Land Surveying

Land Surveying Comprises of determination of the

location of land boundaries and the drawing of plats

Portraying the subdivision of tracts to smaller
parcels.

 It also includes the preparation and interpretation

of land descriptions for incorporation in leases,

deeds and other legal instruments or documents.

Land surveying deals with the measurement,

establishment and description of boundaries of real
property (land).
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 ….cont’d
A land survey boundary is a line of
demarcation between adjoining tracts of land.

A boundary land between privately owned

parcels of land is called property line.

property surveying can be said to be

synonymous to land surveying.

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 ….cont’d
 Land surveys are made for one of the following

purposes:

To re-establish the boundaries of a section of

land,

To subdivide a tract of land in to smaller parts,

Locating described boundaries on the ground,

To Obtain data for deed description,

To calculate areas.

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 Kinds of land Surveys
In general all land surveys are classified

in two broad categories;

Original survey and

Resurvey

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 Original Surveys
When a tract of land has not been surveyed

previously or when a new parcel is creating on

a given tract of land is called original survey.

Such surveys, frequently termed, as sub divisions

survey.

1) It is executed to define the size, shape and

relative location of a tract of land.

2) The general boundaries of this land are

evidenced by occupancy and use.
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 Original Surveys
3) Closed traverse is run and corners are marked
and monumented

4) Preparing description of the property the

length and bearings of the boundaries are
determined

5) Original surveys also done or executed to

create new parcels of land from a given tract

6. Subdivision survey is made to subdivide a

piece of land according to the plan 6
 Resurvey
A resurvey is a reconstruction of land boundaries and

subdivisions accomplished by re-running and re-

marking the lines represented in the field- note record
of a previous official survey.

 Resurvey is done to establish the boundaries of tract

of land for which the survey has been previously made

or done.

 The surveyor is guided by the description of the property

based on the original survey.

 The description may be in the form of original survey

wrote, old deed or plan which has length and bearing. 7

 ….cont’d
 Such retracement survey tracts back to the source are

essential before transferring the legal ownership land

from one person or one part of another.

 Resurvey are very necessary in case of urban survey to

ensure that weather there are any encouragement up

on the property from building or structures on the
adjoining tracts.

 Resurvey of very good quality can be very difficult and time

consuming.

 Some times in the evaluation about the same line location

between two equally proficient and licensed surveyor can

lead to different conclusion.
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 Problem faced for land surveyors
One of the advantages of resurveying is that

to solve the disputes over land boundaries of

two or more ownerships ; but the surveyor
may face many problems to relocating
boundaries because of the following things:

oIncomplete data on the feature and on the deed.

oMissing monuments on the ground.

oConflict claims by adjoining property land owners.

oInaccurate original measurement.

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 ….Cont;d
Therefore in order to solve the problem the

land surveyor should have:

Considerable experience in particular

locality.

He/ She should have other rough study of

the pertaining to the subject.

The surveyor should have value knowledge

and skill to research and to investigation.

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 Types of Resurvey
a)Dependent Resurvey

b)Independent Resurvey

Dependent Resurvey:-the term “dependent” with term “resurvey”

is for emphasis and specifically suggest the recovery and restoration

of the prior official survey.

The dependent resurvey is designed to restore the original

conditions of the official survey according to the record.

 It is based

1. up on identified original corners and other acceptable points of

control, and

2. up on the restoration of lost corners by proportionate

measurement in harmony with the record of the original survey.
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 ….cont’d
Independent Resurvey :-is an establishment of

new section lines, and often-new township lines

without reference to the corners of the original
survey.

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 Scope of land Survey
 Land surveys differ in setting, purpose and

complexity of the procedural principles.

 Any land survey comprises of three basic

steps:

 Preliminary study

 Field survey

 Preparation of plat and deed description

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Preliminary study: - It involves the collection,

study and interpretation of all available data of

record including old-field notes, subdivision
maps, descriptions of adjoining parcels, legal
documents and other information.

When a surveyor is given a private service, the

above steps should be preceded by a conference

with the client to know the nature and extent of
work desired and estimation of cost

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 Field survey:-The field survey operation
comprises:

a. Search for monuments

b. The delineation of boundary lines

c. The location of encroachments if any

d. The execution of measurements and others

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 In general, while searching for any kind of

property marker the land surveyor should be

required to:

 Know the procedures used in the original survey

 Have original survey notes, plats, and the records

of most recent surveys in the vicinity of the

obliterated corners.

 Exercise good judgment and reasoning in

discovering evidences pertaining to the lost
corners.
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The kinds of evidences that may be used to

restore a corner especially in rural regions

include:

 The corner itself

 Accessories

 Fences

 Living witness

 Aerial photographs

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Preparation of deed descriptions:-The plat is

a special form of map portraying the tract

boundaries.

It also depicts other information essential to

the description and identification of the

property.

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 Survey for deeds
 It will helpful to summarize the general procedure

of making a land survey.

 A parcel of land either rural or urban is to be

conveyed and a deed description is needed.

 The procedure is somewhat as follow: -

1. The description of the tract to be surveyed and of

adjacent tracts are obtained and carefully examined.

2. The corners of the tract to be sold are established

by re survey is necessary.
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 ….cont’d
3. A resurvey of the tract is made to obtain the
following data a) The length of each side of
parcel

b) The angle of each corner.

c) The kind and position of accessories at each

corner.

d) Calculated bearing of each side, referred

e) The names of adjacent owner.

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 ….cont’d
4. from this data the area is calculated, a plate is
drawn, and a new description Written.

The plate is generally will show the

following:-

a) The length of each side.

b) The angle at each corner

c) The calculated area of the tract

d) The kind of marker set and reference to

the accessory at each corner
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 ….cont’d
e) The name of adjacent property owner.

f) The position of buildings, road, sidewalk etc.

g) A title and meridian.

h) A description of the property lines.

i) A surveyor’s certificate.

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Interpretation of deed description

 In making land survey the surveyor must refer

to the deed description.

 This in many cases faulty because of omission

of essential data or because of conflicting calls.

 Court decisions have established a few general rules,

which should govern the surveyor in making

interpretations.

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Interpretation of deed description
 The best interpretation is that which most plainly and

completely gives effect to the intentions of the parties to the

deed as revealed by all of the evidence available.

 As regards conflicts between the calls a description, the order

of precedence is as follow.

a) A natural corner or boundary, such as tree or a stream will

stand against an artificial boundary such as stakes, stones or
fence.

b) An artificial corner or boundary, it can be identified will stand

against other conflicting calls to direction distance or area.


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 ….cont’d
c) The corner or line of an adjoining, if it can be
definitely identified will control over calls for
directions or distance.

d) In case there is a conflict between the boundary

dimensions and the calculated area, the former will
prevail over the later assuming of course that the
boundary dimensions are consistent with the
evidence as to the corner monuments.

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 ….cont’d
 If description is faulty by reason of any
obvious error or omission of essential data,
the attempt is made to render it valid rather
than void thus, if a dimension is incorrect by
a full tape length, or if the length or bearing
of one side of a field has been omited.

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 ….cont’d
 If two interpretations are possible, the one

that favours the purchaser will be taken.

 Some difficulties encountered in retracing old

boundary lines are due to.

a) Faulty original measurements.

b) Indefinite point of beginning.

c) Indefinite meridian.

d) Obliterated corner.
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 ….cont’d
e) Inadequate description

f) Enmity between adjacent property owners.

g) In ability to traverse along boundaries.

h) Error in transcribing data from filed book.

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THANK YOU

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