Calgary has a booming housing market, making it a hotspot for residents, investors, and property developers. Fortunately, if you are interested in buying a house or building properties, you can easily find survey companies in Calgary to help you with your projects.
When handling land or property, you should always start by finding a reliable partner to help you conduct your land surveys. Contrary to popular assumptions, these surveys are technical and complex. You need to research title deeds and historic surveys before starting the fieldwork. Even then, surveying requires proper skills and equipment to capture accurate data.
Overall, there remain many misconceptions about land surveying, so read more about them below to clarify some confusion about this critical process.
Land Surveys are Unnecessary
Many often think that they can skip the surveying step when buying, selling, or building properties in Calgary. However, working without a land survey would mean going in blind. If you do not know where your property lines start and end, you risk building something on the neighboring property and causing land disputes.
Alternatively, if you already had a land survey made before, you might think you no longer need to get a new one. However, many things can change over time. For example, even if you did not build any site improvements, physical elements like the soil, plants, and topography might have changed. Thus, getting a new land survey is still essential before any construction work.
Land Surveys are Priced Based on Parcel Size
Another popular misconception is that survey companies in Calgary charges a fixed rate for land surveys based on the parcel size. In reality, companies are more concerned about the project’s complexity. Some factors that can affect complexity include:
● Existence of historical surveys
● Quality of existing records
● Presence of fences, buildings, and other obstacles
● Topography and ground-level visibility
Fence Lines Mark the Property Lines Already
Many property owners in Calgary assume that fences or stakes serve as an accurate representation of their property’s boundary. However, this is highly misleading. Fences are easy and affordable to build, so people often just estimate where the boundary is and build their fences there, then move them around if needed.
You should not rely on fences to mark boundary lines since there is a high risk of error in doing this. Instead, the best way to verify your property’s boundaries will ultimately be to commission a professional land survey.
Neighbors Rarely Encroach on Other Properties
One of the main benefits of land surveys is identifying where your property lot starts and ends. Generally, this is important to ensure that you do not build on someone else’s property, especially since this can lead to legal issues.
Unfortunately, many assume that encroaching on neighboring properties is rare when it is more common than you may think. However, when dealing with something as valuable as land or property, it is always best to be sure to avoid more significant problems down the line. Thus, a land survey can prevent potential headaches from arising in the future.
Overall, land surveys are an excellent investment since they help you mitigate risk and make critical decisions on properties and construction projects. However, whether you intend to buy, sell, or build, the fact remains that you should know your plot of land properly before making any significant decision. By working with reliable survey companies in Calgary, you can achieve just that.
