. Therefore, I’ll spend the next few installments of this column exploring the many other ways these transfers take place, ways that are considered easily recognizable under the law and should therefore create little difficulty for the practicing land surveyor.