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| 1. What is a land survey? |
| A land survey is a report in the form of a map showing the location of a parcel of real property. The map will also show the location of visible improvements on and adjacent to the property. |
| 2. Why are land surveys so important? |
| Prior to the closing on your new home purchase, a land survey provides important information to you as the buyer. The survey map will show the limits of the land you are purchasing and identify any conflicts in your deed. It will also allow you to see if improvements such as driveways, fences, wells or even dwellings encroach over the property lines. Any existing property corner markers found by the surveyor will also be shown on the map. |
| 3. How is a land survey performed? |
| The land surveyor's responsibility is to locate on the ground the boundaries of the land described in the deed. The surveyor also examines and maps various visible and apparent man-made and natural features as required for the purpose of the survey. Recorded deeds and maps are investigated along with the information and documentation supplied to the surveyor by the owner or title company. Additionally, extensive data gathering is preformed at and around the site. |
| 4. Why have I been asked if I want property markers set? |
| In the course of performing a survey in New Jersey, State law requires that a land surveyor place permanent markers at all property corners where none currently exist. You may sign a written waiver instructing the surveyor to omit this work. |
| 5. Why should I not waive the marking of property corners? |
| Boundary lines shown on a survey map of the property may be difficult to locate accurately on the ground without markers denoting the corners of the property. Placing markers helps to avoid future disputes and enables you to identify the physical location of your property. |
| 6. Who can do a land survey? |
| In New Jersey a land survey may only be performed and signed by a licensed Professional Land Surveyor. |
| 7. What is required to become a Professional Land Surveyor? |
| To meet the qualifications for licensure in New Jersey, an individual must have a four year college degree in Surveying, three years or more of practical experience, and pass a 16 hour written examination administered by the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. Once licensed, the Professional Land Surveyor must obtain 24 hours of continuing education credits every two years to maintain active status. |
| 8. How does a land survey help identify title to property? |
| Land surveys identify the record title lines of your property. The survey map shows the limits of the land that you are purchasing. A land survey certified to you provides critical information which, when used with title insurance, allows the buyer to make informed decisions and negotiate with the seller to correct and defects prior to the purchase. A land survey prepared for you and certified to you and to your title company affords important protection against claims which may arise after the closing. |
| 9. What is title insurance and how does a land survey expand its coverage? |
Title insurance protects the mortgage lender and the property owner (if insured) against claims to the property such as a disputed property boundary line. Most mortgage lenders require the home buyer to purchase a title insurance policy in the lender's name. This is called a Lender's policy.
Title insurance policies do not provide coverage for encroachments, easements and boundary line disputes which would be disclosed by a current certified survey. This is known as the Survey Exception. Mortgage lenders routinely require a Survey Endorsement to their loan policies which limits the scope of the Survey Exception to the specific problems disclosed by the survey. In other words, a Survey Endorsement provides coverage against possible undiscovered problems involving encroachments, easements and boundary line disputes.
To protect yourselves as home buyers you should insist on an Owner's Policy with a Survey Endorsement based on a professionally prepared current land survey. |
| 10. What can you do to protect the investment in you home? |
| Buying a home is usually the single largest purchase you will ever make! It makes sound financial sense as well as good common sense to protect this important asset. A land survey prepared by a licensed Profession Land Surveyor is a cornerstone of protection and preservation of home ownership. Remember, a lender's Policy protects the bank but not the homeowner. As you make the major investment of purchasing a home you should insist on an Owner's Policy of Title Insurance with the Survey Endorsement and a current land survey certified to you. |
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Prepared for the consumers by
The New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors
PO Box 101
Cream Ridge, NJ 08514
With the cooperation of the NJ Land Title Association |
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More and more often, professionals in both the private sector and municipal government are using the expression "GIS'. When they do, GIS is described using words like "essential", "the way of the future", and even "critical". But what is GIS? How can it be used? How do we make the best use of it? The following questions and answers focus on the fundamentals of GIS and the important role that the professional land surveyor plays in its development.
| 1. What is GIS? |
| GIS is an acronym that stands for "Geographic Information System." GIS is a computer system used for mapping. But GIS provides much more efficient and effective methods for storing maps and land-related data than traditional manual mapping methods. Virtually anything that can be drawn on a map can be stored in a GIS. However, unlike traditional hard copy maps, GIS not only stores the linework usually found on maps, like roads and tax parcel boundaries, but can also access information about these map features, like speed limits and parcel owner names. |
| 2. What are the benefits of GIS? |
| There are many, but these are a few of the more important benefits of GIS:
Better Organization and Security. Traditional hard copy maps are often lost, misplaced, or misfiled. Because the GIS is a central computer database of all map data. it is consistently available to all users.
Increased Efficiency. Municipalities have always had several sets of hard copy maps with varying themes, scales, and levels of detail. Much of the information is duplicated from one set to another. They are usually updated at different times, so one set may be current while another is out-of-date. But a GIS contains only one set of each type of map data theme, eliminating redundant data. Still, all GIS users have access to all of this map data across their computer network. And, when a revision is made in the GIS database, all users immediately have access to the most current data. Moreover, revisions can be made to GIS map data in a fraction of the time required to update hard copy maps. Simply finding map information is much easier and faster.
