Why do you need a Relocation Survey?

posted Jun 4, 2013, 7:17 PM by Dan Factoran [ updated Jun 4, 2013, 7:29 PM ]

A relocation survey is one of the many important services provided by a Commissioned surveyor as your land
consultant.

Location surveys involve the precise identification of established land boundaries. Knowledge of
the exact boundaries of your land will help you avoid expensive encroachment disputes and ill-will
between you and your neighbors.
Where encroachment has already occurred your surveyor can help rectify the problem. Replace
boundary pegs which have become dislodged or misplaced by workmen for any reason whatsoever. Place additional
survey marks consistent with the corners being re-pegged. Prepare a plan of the resurveyed boundaries if requested.

Your house and land may represent your largest assets. Here are some reasons why you need to
contact a surveyor:
o To avoid paying for the wrong lot.
o To avoid building on the wrong lot.
o To avoid putting the road or driveway in the most costly location.
o To make the most economical use of the construction site.
o To know who to contact for rights of way.
o To make the most intelligent presentation of your use project.
o To avoid infringing many land use laws, regulations and encumbrances.
If you are contemplating purchasing property, you should know as much as possible about the price
of land you are going to invest in. For your own peace of mind, you need a Commissioned Land
Surveyor to define the legal boundaries and verify that the survey pegs are in place. Each sale
agreement should require that the survey marks be located prior to the sale. You have a right to see

the boundary peg before you purchase, and it is in your interest to do so.
If you consider developing a section of your property, it is prudent to determine the

exact boundaries before you

begin. Survey marks may be misplaced, displaced or difficult to locate and boundaries are not
necessarily consistent with fences or hedges.
Excavation works on hill sides, on or too near the boundary, may affect the stability of your
neighbor's property and make you liable to damages.
Even minor home improvements and the building of a car port can be a source of expensive
litigation and ill will, and there are numerous cases of breach of distance covenants requiring
modification at great cost in the supreme courts. Be sure, therefore, to avoid the pitfalls be early
action. Contact a Commissioned Land Surveyor for redefinition of your boundaries before you
commence development.
Many property owners, after a while, seek to erect more substantial fencing. Workmen invariably
remove the survey marks in the process of excavation of wall footings and so cause substantial
fences to be of uncertain location. Before the new fence, hedge or wall is erected, have a
redefinition of boundary done.
If you plan to construct a building, you should first contract your Commissioned

Surveyor. He should be the

first professional on the site. He should first redefine the boundaries, then verify that the level
referred to in the title is the same level you claim as your own. You may now require of him, a topographic
plan showing orientation, prevailing winds, etc. It should be noted that certificates of title do not always show exactly
the space available on earth, and to proceed with designs before the Surveyor is brought in, could
result in costly delays.
When large expenditure is being made for infrastructure and other engineering works, it is
imperative that the boundaries be redefined. Using a fence as a guide to approximate boundaries,
can have expensive consequences. The cost of redefining these boundaries is always an insignificant
fraction of the project cost and ensures against expensive litigation and compensation for
encroachments.