The procedure for land surveying: methodology and stages

Author of the article

Elena Nikolaevna Karpova

Reading time: 6 minutes

To do land surveying, you need to contact a specialist. He will carry out all boundary work and prepare the necessary documents. But this does not mean that the customer should not delve into the essence of the process. Knowledge of the land surveying procedure, even in general terms, will definitely come in handy. An informed customer will be able to choose the best specialist, refuse unnecessary work and check whether the contractor has prepared all the necessary documents. To find out the procedure for land surveying, you can read our article. It discusses all the basic rules and stages of land surveying, as well as its difficulties.

How is land surveying done?

First, let's understand the basic concepts:

Land surveying is a whole range of services for establishing the boundaries of land plots both on the ground and in legal papers.
Such services can be provided by land surveying companies, whose services are provided by cadastral engineers or specialists who provide services as individual entrepreneurs. These are specialists with specialized higher education and significant experience in this field. That's not all: a candidate for cadastral engineers must pass an exam and join a professional association of such specialists - SRO.
Cadastral engineers in their activities rely on a special law and guidelines. There is also a whole series of explanations and letters from Rosreestr on the topic of land surveying, which does not make sense to list here.

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Rules and procedure for land surveying

All these norms are enshrined in the legal acts listed above.

In order for a cadastral engineer to begin organizing land surveying, you need:

Conclude an agreement with him, if he is an entrepreneur, or with the company where he works.
Create a task for an engineer. It indicates the entire list of work that needs to be performed.

In the process of his work, the specialist must comply with the following basic rules:

Act strictly in accordance with laws and other legal acts;
Work within the limits defined by the task (do not expand), and discuss all additional actions with the customer (in case he refuses);
Observe safety precautions during work;
Coordinate established boundaries with adjacent neighbors;
Do not accept false documents from the customer for work;
Other rules arising from the law.

The procedure for land surveying is enshrined in methodological guidelines and special instructions for surveying work.

The cadastral engineer must carry out all actions sequentially, starting with preparation, visiting the site and coordinating boundaries with neighbors and ending with the preparation of a boundary plan with land management.

Methods for surveying land management objects

In fact, this is a purely professional area.
How exactly should a specialist determine the boundaries of a site and establish its exact coordinates? He can make measurements of these boundaries using :

satellite receivers;
light range finders (these are tools for calculating distances between two objects, from the location of the device itself to the place where the beam emanating from it is reflected);
photogrammetric instruments;
theodolites (this is a device for measuring angles);
and other technical means.

In order to then mark these boundaries on the map with coordinate points, and in relation to already established boundary landmarks, you can use different methods provided for by the land management rules:

assistance from satellite devices;
cartometry (calculate using existing maps);
triangulation (a network of adjacent triangles is created on the map, and coordinates are specified using them);
photogrammetry (when a 3D model is created from photographs of one object from different angles);
other scientifically based techniques.

In principle, surveyors should use several methods at once in one job. This way the most accurate result will be obtained, and the permissible error during surveying will be reduced to a minimum. This means that it will be almost impossible to challenge it.

What kind of work does a cadastral engineer carry out?

To clarify the boundary of a land plot, an engineer, in addition to collecting documents, must first go to the site and take measurements. That is, obtain the coordinates of characteristic points of the surrounding fences or pegs (if the site is not fenced), which were installed by the owner. More information about geodetic work carried out on the site can be found here.

Once the field work has been completed and the actual boundaries have been established, the engineer processes the measurements and prepares the interplane. If necessary, a boundary approval act is prepared, which is signed with adjacent neighbors (including municipal or state lands) and is confirmation that your site does not affect other people’s boundaries. Requirements for approval are specified in Article 39-40 of Federal Law-221 (we recommend that you read it).

Typically, the approval procedure is carried out by the owner of the land plot. Our company can take on these hassles by providing you with agency services. Essentially this is a type of real estate service. We can also submit an application with a boundary plan to the Rosreestr body and receive a certificate from the Registration Chamber.

What is the procedure for land surveying with neighbors?

Before drawing up an assignment for survey work, the surveyor must find out what the reason for the survey is, and whether the customer has contacts of adjacent neighbors. The participation of neighbors in the process of establishing boundaries is mandatory. Otherwise, the meaning of the whole procedure is lost. After all, neighbors can declare their disagreement with the result after the survey and cancel them, since they did not have the opportunity to state their claims.

But the customer has the right to carry out this part of the work himself: to notify the neighbors and invite them to inspect the site to draw up an act on the approval of its boundaries. This way, land surveying will cost a little less; this should be discussed immediately when concluding an agreement with a specialist.