Data Is Easier to Search and Analyze. Map users often ask questions like, "What is in this area'?" "What is nearby'?" and "What areas have both of these characteristics?" To answer them with hard copy maps, they must visually compare map sheets of different scales and themes. A GIS user can ask these questions and quickly see the answers on the computer screen. In fact, new types of studies become easy to do that weren't even feasible before. Moreover, because map linework and its attribute data are linked together, the GIS user need only point to a map feature to see its attributes. Likewise, the GIS can highlight map features whose attributes meet specified criteria.
Greater Flexibility. While traditional hard copy maps are "static," GIS can produce maps on the computer screen or on paper at any scale, covering any area, at any level of detail, and in any combination of mapping themes.
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| 3. How can a municipality use GIS? |
| GIS can be an important tool for all organizations that deal with assets, people, or operations that are spread over some area. This includes local, county, state and federal governments as well as utility companies, and corporations. Considering that roughly 80% of the information produced and used by local governments has a geographic component, obviously GIS can play an important role for local governments. Here are some of the more popular uses.
Tax Mapping. GIS can store tax parcels and link them to real estate files containing tax parcel data. The parcel identification number makes this linkage possible, even though the data may be in different computer systems. Government employees and citizens have faster, more convenient access to tax parcel mapping., Likewise, periodic tax reassessments can be done more quickly and at less expense using, the power of GIS map displays. When a municipality contracts for revaluation each municipal tax assessment map must be reapproved by the Division of Taxation. Digital tax maps that are also the parcel-mapping base in a GIS can easily and quickly be updated for this purpose.
Planning and Land Use. The GIS database can include zoning and land-use plan boundaries. Planning studies can be done much faster, and a variety of custom maps, reports, and presentation materials for public hearings can be produced with relatively little effort. For example, the GIS can quickly answer the question, "Where are all vacant parcels larger than one acre and zoned for commercial use?"
School Voter Districting. A school board can use GIS to plan new schools or consider school consolidation. The GIS can quickly determine the distribution of school-age children throughout the town or report the number of students that live within a given distance of a potential school site. Likewise, a registrar can use GIS to analyze voting districts, playing "what if" games to arrive at an even distribution of voters with a fraction of the effort that was required in the past.
Engineering and Public Works. A public utilities department can use GIS to help manage water and sewer systems, public rights-of-way, and public facilities, as well as the routing of solid waste pickups, meter reading, and public buses. GIS can be linked to land surveying and engineering design systems for even greater efficiencies.
Environmental Management. The GIS can consolidate a wide variety of natural, historical, archaeological, and environmental mapping information to speed the development of impact assessments and planning studies.
Emergency Response. GIS can be used as part of a computer aided dispatch system. When a "911" call is received by this system, the GIS automatically displays a map pinpointing the caller's location. Likewise the GIS can help define police precincts and fire call boxes, or locate a new fire station to provide adequate service throughout the community.
Drug Free Zones. Drug free zones that surround schools, libraries and other public and recreational properties can easily be mapped with GIS. Public officials and the Law Enforcement community can now have accurate and up to date information concerning the boundaries of these zones.
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| 4. What is the role of the professional land surveyor in GIS ? |
Professional land surveyors play an important role in developing and maintaining a GIS. To begin with, New Jersey law requires that all municipal tax maps be completed by professional land surveyors. Moreover, the effectiveness of a GIS depends in very large part on an accurate "base map" (roads, buildings, drainage, topography, etc.) All other GIS map themes, including tax parcels, utilities, land use and zoning, political boundaries, and so forth, are literally "built" on top of the base map. Therefore, these other GIS data themes can be no more accurate than the base map. Land surveyors can establish an accurate "ground control network" that is used to calibrate the aerial photographs from which the base map is created.
Surveyors can also convert the data from hard copy maps (including tax parcels, zoning and land use, utilities, etc.) to the GIS database. Many land surveyors can provide expert advice and consultation in the planning, implementation, and maintenance of the GIS hardware and software.
Land surveyors are, by their training and experience, the professionals who are most knowledgeable about these areas. Because of this, surveyors can ensure the precision and reliability of GIS data, providing realistic and documented accuracy assessments. The involvement of professional land surveyor can reduce liability and potential damages caused by the use of bad data or the misuse of good data.
While planners, engineers, assessors, environmental scientists, statisticians, utility managers and others are experts in their respective fields, land surveyors arc experts at creating, representing and manipulating the land related data that forms the very foundation of a GIS. |
| 5. What should I remember about professional land surveyors and GIS? |
| Many people think that if a map comes from a computer it must be right, but this is not necessarily true. Accurate computer maps require accurate data in the computer. Professional land surveyors are trained to ascertain accurate data for precision mapping. For many organizations, the accuracy of their GIS data is constrained by funding, schedules, data availability, skills, priorities, and other factors. It should not be constrained by knowledge. Professional land surveyors are knowledgeable about GIS, and trained in mapping. They can help ensure the accuracy of the largest portion of a municipality's investment in GIS, its database. |
| 6. Where can I find out more about GIS? |
| Contact the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors at :
PO Box 101
Cream Ridge, NJ 08514
1-800-853-LAND |
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Need more information?
Contact the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors at :
PO Box 101
Cream Ridge, NJ 08514
1-800-853-LAND
To send us an email, click here.
| © 2007 - NJSPLS - New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors |
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