Boundary Survey White Paper

Q: Why is it so expensive & time-consuming to verify a land boundary?
A: It's a natural question. Many landowners ask us:

• Why does land survey work cost what it does?
• Why am I being quoted a different price than my neighbor paid for their survey?
• If I ask for the same survey many months from now, why is the price different?
• Why is your price different from another land surveyor for the same project?
• I know where my corners are; all I need is a map for the city/county approval. Can't you just come out and make a survey map for me?

 What a Boundary Survey by a licensed surveyor does is verify two things:

1. What your boundary is.
2. Where your boundary is.

Confusing? Yes! The two are not always the same. WHAT your boundary is most often is defined by a legal description (your deed). WHERE your boundary is on the ground is determined by a licensed surveyor in the field.

Our Process

PRE-FIELD: Before we even go to the field, we do these things:

1. Courthouse research. This is online, but sometimes in-person land research is also needed.
2. A title report may be requested from the surveyor. This will show any encumbrances or old easements of record that may not necessarily show up in a modern-day online courthouse search.
3. Verification of the land boundaries on paper, prior to field work.
4. Verification of current zoning.
5. Verification of FEMA floodplain or waterways info: is your parcel if in a sensitive floodplain area, or near a creek, stream, pond or lake? Special considerations come into play.
6. If in acreage parcels (county lands vs. platted subdivisions), we send postal mail notification to adjacent landowners that the field crew will be on site.
7. If your parcel is adjacent to a state or federal highway or railroad, additional online or in-person research will be needed.

FIELD Crew Work

1. The field crew goes on site to search for boundary monument evidence. We survey not just YOUR parcel, but all the parcels that are adjacent to yours. In county lands, this can add quite a bit of cost to a survey. If boundary evidence is scant, we search ever more outward.
   1. Section Corner monuments are often the first thing we look for.
   2. In Platted Subdivisions, sometimes street centerline monuments are in place, in which case we start with these. If street centerline monuments are not in place, we start with section corners. (More time)
   3. We look for metal rebar with surveyors identifying caps. Sometimes the cap is old & gone & it's just a rebar. Wood lath are a 'witness' post that something may be there.
   4. Fences, especially if they are very old, may (or may not!) be considered "lines of occupation" and may be construed as a boundary monument. (However, in some cases, a fence is just a 'fence of convenience", e.g. to keep livestock in an area). Landowners must be interviewed to determine when fences were installed & for what purpose!
   5. Buildings can sometimes be boundary evidence! If a building, shed, etc. is built on or near a calculated boundary line, certain aspects of law may come into play.
   6. Utah state law says surveyors must use 5/8" diameter rebar with an identifying cap when set & also record a boundary survey map with the county recorder. We use these recorded maps to reconcile (as best we can) the found evidence on the ground with when it was set & by which surveyor.

OFFICE Work (post-field)

1. We look at the found evidence & do our best to reconcile that with where the boundary is on paper.
2. If there is not enough field evidence to find the correct answer in the office, we go back to the field & look outward until we find enough boundary evidence to feel confident in our survey.
3. If a Boundary buts up against other parcels that overlap or have gaps between the parcels, there may be more than the usual work needed to resolve any boundary discrepancies.
4. We prepare a CAD drawing & paper map. We meet with you to discuss what we found and go over your final Boundary Map.
5. We record the Boundary Survey map at the County Recorder. This is Utah State law. Even if we do not set a single boundary item of our own, we must record our map, so other landowners & surveyors are on public notice of WHAT we found and WHEN. This is per Utah State Code; Title 17, Chapter 23 – 17. These maps are of record forever. One cannot "un-record" a survey map.

One thing we'll never do is lower our standards or cut corners to save money or push projects to the point where the survey is not exactly what the client, the architect, engineer or government entity needs. There is no "speeding up" a good survey. And it our professional duty to perform out work with AT LEAST the minimum standard of care, for surveys of your type, in the locale in which your parcel lies.

Costs of doing business vary by company. We do a wider boundary search than some firms. Their work is not correct! (We're all licensed and so have a certain standard of care.) But we've found that doing a deeper dive on your project now pays dividends years down the road.