The Undiscovered Country

I did this on purpose!

Part of a land surveyor's job is to get involved in land disputes. Yep, we purposely get in between feuding land owners.

And I on purpose decided over twenty years ago to be one.

What, oh, what was I thinking?

Right now I'm dealing with one such dispute where both sides hired me and both sides keep calling me with he-said/he-saids about what I said to the other he. Much of which I never said. Yet since it's all hearsay, I can't determine who is lying.

My biggest gripe with this particular situation is being accused of lying or making a mistake and not admitting to it. It's infuriating to the point I can no longer count how many more gray hairs I've grown since this started back in October.

In the end I have to take a step back, because another duty of a land surveyor is to speak for the evidence. I not only work for my clients, but part of the oath I took when I earned my license is to protect the public. That includes any adjoining land owners.

If I find my client is in the wrong, I am ethically and duty-bound to tell them so.

This particular case is an encroachment that is the fault of neither land owner, but previous land owners who knew about the encroachment, tried to fix it at one point, but never followed through (I won't get into the details, because it'll bore you senseless). Yet each current land owner is blaming the other for the problem. Errgh.

But this is my job, and one I signed up for. Now to convince my employer I deserve hazard pay . . .