Recently a large law firm that is a great client requested an ALTA survey. That firm was representing the seller in the transaction. He sent me the Table A options that the buyer's lawyer had requested: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7a, 7b1, 7c, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13. So I get the survey done and emailed it off and my client comes back with a certification that the buyers attorney suddenly decided I needed to fill out. Here it is:
I, _______________, a ____________, duly registered and licensed in the State of [______], do hereby certify to ______________________ (“_________”), having an office at ________________, for the benefit of ________________________, a Delaware corporation, as agent for itself and other lenders from time to time, _____________ (“Title Insurance Company”), and together with each of their respective subsidiaries, successors and/or assigns, that this plat of survey represents a true and correct ALTA/ASCM survey made by me on _________________, 20__, of the following described property: _________(Insert Legal Description)_____
The undersigned further certifies to all listed parties that:
a) this land survey plat has been prepared based upon field work conducted on the property shown hereon, performed by me or under by direct supervision on _______, ____, 20__;
b) the description of property shown hereon conforms to the description shown in the commitment for title insurance, Application No. ___________, issued by _________ Title Insurance Company, dated ____________, and such description closes by engineering calculation;
c) this survey plat correctly shows the locations and dimensions of all boundaries of the property, and all visible buildings, structures and other improvements, building setback lines, party walls, ditches, flood plains, waterways, bodies of water, any discharge into streams, rivers or other conveyance system, all visible storm drainage systems for the collection and disposal of all roof and surface drainage, fences, easements as listed in said title commitment, rights-of-way, utilities serving said property (to include all utility services required for the operation of the premises either enter the premises through adjoining public streets, or the Survey shows the point of entry and location of any utilities that pass through or are located on adjoining land), streets, alleys, roadways, curbs, gutters, driveways, curb cuts, parking stalls, loading docks, traveled ways, and other significant visible items located on, adjacent to, appurtenant to or which affects the subject property, and are discoverable upon visual inspection, or otherwise known to me;
d) the subject property is zoned _______________ and, except as noted on the survey, the property, improvements and current use of such property are in compliance with all rules and requirements applicable under such zoning designation, including, without limitation, the maximum height of improvements, all setback requirements and the minimum number of parking spaces;
e) all information shown hereon is true, correct, and complete;
f) no portion of the said property shown hereon lies within the one hundred year flood plain or any area subject to special flood hazards as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Property lies within Zone [___] of the Flood Insurance Rate Map identified as Community Panel No. ________________, bearing an effective date of ______________________.
g) except as shown on the survey plat, there are no visible or recorded easements or rights of way across said property or any other easements or rights of way of which the undersigned has been advised, no party walls, no encroachments on the adjoining property, easements, streets or alleys by any of said buildings, structures or other improvements, and no encroachments on said property by buildings, structures or other improvements situated on adjoining property;
h) no covenants, restrictions, or easements that are of record, discoverable upon visual inspection, or otherwise known to me appear to have been violated in any respect;
i) this survey plat correctly shows (i) the courses and measured distances of the exterior property lines of the property and any easements located on or affecting the property; (ii) the dimensions of all improvements on the property at ground surface level and the distance therefrom to the nearest facing exterior property lines of the property; and (iii) the scale, the north direction, the beginning point, the distance to the nearest intersecting street and point of reference from which the property is measured, the width of any field map to which reference is made in the legal description of the property together with the filing date of such map, and an accurate reference to the real estate records of _________________ County, ________________, identifying all easements of record crossing or affecting the property;
j) all streets abutting the property and all means of ingress and egress for the property have been completed, dedicated and accepted for public maintenance by the City/County of _____________________; the Property has direct physical access to _______________________ street, a public street of highway;
k) the subject property contains _______________ square feet and ________ striped parking stalls with ____________ stalls designated for handicapped use and _______ designated for regular use.
l) except as shown on the survey plat, there are no building setback lines; and
m) this map or plat and the survey on which it is based were made in accordance with “Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys,” jointly established and adopted by ALTA and NSPS in 2005 and includes Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7(a), 8, 9, 10, 11(a), 11(b), 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18 and, to the extent necessary to determine compliance with applicable zoning requirements, items 7(b) and 7(c) of Table A, “Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications,” specifically defined therein. Pursuant to the Accuracy Standards as adopted by ALTA and NSPS and in effect on the date of this certification, the undersigned further certifies that, in my professional opinion, as a land surveyor registered in the State of Florida, the Relative Positional Accuracy of this survey does not exceed that which is specified therein.
