We set boundaries: how to conduct land surveying

Recommendation points

• All pros and cons of land surveying
• How is land surveying carried out
• List of required documents
• How to reduce surveying costs
• What problems land owners may face

All pros and cons of land surveying

The essence of the land survey is to accurately determine the boundaries of the site and reflect them in the cadastral passport. At the moment, the legislation of the Russian Federation does not oblige the owner of the land to carry out this procedure. But in some cases, surveying may still be needed:

1. The owner of the land intends to divide the land plot for sale or inheritance. This cannot be done without surveying. It is impossible to divide a section that does not have clear defined boundaries.
2. There are fears that there will be disagreements with neighbors over borders. Every year Russian courts hear thousands of cases in the so-called “neighbor wars”. If people living in the neighborhood for years cannot agree on where the fence should be located, or through whose territory the gas pipe runs, land surveying is the best way out for them.
3. There is a potential for enlarging your plot. If there is free land in the neighborhood, the law allows you to “cut” it to your site. The area of ​​a possible cut-off is established by legislative acts of local authorities and depends on the intended purpose of the land (as a rule, 4-6 acres).
4. Sale of the plot is planned. Of course, it is not necessary to conduct surveying for sale yet. The main thing is to have a cadastral passport, which can now be obtained using a simplified procedure. But it is much more difficult to find buyers for a plot without clearly fixed boundaries..

There are only two arguments against carrying out land surveying – time and money spent. But for many people, they can be much more powerful than the benefits above..

How is land surveying carried out

The whole procedure can be divided into 9 stages:

1. There is a geodetic company that will work on defining and fixing the boundaries of the land.
2. The necessary package of documents is collected, the list of which can be obtained from the specialists of the geodetic company. The package of documents may vary depending on the presence or absence of buildings on the site, encumbrances and other nuances.
3. An agreement is signed with a geodetic company.
4. Surveyors are surveying the area. Boundaries, coordinates, area and other site data are set.
5. All data established during the survey are recorded in the border coordination act. This document must be signed by neighbors and the head of the local administration.
6. Additional documents are collected that are necessary for drawing up a land survey plan. For example, information about encumbrances (communication cables passing through the site, etc.). They are issued by the local Office of Architecture.
7. Surveyors make a boundary plan.
8. The boundary plan is submitted to the cadastral chamber.
9. Changes are made to the land registry, and then the cadastral chamber issues a new passport for the site.

List of required documents

Before contacting a geodetic company, you must collect the following package of documents:

1. The passport.
2. Power of attorney (if it is not the owner of the site who contacts the surveyors, but his representative).
3. Land title documents. Sale and purchase agreement, donation, certificate of inheritance of land – in a word, documents that show how the owner of the site received it into ownership.
4. Cadastral plan or cadastral extract for the site.
5. Cadastral documents for a house or other buildings on the site (if there are no buildings, you need to take an extract from the BTI, indicating this).

Note:a cadastral extract of the KV-1 form can be ordered online on the Rosreestr website. The cost of the service is 400 rubles, the term of issue is 5 days. A cadastral passport can also be ordered online on the Rosreestr website or at the local office of the cadastral chamber. Standard issue period – 5 days.

How to reduce surveying costs

The maximum price for the work of geodetic organizations for this service is set by local authorities. True, not all firms set tariffs within the limits established by law. For example, in Moscow, a full range of land surveying work can cost 30-40 thousand rubles.

But there are ways to cut down on your site boundary costs:

1. In many firms, the cost of services depends on the list of required work. For example, in one company that provides land surveying services in the Moscow region, the cost of obtaining an extract from the land registry is 2,000 rubles. As already written above, an application for this document can be filled out in 5 minutes on the Internet, and the fee will be only 400 rubles. The same company takes 10,000 rubles for notifying neighbors of the signing of the agreement. You can write to the neighbors that the signing of the act will take place on a certain date, and you can send messages by registered letters with notification yourself.
2. For owners of small plots, there is another option – to find firms that set tariffs for surveying depending on the number of acres.

What problems land owners may face

Neighbors were absent when signing the border agreement

In such cases, the owner of the land should not worry too much, because he himself or the survey companies will send messages to all interested parties about the time and date of signing the land survey report. If someone does not appear, this is noted in the act, the survey procedure carried out is considered preliminary and after a while is repeated. If these same persons do not appear again, this will already be their problem. Land surveying will be considered completed.

Neighbors refuse to sign the border agreement

But this is already a serious problem and the owner of the site has no choice but to go to court demanding to oblige the neighbors to agree on the boundaries of the site.

An error was made when drawing up the cadastral plan

Such cases are not uncommon. Errors can be technical and cadastral. Cadastral errors happen due to inaccurate information provided to the staff of the cadastral chambers.

A typical situation: a surveyor made a mistake and incorrectly defined the boundaries of the site. Accordingly, some boundaries are fixed in the boundary plan, but in reality they will be completely different. The plan was submitted to the cadastral chamber and on the basis of these data a cadastral passport was prepared, in which erroneous information about the borders was indicated.

In such situations, it is necessary to re-invite the cadastral engineer so that he takes repeated measurements and draws up the correct boundary plan. The owner of the plot will need to re-pay for the land surveying services. But he can file a claim in court for damages against the company, whose employees made a mistake. If the cadastral chamber refuses to do this, it is necessary to seek correction of the error through the court. Usually, a land survey is ordered, which determines whether a mistake was really made..

Technical mistakes happen due to the oversights of the cadastral chambers.

A common case: as a result of a clerk, the area of ​​the plot was incorrectly indicated in the cadastral passport.

In such cases, it is necessary to write a statement to the cadastral chamber to correct the error. It is reviewed within 5 days. If the cadastral chamber refused to correct the error, you must go to court. If the court takes the side of the owner of the site, it obliges the cadastral authorities to correct the error.

From 2018, the sale of land plots without clearly defined boundaries will be prohibited and most Russians will have to carry out this procedure anyway. And for sure in a few years the prices for surveying services will be much higher than the current ones. Therefore, it is not worth delaying the survey.