Partner is a coordinator of ALTA/NSPS Surveys (ALTA Survey), Boundary Surveys, and Topographic Surveys across the United States. We effectively facilitate the coordination of land surveyors and can manage single-site or multi-site projects. Our extensive network allows us the flexibility to engage a registered professional land surveyor with competitive pricing. With excellent project management and customer services, our coordinators ensure surveys meet consistent and high-quality standards nationwide. Partner coordinates all questions and comments from all stakeholders and furnishes reliable timely surveys all from one point of contact.
The ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is an essential tool for parties involved in a real estate transaction or a development project. The survey is used to determine and depict existing features of a property, including title boundaries, access to rights of ways, buildings, other improvements, easements, encroachments, water features, and other significant features.
An ALTA Survey can be thought of as an aerial snapshot of current existing conditions of the property, which shows all of the elements of the title commitment or preliminary title report of the subject property. The ALTA Survey will establish the boundary based on the title commitment’s legal description and may show the differences, if any, between the existing description and the ground survey. The survey may also create a new boundary in the case of a design survey for new development. The survey will also depict how survey-related exceptions to title affect the property. These are items that the title insurance will not cover and are found in Schedule B of the title commitment.
A set of standards governing ALTA surveys was developed by the American Land Title Association (ALTA) and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) to ensure the quality, consistency, and standards for certified land title surveys, so that title insurers could evaluate properties and provide adequate insurance coverage.
All ALTA Surveys must abide by the 2021 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys (The Standard). The Standard mandates the elements that the survey must cover at a minimum. The Standard also lists optional items that can be included at the client’s request, known as the “Table A Optional Items.”
You may need an ALTA Survey for any of the following reasons: as part of due diligence when a property is being transferred or refinanced; to satisfy the title insurer’s requirements for the issuance of ALTA Title Insurance coverage; to locate both recorded and non-recorded matters; to remove survey exceptions from a title commitment; to showing the potential risks and benefits from property ownership; to recognize complexed issues; and, to use the survey date as verification of actual matters.
For questions on the 2021 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys, please refer to the guidebook below, which provides helpful information and resources to those ordering and reviewing ALTA Surveys.
Are you working with a property that an ALTA Survey along does not provide a clear picture of? Are you ordering Table A items that call out for a zoning report? Partner can assist! Partner’s zoning reports are completed by our in-house zoning department with quick turnarounds and at very competitive rates.
