SYLLABUS: CE 517
CE 517 BOUNDARY LOCATION PRINCIPLES
Procedures for locating or relocating the boundaries of real property; records searching, technical
aspects of field work, preparation of descriptions and survey reports, land data systems, legal aspects,
special problems.
Time and Location:
TBD
Instructor:
Adam Kirk
271 Raymond Building
257.7310
adam.kirk@uky.edu
Office Hours:
TBD, anytime, or by appointment
Teaching Assistant:
Gary Grunwald
grunwald55@uky.edu
Required Text:
Brown’s Boundary Control and Legal Principles, Robillard, Wilson & Brown, 7th Edition, 2014, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., ISBN 978-0-470-18354-0
http://www.amazon.com/Browns-Boundary-Control-Legal-Principles/dp/0470183543
NOTE:
Most of the communication for this course will be performed through
email.
Class Web Site: http://courses.engr.uky.edu/CE/ce517-001
Important information will be posted on the class web site and updated periodically. You are
encouraged to check this site frequently.
Typical information to be posted will include:
 homework assignments/solutions
 quiz solutions
 Presentations and supplemental materials
Course Objectives
SYLLABUS: CE 517
Lecture Topics
• Introduction
• Boundary history
• how boundaries are created
• roles of the surveyor, attorney, and the court
• titles vs rights vs interests
• forms of boundary descriptions
• real and personal property distinction
• types of estates, dominant and servient
• types of easements
• Boundary creation
• properties of property lines
• rights of owner to subdivide land
• original survey assumed to contain no errors, report discrepancies
• surveyor gives “opinion” of property line location
• Property ownership
• what is property “title”
• title insurance
• who owns land?
• methods of obtaining title
• types of deeds
• title search and research of documents
• Torrens Title System
• written deeds
• method of transfer of title
• financial encumbrances
• ALTA/ASCM
• information in a boundary description
• units of measure, horizontal or slope distance
• magnetic declination
• reference datums
• boundary description types
• types of perimeter property descriptions
• Boundaries and the law
• basic areas of the law, constitutional, state
• jurisdictions of courts
• practice of surveying controlled by state’s laws
• evidence, presumptions
• Subdivisions
• information from property tax statements, agriculture declarations
• subdivision plats, lot descriptions, filing with county clerks
• protraction
• written deeds
• priority of survey information
• issues of written vs unwritten calls, adjoining parcels, magnetic declination
• Easements
• easement properties, types of easements
• reversion rules
• easement descriptions, what makes a good easement description
• who can grant easements, limitations
• locations of existing
• easements grant specific rights
• landowner assumed to know location of easements
• involuntary assignment of easements, presumptive, prescriptive, and their abuse
• centerline presumption
• misuse of easement, reversion
• Kentucky law takes land for public right-of-way
• reversion of property lines inside streets
• Riparian rights
• definitions
• ownership and rights of high seas, offshore submerged lands, tidelands, swamplands, inland
waterways
• rules of navigability of interior waterways, federal and state tests
• Public Trust Doctrine
• tides and elevation datums
• riparian boundaries can change, changing ownership and acreage
• action of accretion, reliction, and avulsion
• surveying issues
• apportionment of alluvion and riparian rights areas
• • state and local regulations
SYLLABUS: CE 517
COURSE COMPONENTS, REQUIREMENTS, AND GRADING:
Lectures
Lectures will include presentation of background information, directions for practice and
calculation procedures, sample problem solving and discussions. Participation in
discussions will be considered in assigning the final grade.
Questions and comments from students are welcome at any time during class.
REMEMBER THAT ALL REQUIRED AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL NOT BE
WRITTEN DOWN. STUDENTS MUST TAKE NOTES ON WHAT THE INSTRUCTOR AND
OTHER STUDENTS SAY.
Readings
Readings will be assigned no later than the prior class period based on the lecture and project
topic. Students are responsible for the readings and should be expected to discuss topics in
class, apply lessons in field assignments and recall information during exams and quizzes.
Grading
Final grades will consist of a comprehensive final exam, two intermediate exams, quizzes,
problem solving sessions and a group project based on the distributions below. GRADES
WILL NOT BE ADJUSTED AT ANY TIME USING ANY CURVE SCHEME.
Final Exam
20%
A
90-100%
Exams (2)
40%
B
80-89%
Field
Exercises/Homework
20%
C
70-79
Group Project
20%
D
60-69%
E
<60%
SYLLABUS: CE 517
Appeals:
Grades on homework assignments and exams (with the exception of the final exam) can be
appealed according to the following procedure:
After each assignment or test has been returned, you will have ONE WEEK to review it
and plead your case for a grade change. Beyond the one week period no changes will be
made.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Students are requested to review the policies of the university with respect to discrimination
and sexual harassment, and the policies of the College of Engineering with respect to
academic dishonesty, excused absences and the final examination schedule.
FINAL NOTE:
To do well in this class you must come prepared to the lectures and read the assigned
readings. Active participation is a must! Hard work and lots of studying are essential.
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