Select a link below for answers to some of the frequently asked questions regarding serveying:

What is an ALTA Survey?
What is a Property Line or Boundary Survey?
What is the Cost of a Property Line Survey?
What is Property Line Document Research?
What is an As-Built Survey?
What is Registered Land?
What is a "Form A" Plan?
What is an Easement?

An ALTA Survey is the commonly used designation to describe an ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey. Such a survey is normally performed to provide assurance to a Title Insurance Company that there are no adverse matters affecting a property that a full Survey might reveal and is most commonly applied to commercial properties. Such adverse matters would include encroachments across property lines, evidence of use or rights-of-way upon or across a property by others that may not be noted in public records, and dimensional zoning violations. National standards for ALTA Surveys have been established entitled "2005 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys". These Standards are very specific with regards to the procedures and accuracies of the Survey and an ALTA Survey must conform to these Standards. In addition to the Minimum Requirements for an ALTA Survey, the Standards include a "Table A" which lists additional items that may be requested to be included in the Survey. Refer to Related Links for: "2005 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys".

A Property Line Survey and Boundary Line Survey are interchangeable terms for the same type of Survey in which the perimeter locations of a parcel of land are defined. All such Surveys must be performed in accordance with Commonwealth of Massachusetts Regulations (250 CMR 6.01) and must be performed under the direct supervision of a Massachusetts Licensed Professional Land Surveyor. All such Surveys are required to include property line related document research, survey field work, and analysis of record information as it relates to measured locations in the field and the determination of the Property Line location. Property corners may be marked and a plan of the land prepared and recorded in the Registry of Deeds.

There is usually some uncertainty as to the cost to complete a Property Line survey because there is no clearly defined formula to accurately pre-determine the cost of Property Line Survey of land. Each parcel of land is unique in its physical condition and in its record of ownership. Quite often a reasonable estimation of the cost of such a Survey may be made based on the size, accessibility, and terrain of a specific parcel of land especially if there is evidence of previous Surveys in the immediate area. However there are factors that can affect the cost of the Survey that may not become evident until the Survey is already underway. Such factors may include:

Normally an estimated cost for such a Survey is provided to the client by the Surveyor based on a professional opinion of the estimated level of effort and after the preliminary review of documents related to that property.

All Property Line Surveys must, by State Regulation, include Property Line related document research to properly evaluate all of the available evidence and information of record in order to properly determine property line locations. The extent of document research required for a particular Survey will vary depending upon the specific property but may include document research at the following sources:

An As-Built Survey is, as the name implies, a survey which determines the location of a constructed improvement. The most common type of As-Built Survey is a Foundation Location As-Built Survey in which the location of a constructed building foundation is surveyed and the location of the foundation is shown on a plan with the dimensions from the foundation to the property lines. Such a Survey and Plan is often relied upon by Municipal Building Inspection Departments to be assured that a structure under construction is located in conformance with applicable dimensional zoning setback regulations.

Simply put, Land Registration is a process through which, upon the land owner's application, the Massachusetts Land Court issues a Certificate of Title to the property owner warranting the ownership of the property to the owner. Land that has successfully completed this process of Registration is Registered Land. The initial land Registration process and any subsequent subdivision of Registered Land require that a Survey must be performed in strict accordance with the "Massachusetts Land Court 2006 Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Land and the Preparation of Plans". Some benefits of Land Registration include certainty of boundary locations and the inability for others to make claims of adverse possession against the property. A drawback of Land Registration is that the Survey of Registered Land, commonly referred to as a Land Court Survey, is often substantially more costly than the Survey of Un-Registered land. Refer to Related Links for: "Massachusetts Land Court 2006 Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Land and the Preparation of Plans".

The process of division of land in Massachusetts is based on Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 41, Section 81. A so-called "Form A" Plan of land is a plan of a survey that is prepared in order to divide land as described in Section 81P of the Subdivision Control Law that shows a division of property that utilizes frontage on an existing road without the creation of any new roadways. This type of land division is also commonly referred to as an "Approval Not Required Plan" or an "ANR". A Property Line Survey of the land to be divided must be performed and a Plan showing the proposed division of land is prepared by the Surveyor in accordance with Subdivision Control Law, municipality-specific regulations, and Registry of Deeds recording requirements. Upon endorsement of the Plan by the Municipal Planning Board the Plan is recorded in the County Registry of Deeds.

An Easement is a non-possessing interest held by one person in the land of another. In other words, one person (or persons) has the right to partial use of the land owned by another person for a specific purpose. Such Easements may include "Access Easements" and "Utility Easements" with some easements being temporary and others being perpetual.