House Renovation/property limit dispute

Hi Ben;

Does your parent's 1950 survey show the pool and fence in question? If the pool and current fence were built after the survey, it is a possibility that they were built in the wrong place. 

If your neighbour has a recent survey then ask to see it and get a copy of it if you can. Sometimes people say they have one but actually don't. 

In the event that your parent's 1950's survey shows their pool on their property and the neighbour's more current survey shows it encroaching on the neighbouring property, then you may be dealing with a difference in professional opinion (between the two surveyors). It may be an error on the part of one of the surveyors, or it may be that something has changed in the location of the boundaries since that 1950's survey.

Either way your best course of action is as follows:

First, contact the surveyor who did the recent survey of the neighbour's property. Tell them your situation and ask them if they took the 1950's survey of your property into account. ask them to explain how it is that their survey contradicts yours. Surveyors are held to a very high professional standard. However, mistakes sometimes happen. It is very likely, though, that they have a plausible explanation behind their opinion of where the boundary is.

Second, if the answer you get from the recent surveyor is not to your satisfaction, retain a surveyor of your own and have them perform a new survey of your property. That way you will know for sure if the neighbour's surveyor made a mistake or if, in fact, your parent's pool is encroaching.

If your surveyor does confirm that there may be an issue with where the neighbour's surveyor placed the boundary, you know have evidence that you can approach your neighbour with and hopefully have a constructive discussion. In the event that that doesn't work, you can contact the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors (www.aols.org), who are the governing body of the profession, and ask for their advice on how to proceed. Lastly, you can hire a lawyer who specializes in boundary disputes and have them deal with the situation.