Well, I told my client that I would have to review the certification to make sure I wasn't getting hung on anything. I inserted my comments in red. Well, after I got done, there was more red on that dude than there was at Gettysburg. I sent it to my client explaining to him that I REALLY wanted to use the standard certification. He forwarded it and later asked if I could email the survey with the standard. I told him that I already had. He then told me to send him the hard copies along with the bill. The end.
Good job!
We ought to have a contest to see how many things we can find wrong with it. I know I missed several, but I didn't care. I was only needed to find enough to make my point, because I wasn't going to sign it anyway.
no covenants
have been violated!
You have got to be kidding!
And buy the way-where would the plat go after putting that thing on it?
I didn't even catch the thing about the covenants.
You know, I'm wondering if they didn't know that thing was BS, but thought, "what the heck".
and unfortunately you spent a lot of time and money that will never be paid to you in red-lining this cert, thats why we make the big bucks !
Keep a electronic version of this so you can just pull relavent sections for the next idiot cert (most are close to the same)
> and unfortunately you spent a lot of time and money that will never be paid to you in red-lining this cert, thats why we make the big bucks !
>
> Keep a electronic version of this so you can just pull relavent sections for the next idiot cert (most are close to the same)
Not, really. I spent about 30 minutes. Yes, I'd rather be doing something else, but that 30 minutes isn't going to sink the project.
Wow, I'm impressed, that would take me at least half a day to respond to.
For what it's worth, here's what I sent them. Once again, I'm sure I missed several things, but that's ok, I just wanted to make my point.
Survey Certification
I, ________________________, a ___________________________, duly registered and licensed in the State of [______], do hereby certify to ______________________ (“_________”), having an office at ________________, for the benefit of ___________, a Delaware corporation, as agent for itself and other lenders from time to time, _____________ (“Title Insurance Company”), and together with each of their respective subsidiaries, successors and/or assigns, that this plat of survey represents a true and correct ALTA/ASCM survey made by me on _________________, 20__, of the following described property: _________(Insert Legal Description)_____
The undersigned further certifies to all listed parties that:
a) this land survey plat has been prepared based upon field work conducted on the property shown hereon, performed by me or under by direct supervision on _______, ____, 20__; (This is already addressed on the survey)b) the description of property shown hereon conforms to the description shown in the commitment for title insurance, Application No. ___________, issued by _________ Title Insurance Company, dated ____________, and such description closes by engineering calculation; (This is already addressed on the survey)
c) this survey plat correctly shows the locations and dimensions of all boundaries of the property, and all visible buildings, structures and other improvements, building setback lines, party walls, ditches, flood plains, waterways, bodies of water, any discharge into streams, rivers or other conveyance system, all visible storm drainage systems for the collection and disposal of all roof and surface drainage, (All of the runoff ends up in the Tennessee River. I am assuming I am not being asked to survey the path the runoff takes to get to the river) fences, easements as listed in said title commitment, rights-of-way, utilities serving said property (to include all utility services required for the operation of the premises either enter the premises through adjoining public streets, (Not part of my scope of work. I have no idea what utilities are required for the operation of this property, and only optional item 11a was requested, which is utilities located by observed evidence. Therefore, I have no idea what utilities are present beyond those that have above ground features, such as meter covers, valve covers, manholes and power poles.) or the Survey shows the point of entry and location of any utilities that pass through or are located on adjoining land), streets, alleys, roadways, curbs, gutters, driveways, curb cuts, parking stalls, loading docks, traveled ways (I can’t certify to this either. Some fellow may have a prescriptive easement by walking across the corner of this lot for the last 30 years) , and other significant visible items located on, adjacent to, appurtenant to or which affects the subject property, and are discoverable upon visual inspection, or otherwise known to me;
d) the subject property is zoned _______________ and, except as noted on the survey, the property, improvements and current use of such property are in compliance with all rules and requirements applicable under such zoning designation, including, without limitation, the maximum height of improvements, all setback requirements and the minimum number of parking spaces; I am not qualified to state that this property is in compliance with all zoning laws.
e) all information shown hereon is true, correct, and complete; I cannot certify that this information is so. I believe it to be so, but I will sign no certification stating that it is true, correct and complete.
f) no portion of the said property shown hereon lies within the one hundred year flood plain or any area subject to special flood hazards as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Property lies within Zone [___] of the Flood Insurance Rate Map identified as Community Panel No. ________________, bearing an effective date of ______________________. This statement is already on the survey, with the exception that FEMA no longer calls it a 100 year floodplain.
