Survey Inspections

When buyers are heading into contract to purchase real property in New York, it’s important to ask the seller if they have an existing survey because a contract of sale typically does not obligate a seller to provide one.

What Is A Survey

Before we even dive into survey inspections, let’s make sure we start at the beginning by identify the purpose of land survey: a survey establishes accurate property boundaries and documents existing site conditions, providing the essential legal and technical foundation for development, permits, and resolving boundary‑related issues.

In plain English, a survey is a document that maps out the borders of the lot being sold and further identifies where the structures sit within the lot, the location of fences (and whether they are within driving distance of the actual lot line), whether there are any easements on the property, encroachments, etc.

What Is A Survey Inspection

So what’s a survey inspection? It’s kind of an informal inspection that is used to identify if there any current conditions at the lot being sold are not identified on the existing survey.

Here’s a good example. A buyer has signed a contract of sale for the purchase of a single family property in Somers, New York. The seller’s attorney emailed a copy of a survey to the buyer’s attorney (that would be our office, of course). The document is quite clear and easy to read but shows the survey was conducted about twenty five years ago in 2001.

At this point, our office would provide a copy of the survey to the buyer with the following: “Dear Buyer. Please have a look at the existing survey dated 2001. Because you have been to the property, please let us know if the attached appears accurate. Are there any fences near the property lines that are not shown on the attached survey? Are there any sheds or other minor structures on the property now that are not on the survey? If so, you should consider asking the title company to perform a survey inspection. They usually cost about $150 (as compared to ~$2,000 for a new survey) and will identify whether there are any issues with the lot which the seller is obligated to cure before closing.”

In other words, when a buyer orders a survey inspection, the title company will usually send a representative to the property to visually inspect the lot as compared to the existing survey to get a rough idea if there are any conditions not identified on the survey which would be defined as a matter the seller is obligated to address according to the contract of sale.

What Should You Do

• A contract of sale does not obligate a seller to provide a survey;

• If you are buying and obtaining a mortgage loan, your lender will typically not require a survey unless you are applying a VA or FHA loan;

• If the seller provides an existing survey, review it to identify whether there have been any major changes to the lot based on its current condition;

• If there does appear to be any issues you want to have further investigated, consider investing in a survey inspection which is likely to identify any lot line issues which the seller will likely have to cure before closing; and,

• If there is no existing survey, you do not need to incur the expense of a new survey BUT the only way to identify issues which the seller will likely have to cure is by having a new survey conducted.

I hope that helps. If you have questions, please give us a ring at 914-359-5455.