Title officers · Attorneys · Engineers · Contractors · Owners
What to send your surveyor
The first request decides how fast a proposal comes back and how close it is. These are the documents and facts that let a surveyor scope the work without a second round of questions.
Email them to seth@scaleandkey.com. If you start with the request form, send the documents by email afterward. Seth Kursel, PLS (Idaho license 1181318) reads every request.
01Every request
- Site address and county
- Assessor parcel number
- Who the client is and who authorizes the work
- What the survey is for: sale, loan, design, construction, a dispute
- The date it is needed and what sets that date
- Site contact and how to get on the property
02Title officers and attorneys
- Current title commitment with Schedule A and Schedule B
- Legible copies of each recorded Schedule B document, and of any recorded easement that benefits the property
- Vesting deed and the record legal description
- For an ALTA/NSPS survey, the Table A items requested
- Names to appear in the certification
- Any prior survey in the file
03Engineers and architects
- Limits of the survey marked on an aerial or site plan
- Horizontal and vertical datum required
- Contour interval and features to locate
- CAD template, layer standard, and software version
- Whether a boundary is needed or topography only
04Contractors
- Current plan set and the sheet revision in force
- The engineer's CAD files and control, if released
- What is to be staked, and the offsets you want
- The schedule by phase and notice you can give
- Site superintendent contact
Property owners
If you own the land.
- Your deed, or the address and parcel number if you cannot find it
- Any earlier survey, plat, or map you were given at closing
- What prompted the survey: a fence, a build, a sale, a question from a neighbor
- Which corners or lines matter to you
- Anything you know about old markers on the property
Why it matters
A complete request gets a firm proposal.
Most of the uncertainty in a survey fee is in the record. With the deed, the commitment, and any prior survey in hand, the research can be scoped before the proposal is written. See what drives a survey fee.