Date of Plat or Map: _____ (Surveyor's signature, printed name and seal with Registration/License Number)

No other certification language will be allowed on the survey. In years past, many lenders or the property buyer's council would require a certification written by themselves or other parties. These certifications, in many cases, were contradictory acknowledgements to what was required in the ALTA Standards. Thus, ALTA / ACSM appear to be putting the kibosh on client-specific certifications.

Additional ALTA Survey Changes

The 2011 Minimum Standards document itself has changed significantly in presentation and format, making the Standards much more user friendly. Other significant changes generally expand or clarify requirements and responsibilities, including what is optional and what is required (and of whom).

Records Research: The “Records Research” section indicates an expansion of documents to be provided to the surveyor for his/her use in conducting the survey. In addition to the title commitment, and survey related documents noted in Schedule B of the commitment, the standards have now included adjoiner record descriptions, easements that benefit the parcel, and other information that may affect the parcel.

Plat Requirements: There are a few important changes concerning the information provided on the plat of survey. Now, a new property description should be discouraged unless completely necessary, and avoided for Lot and Block description or subdivisions. This is to avoid the possibility of a new description of the same property clouding title. The survey is now required to show title commitment number, effective date and the name of the title company. A vicinity map was an optional item in 2005 and is now required to be on every ALTA Survey.

Significant Table A Optional Items:

The 2011 standards have also made changes to the Table A “Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications” section that anyone ordering an ALTA Survey should be aware of. These options are not a standard requirement, but rather additional optional add-ons. These options have very specific wording, and one must use explicit care and consultation with the surveyor to determine the extent of the additional work, if the option is appropriate for the survey that you require, and if there is a significant extra cost associated with the requirement. Below are some of the more significant changes to this section.

Table A option 6a and 6b are current zoning class and other zoning requirements. The big change here is that these requirements must be provided by the insurer to the surveyor. The past standards required the surveyor to list the zoning requirements releasing the surveyor from plotting non-platted setbacks. These new standards indicate that the surveyor does not have to plot non-platted setbacks, and does not have to list zoning requirements if the zoning for the site is not provided to him by the insurer. If this item is going to be required for the survey, please order a zoning report or letter prior to ordering the survey, and provide the surveyor a copy.

Former item 10 (indication of a public Right-of Way access) is now required. The following items 10a and 10b are added.

10. _____ (a) Determination of the relationship and location of certain division or party walls designated by the client with respect to adjoining properties (client to obtain necessary permissions).

_____ (b) Determination of whether certain walls designated by the client are plumb (client to obtain necessary permissions).

Table A item 11b has added a clarifying sentence:

Note - With regard to Table A, item 11(b), source information from plans and markings will be combined with observed evidence of utilities to develop a view of those underground utilities. However, lacking excavation, the exact location of underground features cannot be accurately, completely and reliably depicted. Where additional or more detailed information is required, the client is advised that excavation may be necessary.

Table A item 19 is new:

19. _____ Location of wetland areas as delineated by appropriate authorities.

Mapping of the wetlands can only be shown if proper authorities have either staked out prior to conducting the survey or the surveyor has been provided with a wetland map of the property.

Table A item 20 is also new. This item can be very expensive to complete depending on the size and location of the appurtenant easement. Normally, an appurtenant easement that is added as part of the legal description is plotted on the survey with its corresponding bearing and distance labels if applicable, and it is done as part of the standard requirement. The improvements within the easement are not plotted. This optional item requires improvements to be located or monuments placed. These appurtenant easements can be of significant size, and because of that size, a significant cost. For example, you may have a 1 acre piece of land with a stand-alone building that is located in plaza. Many times there are reciprocal parking or ingress/egress easements offsite of your one acre, which you have the enjoyment of using that easement. If you checked Optional item 20a, all improvements located within the bounds of that easement would need to be located and plotted on the survey. The easement, like so many others is the reciprocal easement of the parking area of the plaza and the parking area of your stand alone building. The survey locations must now encompass all your 1 acre plus the additional 10 acres of the plaza.

20. _____ (a) Locate improvements within any offsite easements or servitudes benefitting the surveyed property that are disclosed in the Record Documents provided to the surveyor and that are observed in the process of conducting the survey (client to obtain necessary permissions).

_____ (b) Monuments placed (or a reference monument or witness to the corner) at all major corners of any offsite easements or servitudes benefitting the surveyed property and disclosed in Record Documents provided to the surveyor (client to obtain necessary permissions).

Other ALTA Changes

Below are some other arguably less significant changes to the ALTA standards:

Terminology: The 2011 standards have some changes in terminology throughout the document. It now uses the term “surveyed property” in lieu of the 2005 references to “the property”, the 'Parcel”' and the “Tract”. Standards now use the term “Observed” in the process of conducting the survey” instead of wording like “visible”, “observable”, and “Physical”.

Scope of Work: In Section 2, 2011 standards, “Request for Survey” the standards give rise to clarification about scope of work for properties such as marinas, campgrounds, trailer parks, and leased areas. It is noted that these properties may present different types of issues than other types of properties and the surveyor will need to discuss such occurrences.

Standards of Care: “Surveying Standards and Standards of Care” the topic of Section 3, has added a paragraph about normal standards of care. It should be recognized that surveyor's should understand that there may be unwritten local, State, or regional standards. ALTA has also now stated that the boundary resolution is governed by and in accordance with appropriate boundary law principals. Finally, in this section, measurement standards have been expanded on to let all know about “Relative Positional Precision” and how this precision is to be obtained.

Field Work: In Section 5 of the 2011 requirements, the field work will be expanded to include any apparent right-of-way and access across the property from other non-occupants of the property. If the property has a naturally occurring water feature that represents a boundary, the water feature's attribute, such as top of bank or centerline of channel, shall be noted and surveyed if called for in the record description.

Additional Table A Changes:

Table A, Item 2, is now changed from a vicinity map to a new item. This new item is an option to include “address (es) if disclosed in record documents, or observed while conducting the survey.”

Optional Item 5 has been re-worded and adds the phrase “originating benchmark identified.”

The optional item in Table A 7b has been modified. The “gross floor area of all buildings” has been deleted, and what used to be 7b3 in 2005 requirements, is now 7b2 in the 2011 requirements.

Table A item 12 added some examples of governmental agency survey related requirements such as HUD surveys, and surveys for leases on Bureau of Land Management managed lands.

Removed references to HUD for Table A items 16, 17, and 18.

Table A item 21 is also new and the amount of insurance that is requested will need to be filled in the requesting party.

Questions?

Feel free to give me a call with any questions on the new standards. 800-419-4923.