Obtaining a Surveyors Real Property Report (SRPR) may be the most important thing you do before you close the deal on any purchase. Only a survey plan made by a licensed surveyor can legally define what you have purchased. Your surveyor will undertake the necessary research, survey the property and prepare a complete survey plan. Your survey gives you legal protection and clarifies what you've bought. It resolves any causes for legal dispute due to any potential encroachments or other irregularities on your property. If no up-to-date survey exists for the property you wish to buy, you should make it a condition of purchase that one is provided for you.

You may have to provide your buyer with an up-to-date survey of your property in order to:
• Give your buyer confidence in the purchase
• Allow the buyer to register the transaction at the Land Registry Office
• Enable your buyer to make mortgage arrangements
• Verify the size and extent of your property to your buyer
• Avoid legal disputes arising from inadequate or inaccurate property descriptions

Copies of most available surveys can be found online at Land Survey Records Inc. Alternatively you may fill in a contact form or call us at the office 416-467-8023 or 416-252-2511.

Title insurance is a form of insurance that was first sold in the United States to protect property owners and mortgages against loss through adverse claims or hidden interests in their properties. Title insurance, however, does not provide any information about the property to an owner or lender. Any problems that may have been revealed by a survey are instead passed on to the purchaser or lender, to be resolved by them at some later date.

In Canada, the orderly opening of the land for development, and the subsequent evolution of our Land Registry systems, have provided security of tenure through reliable documentation of land ownership and of interests in land. Canadians have traditionally relied upon surveys of the properties they were about to purchase to reveal information about the property that was not available solely through the title records.

Title Insurance is not a replacement for a survey. In fact, most Title Insurance policies do not cover items such as fences or retaining walls encroaching onto your or your neighbour’s property that would have been shown on your SRPR.

Title insurance may well have a place in real estate transactions, especially those involving complicated land assemblies and financing. It should be viewed as complimentary to the traditional process of investigation of quality and extent of title, rather than as an alternative.

You need to protect your investment by making sure you are building on your own property. Before you build, be sure to have a licensed surveyor determine your property boundaries, replacing missing stakes if necessary. Having a surveyor mark the location of your building on site BEFORE construction begins will ensure that you meet setback requirements and other restrictions enforced by the municipality in their zoning By-Laws. Failure to comply with these By-Laws may result in the loss of a future sale if the purchasers have an up-to-date survey done. Mortgage lenders generally do not advance money until By-Law infringements are cleared up.

According to provincial law, only surveys made by licensed Ontario Land Surveyors are legal. Only members of The Association of Ontario Land Surveyors have completed the academic requirements and practical training before licensing. Only Association members are required to maintain the necessary theoretical, practical and ethical standards set by legislation and the profession.

State of the art data collectors are used in the field and all projects are processed in digital format. Land Survey Group has the capacity to house more than two terabytes of memory for projects in the works and all data is double backed up and stored off site for safety.