Complaint Review: Robert Lesslie - Hamilton New Jersey

I bought a home. Mr. Lesslie was hired to do the land survey; before his survey I had a home inspection at which time I was told the well was under a well stone. Later I was told that surveys do not include wells.

The people involved in these statements and actions are subjects of other complaints. However, Mr. Lesslie was supposed to be my defense against people that try to take advantage of home buyers. I learned on the Internet months later that wells do go on surveys and that surveyors are supposed to be working diligently for buyers. But Mr. Lesslie did not help me and since so much information was false or misleading, questions have come up about why Mr. Lesslie did not do a survey that provided the information that would have saved me from this terrible mistake.

My neighbor showed me my well 16 months after I bought my home. He advised me that he had shared the well for years and that it was behind a hedge. I inquired as to how he was able to sell his home and evidently he only disclosed his sharing of my well at his own home closing and the people buying the home agreed to it. I protested but was ignored by the neighbor's real estate representative.

The Township engineering people said they did not have to enforce something it if was withheld. Several trips to the Township have been in vain and so I filed a complaint against realtors and the surveyor, Mr. Lesslie hoping that someone in NJ would take it seriously that I have a home with no legal source of water.

Mr. Lesslie has claimed he had no idea I had a well at all -- not even the one that was supposedly under a stone. He saw the wire fence around the well when I asked him to come back and look at it and he was surprised about the fence.

This simply makes no sense. The survey shows the hedge (15 feet x 8 feet high x 4 feet deep on my property). It shows a fence on my property directly behind the hedge. This fence cannot be seen unless a person stands on the other side of the hedge and looks at the fence from the neighbor's property. When walking into the neighbors' yard and looking at the fence and following the boundary you have only to walk 3 feet and the well is in your face. It is 20 inches high by 10 inches diameter and at the time of the survey, had a hudge wooden illegal cork on it as a cover, filled with bugs. It now is sealed. However, the price to repair or decommission and hook up to City water is in the thousands.

The home would never have been purchased by me had I seen this well. It is obvious to me that real estate agents did not want me to see the well because at the very least, my home inspector would have looked down the well and would have seen it was shared. That would end the sale. That can be the only reason for this elaborate deception that I have lived through with lawyers and real estate people. Then, to learn that mysteriously Mr. Lesslie is leaving the well off of the survey and that the title company is claiming no knowledge of a well, is just too much to believe.

I received documents submitted to my mortgage company before closing my the title company and there are documents stating the property had private well water. The date on those documents is one day before the survey. The tax records show a well as the basis for sewerage charges; the disclosure says well water and the flyer for the home submitted for the MLS, according to the listing agent, says well water.

The location of the well is the issue I am focusing on because that is the one issue that Mr. Lesslie, as a professional, was responsible to confirm and provide information about and he did not. I await the response from Mr. Lesslie about my complaint made to the Society of Engineers and Land Surveyors. I await information as to why he did not respect my right to have markers on the boundary that I specifically requested. Of course, I did not hire Mr. Lesslie -- I hired Mr. Johnson and Mr. Johnson agreed to meet me and Mr. Johnson agreed to make sure my markers were clear for a fence co. Where did Mr. Lesslie come from and where did Mr. Johnson Go? I am still waiting from the department of Consumer Affairs in Newark to determine if Mr. Johnson or Mr. Lesslie are accountable for their actions in this matter.

Barbara

ewing, New Jersey
U.S.A.