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No Property Survey? No Problem

By July 4, 2016No Comments

geo1Surveys are a critical part of the property purchasing process. While the immergence of title insurance has left some relying less on surveys – any person who buys a home really should get a copy of the survey.

Why? Surveys reveal a lot. Surveys are similar to a map that outlines a property’s boundaries and structures. A property survey will reveal improvements to the land where new structures have been added or where the size of the property itself has been increased.

Surveys are also important because they mitigate the likelihood of future disputes over land and boundary lines – this commonly occurs when the time comes to put a fence in or construct a garage. This is not to mention that a survey may reveal that a neighbour has a fence or building constructed on the property that is being sold or vice versa. This can become a costly exercise should it come up after the new owner has taken possession of the property. Your client also may benefit from a survey if they plan to construct new structures or build on the property because the survey will help them determine where they can and cannot legally build.

This brings us to our next point – zoning. Depending on how your client plans to use a property, the survey will reveal restrictions with regard to zoning. For example, what if your client has plans to put in a double garage but the property is not zoned for one, or perhaps your client plans to use part of their property for a business? A survey can reveal these restrictions which may pose problems later.

Finally, a property survey is one document that says what is what. In cases where two properties are sharing something like a driveway, for example, the survey will outline exactly how much of the shared element is located on the property being sold.

The challenge here is that, especially in cases of older properties, surveys can easily be misplaced or lost. Historically, when this occurs the next step is to have a new survey performed which is very costly and takes some time. No property survey? No problem. Well, not having a property survey is a problem, but a lost or stolen one no longer is.

Property surveys are available to you online. Can you imagine the value you can provide to your client when they cringe telling you they can’t find their survey – and your response is ‘not a problem!’ If a survey is available online for your property, the time to get it is greatly reduced because it is expedited electronically and the cost is also far less than requesting a whole new survey.

Don’t have a survey on hand? No problem. Grab one today from the GeoWarehouse Store: https://www.geowarehouse.ca/marketing/features.php#Premium-Services.