Stages of land surveying

All actions of a cadastral engineer can be divided into the following main stages::

Preparing for land surveying . At this stage, the surveyor collects all the papers for the site, both those that the customer has and those that are in the registry office. Documents are studied in detail in advance and compared with data from cadastral maps. A specialist can even go to this area and inspect it and the surrounding areas in advance, take measurements, look for the nearest boundary signs and other landmarks. In addition, at this moment, contacts of all neighbors whose interests may be affected during the land surveying process are sought.
Then a technical plan is drawn up . It can be called a draft of the future boundary plan. This is not the final project; changes and clarifications will be made to it in the next stages.
An important stage is sending out notices to all adjacent neighbors . Notification may be made by mail or delivered in person. In this way, the specialist invites subcontractors on a specific day and time to inspect and approve the boundaries. Naturally, people should receive such notification in advance, at least a week in advance. However, if adjacent contractors deliberately ignore notices of upcoming work, then land surveying without the consent of neighbors becomes possible.
On that very appointed day, the customer, neighbors and the surveyor himself gather at the site . The latter once again inspects the area, boundary signs, listens to adjacent neighbors if they have objections, and draws up an act of approval of boundaries. If everyone is happy and there are no contradictions, then all neighbors confirm their agreement with a signature in this act. And the established boundaries, if necessary, are marked with boundary signs (poles). If there is a dispute and it cannot be resolved on the spot, then the disputants will have to go to court and resolve the conflict there.
The surveyor then begins the calculations . The complex of boundary works includes determining the coordinates of already agreed boundaries and calculating the area of the site taking into account these boundaries. Methods for calculating coordinates are described above.
Finally, the specialist begins to draw up a boundary plan for the site itself or simply a plan for its boundaries (depending on the task). This is the final document, it also contains a drawing of the site with scale, south-north direction, description of adjacent areas, area and other information.
In conclusion, the surveyor must create a file in which all the documents that were used in the process of work and were prepared by the contractor himself are filed. The customer receives one copy, the second is sent to Rosreestr.

It is important to know that the plan cannot contain corrections, additions or deletions. This is practically a “clean copy”; everything in it should be perfect, without blemishes.

Documentation

The main papers that the customer of boundary work should receive are::

Boundary plan (map) - an image of a site with boundaries and adjacencies, containing a descriptive part with basic information about the site and boundaries;
Boundary approval act , which contains the signatures of all neighbors or indicates their absence or refusal to participate.

Surveyors must use several methods at once in one job.

With these papers, the land owner has the opportunity to further register the plot or enter into various agreements (sales or donations) in relation to it.

Timing and cost

If you are planning to survey your site, be prepared in advance for the fact that this process may not take place quickly.
Objectively, all this does not happen instantly; the contractor needs time to collect documents, calculate and formalize all the results. Not to mention the need to gather all the neighbors in one place and at one time. If someone does not show up, they will have to be notified again and wait thirty days for a response or appearance. In general, it will take approximately one to one and a half months to complete the entire procedure. But this period may increase if unforeseen situations arise (absence of neighbors, their disagreement, etc.).

As for the cost, it depends on the characteristics of the site itself, the presence/absence of documents for it and the region of the country in which it is located. The price is also affected by the amount of work required. It was already noted above that the price can be reduced by notifying neighbors. Read more about how much land surveying costs right here.

Typically, the cost of boundary work varies from 2 to 50 thousand rubles.

What documents are needed for this procedure?

There is no exact list as such. In fact, you need all the documents that you have for the land plot. And title deeds, and title deeds, and address orders and much more. In each individual case, a different package of documents is required depending on the basis for which you are using the land, the type of permitted use, and the location, finally. It's no secret, for example, that the Moscow rules differ in many ways from those in the rest of the country. The composition and execution of documents in the Moscow region for registration in the cadastre also has a number of subtleties. The main feature is that all lands owned by the city of Moscow are specified only in accordance with the order of the Department of City Property DGI (formerly the Department of Land Resources-DZR). This applies primarily to tenants who need to get their land documentation in order.

It often happens that some documents just need to be ordered from the archive or obtained from the chairman of the SNT, for example. Therefore, first of all, we recommend that you contact our company and consult about your particular case. Don’t be lazy and don’t be afraid to ask and clarify - this will save a lot of time and often money.

All documents have one thing in common - to draw up a plan, you need color scans with a resolution of at least 300 dpi and a quality that allows you to clearly read the document.

Cost and timing of interplan preparation

Prices for this type of cadastral work depend quite heavily on the location of the land plot. The closer to Moscow, the cheaper. This is due to lower transport costs and the development of the state geodetic network. The further from Moscow, the rarer the surviving geodetic points are. In Moscow itself, the cost of work is higher than in the Moscow region, due to the difference in requirements for the preparation of documents.

Our services will not be much cheaper for you than those of other decent and well-established companies, because high-quality and responsible work in the cadastral field should not and cannot cost very little.

To have a rough idea of our pricing policy, click on the button:

Prices of our services

The time frame for preparing a boundary plan can vary greatly. But if all documents are collected and verified, cadastral information is received, our specialists will carry out field measurements within 2-4 days (if there are no complaints from neighbors). Preparation of the document itself will take about 2-3 days, excluding approval time. In total, the processing time usually does not exceed 2-3 weeks (if there are no delays on the part of the customer).

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Land Surveyor LLC For you!

In some areas of the Moscow region, services for drawing up a boundary plan are somewhat cheaper. This is due to lower transport costs. Here is their list: Leninsky, Lyuberetsky, Kotelniki, Dzerzhinsky, Domodedovo, Ramensky, Zheleznodorozhny, Balashikha, Noginsky, Odintsovo, Podolsky, Podolsk, Klimovsk, Krasnogorsky. Check the price by calling 8-903-253-35-84, Ilya.