Survey
A property survey defines boundaries, structures, and easements. Learn why surveys protect buyers and lenders from boundary disputes.
Definition
A survey is a precise measurement and mapping of a property’s boundaries, structures, and features conducted by a licensed surveyor. Surveys identify property lines, encroachments, easements, and rights of way. Survey reports may include metes and bounds descriptions, lot dimensions, and diagrams. Lenders or title companies often require surveys for new construction or when property lines are unclear. Buyers benefit from surveys by confirming property boundaries, avoiding disputes with neighbors, and ensuring structures comply with zoning setbacks.
Why It Matters
Fences lie. A survey is how you find out that the neighbor's carport sits four feet onto your lot, or that the shed you planned to keep breaks a five foot setback, and discovering either after closing makes it your fight to fund. Standard title policies exclude anything an accurate survey would have shown, so skipping one quietly removes a layer of coverage you already paid for.
Examples
A buyer of a 1962 rambler learns the detached garage crosses the south line by 2.5 feet, and the neighbor's title company will not insure over the encroachment.
A survey on five acres outside Monroe turns up a recorded utility easement running straight through the only flat spot where the buyer intended to build a shop.
A listing advertises 0.42 acres from the county record, but the survey measures 0.36 because the parcel ends at the creek centerline rather than at the fence line.
Tips
Order the survey early enough that results land inside your inspection period, so a bad finding still gives you a contractual way out.
Ask the title company whether providing a current ALTA survey will let them delete the standard survey exception from your owner's policy; that deletion is often the whole reason to pay for one.
If an old survey exists, check its date against the improvements: a 1998 survey says nothing about the deck someone added in 2015.
Related Terms
Utility Easement
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Zero Lot Line
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Quiet Title Action
A quiet title action is a lawsuit to clear title disputes. Learn when to use quiet title actions to ...
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