Alternative to Pool Problems

It was with great interest that I read your article “Money Drain” by Bob Pool (May 18). It was about a reportedly very unfortunate woman who had a contractor begin to install a swimming pool in her back yard more than 10 years ago. The story said the pool remained unfinished and the owner is now bankrupt after years of unsuccessful court challenges. The lady is now forced to live in a small trailer as a result of someone’s poor planning.

I think, though, that the article would have been better titled, “How Expensive Is a Lot Survey?” The entire problem stemmed from the construction’s taking place outside of the lady’s limits of her ownership. When the building inspector discovered that the hole was too close to the property line and that some of its plumbing and decking extended into a neighbor’s yard, the inspector would not allow the pool to be completed. Then the lady commenced suing her contractor and then sued her lawyers for not being successful in suing the contractor.

What the homeowner failed to realize is that standard contracts for installation of amenities like a pool, fence or wall almost always have a clause that exonerates the contractor from the responsibility of determining where the property lines are. It is the property owner’s responsibility to have the land surveyed or resurveyed to established where these boundary lines are. If Lucille Bolin had only called for a survey of her property in the first place, I am sure that the end result would have been much different--she would be swimming in water instead of bills!

L. PAUL COOK

Los Angeles

Cook is a professional land surveyor and is president of a land planning and surveying company.