Agenda
Part 1, Wednesday, August 5, 2020
11:00 am – 2:30 pm CDT (including a 15-min. break)
Locating Land Boundaries on Paper (And on the Ground)
What a deed tells us about real property interests and their locations – or doesn’t
Common kinds of land descriptions
• Metes and bounds
• Reference to a tax parcel
• 3-D descriptions (condominiums, split estates)
• Blanket easements
• Reference to a subdivision
• “Strip” descriptions
Reading a description to find evidence of location
The work involved in writing a description
Tying the paper deed to the ground: What is evidence of a boundary?
Why paper and ground may not match
When the paper and the ground don’t match: The hierarchy of evidence in descriptions
Summary: Elements of a good description
Physical Evidence and Boundaries
The difference between a corner and a monument
Retracement surveys versus new or independent surveys
Discrepancies between the written record and what is on the ground
• Types of discrepancies
• Causes of discrepancies
The hierarchy of evidence revisited
Part 2, Thursday, August 6, 2020
11:00 am – 2:30 pm CDT (including a 15-min. break)
Easements: Understanding Possessive Rights in Lands of Others
Distinctions between ownership and possession
Easements distinguished from other possessory rights
Types of easements and distinctions between them:
appurtenant, in gross, affirmative, negative and others
Methods of easement creation
Clues in documents to determine if interests are fee or easement
The effect of the Statute of Frauds on possessory rights
Methods of easement termination
What happens after termination?
Disputes: Boundaries, Shared Spaces, and Split Estates
Distinctions between trespass, adverse possession, and prescriptive rights
Maintaining adverse claims
• Statute of limitations
• Elements of a claim
“Lost grant” claims
Quiet title actions
Acquiescence, laches, estoppel, and equity
Less litigious approaches to settling land interest disputes
• Practical location and boundary line agreements
• Boundary line commissions
Webinar Instructions
Each webinar session earns continuing education credit and can be registered for individually. All attendees must log-on through their own email – attendees may not watch together if they wish to earn continuing education credit. HalfMoon Education Inc. must be able to prove attendance if either the attendee or HalfMoon Education Inc. is audited.
Certificates of completion will be provided for each webinar attended and will be sent via email in PDF form about five business days after the conclusion of the series.
Webinars are presented via GoToWebinar, an easy-to-use application that can be run on most systems and tablets. Instructions and login information will be provided in an email sent close to the date of the webinar. It is highly recommended that you download, install and test the application before the webinar begins by clicking on the link in the email.
GoToWebinar App requirements:
Windows 7 – 10 or Mac OSX Mavericks (10.9) – macOS Catalina (10.15)
Web Browser:
The two most recent version of the following browsers:
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer v11 (or later) with Flash enabled
Internet connection: Minimum of 1Mbps Hardware: 2GB RAM or more
For more information, visit the Support section at www.gotowebinar.com
Credits
Land Surveyors:
6.5 PDHs (details below)
Professional Engineers:
6.5 PDHs in all states
Continuing Education Credit Information
This live interactive webinar offers 6.5 PDHs/continuing education hours to land surveyors in most states and professional engineers in all states.
HalfMoon Education is an approved continuing education sponsor for engineers and land surveyors licensed in Indiana (License No. CE21700059), Maryland, North Carolina (S-0130), and North Dakota.
HalfMoon Education is an approved continuing education provider for engineers licensed in Florida (Provider No. 0004647) and New Jersey (Approval No. 24GP00000700).
HalfMoon Education is deemed an approved continuing education provider for engineers and land surveyors licensed in New York via its registration with the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System (Regulations of the Commissioner §68.14(i)(2) and §69-1.5(i)(2)).
Boundaries and Easements: Course approval is not being sought for land surveyors licensed in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and New Jersey.
Introduction to GNSS Surveying: Course approval is applied for and pending for Tennessee and Texas land surveyors. Course approval is not being sought for Florida and New Jersey land surveyors
Course completion certificates will be awarded to participants who complete the webinar in its entirety, respond to all the verification prompts during the instruction, and earn a score of 80% on the quiz that follows the instruction (multiple attempts allowed).
Speakers
Wendy Lathrop, PLS, CFM, CFS
President and Owner of Cadastral Consulting, LLCMs. Lathrop is licensed as a professional land surveyor in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and as a professional planner in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and has been involved in surveying since 1974 in projects ranging from construction to boundary to environmental land use disputes. Ms. Lathrop is also a certified floodplain manager through the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) and a Certified Floodplain Surveyor through the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors. A former adjunct instructor at Mercer County College in New Jersey, she has also taught as part of the team for the licensing exam review course at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. Ms. Lathrop has been teaching seminars for surveyors since 1986 and has been writing articles for surveyors since 1983. She is a contributing editor for The American Surveyor magazine, and she has four articles included in the American Bar Association’s text, Land Surveys: A Guide for Lawyers and Other Professionals. She and Stephen V. Estopinal, PLS, PE co–authored a book titled Professional Surveyors and Real Property Descriptions: Composition, Construction, and Comprehension, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2011. She is also on the faculty of GeoLearn, a web-based educational provider. Ms. Lathrop is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors and of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, and she has served on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Geodetic Surveying.