Does anyone know why we have tax maps? Does anyone know how they determine the tax maps?
In the recent election the town voted to have the tax maps updated for Lebanon. You would assume that the tax maps would generally show the layout of your property, but that notion is wrong. In many cases they do not depict the shape or size of individual lots. Some editions of those tax maps specify right on them “Not for purposes of determining boundaries”. This seems extremely strange because many residents and even the town itself refer to the tax maps in deeds for further boundary descriptions.
There is no substitute for a survey completed by a qualified reputable surveyor. However, if you are an older resident of Lebanon who has lived here for some time and your deed originates in the 40′s, 50′s, or 60′s the deed itself may contain errors. Errors that will drastically effect the size of your lot and what you own. If the surveyor you hire does not do complete research and locate all the information on your land you could spend thousands of dollars on a survey that is completely wrong. Surveyors won’t use a tax map do determine your boundaries. They rely on deed research done at the Registry of Deeds in Alfred. What if they are “having a bad day” and miss a deed or two that describes an abutting land owners property and directly effects where your lines are? What might happen? Think about it.
John O’Donnell’s Surveyors of New Gloucester, Maine, does the Lebanon tax maps. In 1973 they created the tax maps we presently use. These maps were drawn from aerial photographs taken from a single engine plane and a helicopter in May of 1972.
Our point is, the tax maps are considered legally inadmissible if you have to defend your property lines in court. Other than vaguely showing a property outline which is generally depicted as a rectangle or a square and an estimation of acreage, they are worthless. We are paying O’Donnell’s for this service. Why can’t they create a map with more detail? Lebanon has allotted $9,000? for updates on the tax maps that only show a vague representation of where your property lies. Is this worth it?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Lebanon resident // Jul 3, 2009 at 12:04 pm
You make a very good point, why do we have Tax Maps if they are not accurate? Will the Tax Maps suddenly be perfect with the $9,000 alloted for the updates? Probably not. The Tax Maps are not accurate in some cases because iron boundary markers suddenly disappear from their proper location, I know for a fact that this has happened.
2 Don Hollenbeck // Jul 7, 2009 at 5:02 pm
$9000.00 doesn’t seem like much to do such a big job!
If we go with the same people who did it last time, or even someone new there might be a possibility of reproduction with just new lots accounted for which would mean we payed too much for that service, in my opinion!?!?
If it costs good money to do a good job then I think if we vote to do this job, we should get it done the right way; meaning accuracy, just as you’ve said!
I’m sure there are some grade school, or high school kids who could draw a pretty good rough boundary map of all the towns lots if we gave them a chance!
So if all we want is a rough boundary map, I say give the kids a chance and if we approve, give them the $9000.00! That might send a message to prospective vendors!
If we’re going to have to pay more for an accurate tax map, I still say we could do it for less with some of our own school kids! After all, we’re not being taxed to teach our kids nothing, and I’m sure there are some kids out there who are learning drafting who would love to put that on their resume!
I’m glad we have this web site so informed people, such as yourself, can enlighten us and bring new ideas to the table!
I don’t know where this subject originated, other than here, but it’s good information that,as you can see, has given light to something that some people may not have thought about!
3 striveforchange // Jul 8, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Thank you to those who have responded to this blog. It may not be as important as a town charter or getting a sheriff here in town, but Lebanon Resident hit the nail right on the head.
There has been, over the years in Lebanon, many instances of boundary line disputes. In some cases many acres of land have been taken from the rightful owners because the deeds were carelessly written, effecting the tax maps which are notoriously vague and in some cases, absurd.
We wanted to give some enlightenment as to what might happen if you don’t secure your deed and have the associated tax map corrected. It could mean expensive litigation
and years of waiting to get clear title to land you have been paying taxes on , if indeed you succeed in re-establishing your owership.
The original tax maps and the updated versions are kept in the vault at the Hanson School along with other town property documents such as the
property evaluation books, aerial photographs, and assessors reports. Don’t be shocked if you look for yours and find out there are many different layouts drawn on the originals of your property boundaries. We know this to be true. We don’t know if this will protect anyone but we thought everyone should be aware.
Might this be the reasoning behind the hesitation of some of the “good “ol boys” to approve a town charter, a town manager, or a more permanant police presence?
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