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?