Hoffman began his surveying career back in 1978 when he worked for his uncle, Bernard Godfrey. After graduating from Paul Smith’s College, he worked his way from rod-man to transit-man and eventually party-chief. In 1988 when Adam received his Land Surveying license, he and Mr. Godfrey formed Godfrey-Hoffman Associates. After 12 years of a great partnership, Mr. Godfrey retired which left Mr. Hoffman with the entire business.

The Importance of a Property Encroachment

Posted by Adam Hoffman on

Property EncroachmentsIf you’ve recently purchased a home or a piece of land, congratulations! However, don’t forget owning property in Connecticut can be a full time job within itself. There are a number of legal issues that the owner will have to deal with once they receive their deed agreement. Among those, property encroachment is a critical issue, which could potentially lead to a legal dispute between the neighbours or the city council.

In the case that you aren’t familiar, a property encroachment refers to the intrusion on another person’s property, intentional or unintentional, and can be a common issue among property owners. If you have an encroachment in your property deed, it might be necessary to talk to a professional engineering & surveying company to avoid any misunderstandings. For more information on this subject, check out the article “How to Settle Property Disputes through Land Surveying“.

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What are Real Estate Deed Restrictions in Connecticut?

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ct-deed-restrictionsThe term deed restriction might sound unfamiliar to anybody who hasn’t purchased residential or commercial property or land of their own. However, most people who already own property are probably aware of the term, deed restriction, from seeing it in their original property deed. A deed restriction is a critical part of a property deed that specifies the exact use of the land including special parameters.

In other words, these are the legal conditions attached to the land, which can place a limitation on the use of that property even though you’re the owner of it. Once you sign a property deed with the restriction embedded in it, you have to follow these terms precisely. If you don’t comply exactly with what was stated in your deed, you can face potential land disputes and legal consequences with your town, city, or neighbors.

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How to Determine Boundary Lines on Your Property

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boundary-linesProperty owners in Connecticut probably have a slight idea of what their property is comprised of, but things can get complicated when it comes down to boundary lines. Knowing exactly where your boundary lines extend to on your property can be vital information that every landowner should know.

If you don’t know exactly where your boundary lines are mapped out, there is a chance that one day there may be a land dispute with the neighbors or the town you own property in. In this article, we will examine why you should know where the boundary lines on your property exist and why this could be very important down the road.

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What are Limited Property Surveys?

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surveyA property survey is a crucial thing for the people who are either going to buy a property or thinking about selling it. In both of these cases, a property survey is necessary because it provides specific details about the property for all parties involved. However, in case you are talking about Limited Property, things get even more vital since they are to some extent quite different from a complete property survey.

Although a Limited Property Survey includes almost the same standards and procedures, they still have a few distinctive features and types such as Zoning Location Survey, Existing Building Location Survey, Improvement Location Survey, Easement Map and many more.

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What Is a Subdivision?

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subdivision-ctA Subdivision is the process of dividing a piece of land into smaller parts for a particular outcome. There are a few different reasons why a property would need to be subdivided and a professional land surveyor is necessary for this process.

This may involve the usage of small areas of land to reduce the taxation or for selling off different parts of land. The subdivided land can also be transformed for reasons to increase profitability in the following categories:

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What is Utility Surveying in Connecticut?

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underground-utilitiesThe term Utility refers to a useful thing that provides an advantage to the person, place, or thing that is implementing it. The utility in this context is a public utility that serves useful purposes to the common person, neighborhood, or city. An example of your local utilities could be: water, sewerage, gas, electricity, and phone/cable lines. The installation and proper use of these utilities are comprehensive and complex networks that have been usually installed by the engineers underground or above surface with the intent of uninterrupted use of them.

In the case of water, sewer, and gas, there is a complex structure of pipeline comprising of various diameters at various depths underneath the ground that are present. The term surveying is looking at something analytically and carefully that the human eye cannot analyze without using technology. So collectively “utility surveying” means the act of careful observation of the utilities and the network structure installed for the transportation of those utilities in a particular area.

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Land Survey Data: Who Actually Owns It?

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godfreylandsurveyIf you’ve ever had a land survey performed then you probably asked yourself, where does this data end up? The answer is the entire collection of data from a survey is owned by the client but is held on file by the surveyor. Survey data is the primary prerequisite for any construction or building project in Connecticut.

There are several methods for delivery and collection of survey data and the entire process is accomplished in a systematic way. This survey data can include a number of things such as horizontal and vertical distances, slope distances, angles, contours, and excavations.


Survey data is basically classified into three categories: the deliverable data, 
the data gathered during the course of time and the knowledge and experience gained during the course of time. 



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The Total Station & Land Surveys: A Background Story

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s6 resized 600The total station was introduced in 1971 and for the first time distance and angle measurements could be recorded by one instrument. The total station is a transit integrated with an EDM, electronic distance meter, which can read slope distances from the instrument to a particular point of land. This combination gives the surveyor the capability of retrieving data related to the coordinates of the reflector in the device.

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