The purchase of real estate may be the largest investment of your life. Having a land survey done before you complete the purchase of real property may help avoid boundary line problems in the future. A casual inspection of your property will not be sufficient to determine its boundaries and assure that all buildings, fences and other improvements on both your and your neighbor's land are properly located. If you purchase or improve your property without an accurate land survey, you may find that possession lines are not coincident with the Title lines. In the event conflicts are discovered as shown on the survey, early legal advice should be sought to resolve such conflicts in order to prevent future problems.
The private landowner and/or purchaser would utilize the services of a registered professional and surveyor before the property is conveyed to obtain a boundary survey of the real property.
A boundary survey is the measurement by a professional land surveyor of the record Title lines to identify the boundaries of a parcel of land. A survey for land title purposes also shows the location of all visible evidence of improvements, encroachments, protrusions and visible easements.
In addition, the surveyor will verify or re-set the land corners of the real property you are about to purchase.
To comply with statuary requirements, the survey prepared for your transaction must contain all of the following:
2. Description of the property corners, recovered and set
4. A legal description of the property, and with rare exception, be deposited in the public records
Remember, the statement, "It's just a survey" can cost you money.
Should it be required, A. L. T. A. (American Land Title Association) and A. C. S. M. (American Congress on Surveying and Mapping) have established minimum standards for surveying services and the location of improvements on real property. This ALTA -ACSM Standard generally applies to commercial properties.
The final cost of your survey depends on the location, size, kind of survey and the difficulties encountered. "The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low cost is forgotten."
Contact a professional land surveyor in your area for an estimate of the fee to complete the kind of survey you need.
