Your land is, most likely, the largest portion of your personal wealth. Without it, you would have no place to locate your home or business. To help protect this asset, you should know all you can about it. The value and marketability of your land is always increased by having it surveyed properly and the corners clearly marked or monumented.

What is a Land Survey?

A land survey is the process of finding, identifying, measuring and reporting the location of land features. These land features take the form of boundaries such as ownership, jurisdiction (zoning, township) and physical (water, elevation, soil).

When Should You Consult a Land Surveyor?

You should consider consulting a land surveyor before you buy land, before you sell land, before you do estate planning, before you build a house, build a road, drill a well, erect a fence, landscape, and before you develop a resource.

You may not own what you think you own.

Many elements of boundaries can complicate a survey. Vague, incomplete and contradictory legal descriptions, passed on through years, distort and confuse the intentions of the original owners of the property. Monuments, lost by careless handling, contribute to location uncertainties and to the surveyor’s difficulties in re establishing property lines. Previous subdivisions, done on paper without proper field measurements and monumentation, can lead to overlapping claims or gaps in ownership. These factors are quite often encountered and can have a significant impact on the cost of the survey and on the location of your land. In come cases, the surveyor will uncover boundary problems which may require legal action to resolve.

Why Do You Need a Survey?

Have you ever read a deed description that did not make sense to you? Do you know where you can find a copy of the deed to your land? Does it describe what you think you own? How many neighbors' names do you recognize in the description? Do you know if your land has ever been surveyed? Do you mistake the plot plan you received from the bank as an actual boundary survey when, in fact, it states that it is not? If you are puzzled by the answers to these questions, you need a survey. You need to know more about your land in order to make decisions about the use or disposition of it.

Land is usually the largest portion of a person's wealth, yet many people neglect to protect this asset. Boundaries become unclear without proper maintenance and can lead to disputes between neighbors. Buildings constructed too close to or over property lines result from unclear boundaries.

All these very expensive and often financially devastating problems can be avoided by having your land surveyed for substantially less cost than the cost of litigation and resulting damages. The cost of a survey is relatively small when compared to the value of your land and problems you avoid. You should have your land surveyed when you need to know where your boundaries are and whether the land characteristics such as slopes, drainage, and access will allow you to do what you intend to do. A survey helps to reveal the true value of a parcel of land by showing you how much of what you own is suitable for a particular purpose.

What Do You Do With A Survey?

A survey plan is the best tool for communicating what the surveyor has surveyed. A survey plan has many uses and there are different types of surveys for differing purposes. A survey can disclose title problems, recover lost monuments, reveal the true locations of property lines, assist you in making decisions regarding development, estate planning, legal action and resource management.

Who Does Surveys?

Only a person licensed as a land surveyor by the New Hampshire Board of Licensure for Land Surveyors is legally permitted to practice boundary surveying in New Hampshire. Other forms of surveying, relating to construction, but not concerning boundaries, may in some cases, be performed by some of the related professionals such as architects and engineers. But to ensure a quality survey is performed by someone completely qualified, it is best to first consult a licensed land surveyor.

How Do You Choose The Right Surveyor?

Ask questions. How much experience does the surveyor have performing this type of work? Has the surveyor done similar work in the past and is he/she familiar with the job's requirements? How much local knowledge does the surveyor have?

Is Your Land Surveyor a Member of a Professional Society?

The New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association provides its members with an extensive ongoing continuing education program to help them stay on top of the latest developments in surveying techniques, technology, and the law relating to land boundaries and land development. Its members subscribe to a code of ethics to assure high standards in the performance of their work. A list of NHLSA members and copies of the current ethics and standards are available by contacting the NHLSA at (603) 895 4822 or writing to:

   NHLSA
   P.O. Box 689
   Raymond, NH 03077
   or e mail us at: nhlsa.@nh.ultranet.com

How Long Will It Take and How Much Will It Cost?

The cost for most survey work is calculated on an hourly basis. Experience and local knowledge are important factors. Costs are also affected by the following:

Type of Survey
The type of data needed for each job may vary based on the availability of existing data and the final purpose of the survey.

Record Research
The number of past transactions, the quality of the descriptions, the number of parcels and abutting parcels involved all affect the amount of work required to complete the survey.

Physical Features of the Property
The size, shape, terrain, access and vegetation can vary the amount of work required to perform the field work for the survey.

Since all factors are not known at the start, particularly in the area of records research, it is not possible to predict an exact cost prior to a boundary survey. However, based on general experience, the surveyor can usually famish an estimate of the cost for a survey. In most cases, the field work accounts for less than half of the cost of a survey.

What Does the Land Surveyor do to Complete a Survey?

A land surveyor, like a detective, must find all the facts in order to make the right decision. This involves researching records, finding evidence in the field, accurately measuring between points on the ground, calculating the locations of existing and new points, evaluating evidence, deciding where boundaries are located, setting new permanent monuments, and drafting a plan showing the results of the survey. It is recommended that the original plan be filed in the Registry of Deeds to create a permanent legal record for you and subsequent owners.

Your Land Surveyor is a Valuable Resource of Information About Land and Its Uses

A land surveyor deals regularly with land information and records, so quite often has a large collection of information used in previous surveys, knows where to get the information you need, or can help you to determine what information you do need.

What Types of Surveys are There?P> Boundary
Construction
Topographic
Subdivision
Control
Court Exhibit
G.P.S.
A.L.T.A.
Mortgage
Septic System
Plot Plan
Flood Certification
Footing/Foundation Certification

Your surveyor will assist you in determining what type of survey you need for a particular situation.

Owners of land act as temporary stewards for the land. They cannot outlive the land and eventually must pass it on to future generations to use. Being responsible for the welfare of our future is what land ownership is all about.

Utilizing the Services of a Licensed Land Surveyor Published by The New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association P.O. Box 689, Raymond, NH 03077 0689

Affiliated with the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, New England Section and The National Society of Professional Surveyors.