g) except as shown on the survey plat, there are no visible or recorded easements (I will not certify as to what is, or is not recorded, I didn’t do a title search) or rights of way across said property or any other easements or rights of way of which the undersigned has been advised, no party walls, no encroachments on the adjoining property (There may be underground encroachments I am unaware of), easements, streets or alleys by any of said buildings, structures or other improvements, and no encroachments on said property by buildings, structures or other improvements situated on adjoining property;
h) no covenants, restrictions, or easements that are of record, discoverable upon visual inspection, or otherwise known to me appear to have been violated in any respect; Once again, I didn’t do a title search, so I don’t know what is and is not of record.
i) this survey plat correctly shows (i) the courses and measured distances of the exterior property lines of the property and any easements located on or affecting the property; (ii) the dimensions of all improvements on the property at ground surface level and the distance therefrom to the nearest facing exterior property lines of the property; and (iii) the scale, the north direction, the beginning point, the distance to the nearest intersecting street and point of reference from which the property is measured, the width of any field map to which reference is made in the legal description of the property together with the filing date of such map, (I have no idea what this statement means) and an accurate reference to the real estate records of _________________ County, ________________, identifying all easements of record crossing or affecting the property; (We’re back to this again. I didn’t do the title search, I’m not holding myself responsible for anything that the Title Commitment did not reference.)
j) all streets abutting the property and all means of ingress and egress for the property have been completed, dedicated and accepted for public maintenance by the City/County of _____________________; the Property has direct physical access to _______________________ street, a public street of highway;
k) the subject property contains _______________ square feet and ________ striped parking stalls with ____________ stalls designated for handicapped use and _______ designated for regular use.
l) except as shown on the survey plat, there are no building setback lines; and
m) this map or plat and the survey on which it is based were made in accordance with “Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys,” jointly established and adopted by ALTA and NSPS in 2005 and includes Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7(a), 8, 9, 10, 11(a), 11(b), 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18 (the original request from XXXX did not include items 1, 5, 11b, 14, 16, 17 and 18.) and, to the extent necessary to determine compliance with applicable zoning requirements, items 7(b) and 7(c) of Table A, “Optional Survey Responsibilities and Specifications,” specifically defined therein. Pursuant to the Accuracy Standards as adopted by ALTA and NSPS and in effect on the date of this certification, the undersigned further certifies that, in my professional opinion, as a land surveyor registered in the State of Florida, the Relative Positional Accuracy of this survey does not exceed that which is specified therein.
In closing, there are many items in this certification that I cannot certify. I would prefer to use the standard certification as formulated to the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors.
Thanks for sharing your comments.
Around here we would get a bad fax and the first thing I would do is type it up in Word, (fat fingures go slow) then go through and make pretty much the same comments.
I have no idea what this statement means
I was thinking the same thing when I looked at it!
He forgot to have you certify that there are no laws being broken or codes being violated on the property.
> He forgot to have you certify that there are no laws being broken or codes being violated on the property.
"And I hereby certify that the value of the premises surveyed is at least as great as that set forth in the appraisal report upon which the parties to this transaction are relying."
"the width of any field map"
What the heck is that? Has anyone ever seen that before?
That paragraph is full of landmines: "dimensions of all improvements" What do they consider an improvement? "width of field map" has got to be missing some words. Maybe it was supposed to say "width of roads shown on any filed map" or something like that.
"I hereby certify that if any toilet on the premises backs up I will be there within 30 minutes with a plunger"
I guess he's trying to find out if the field map was 18"x24" or 11"x17" or something else. Good for you for saying no and taking some time to educate the lawyer. Are there really surveyors that sign those kinds of Certs?
Fortunately, this BS will end on Feb. 23, when the new ALTA Standards become effective.
I don't think it will. I think that these attorneys will start ordering ALTA-like surveys and demand you use their certification. Someone will still do whatever the attorneys as for.
Look at a statement by a lawyer, or one he/she wrote up for a client. They're full of fine print, disclaimers and exceptions; and they want you to certify to the world.
Perhaps tell them that they obviously left out a few words, and procede to make the bogus statements read like exceptions and disclaimers.
"The surveyor hereon, does not warrant setbacks, restrictions, covenants, etc. Please see your lawyer about these items and make him certify them."
"The surveyor hereon, cannot locate underground utilities unless they are visible. The surveyor can only measure what s/he sees".
"The surveyor did not dig up all of the foundations and locate them but only visible evidence. Please have an excavator dig up and expose the foundations (while he is digging up those utilities you want certified to) for an accurate location."
"The surveyor is not an expert in environmental hazards and/or wetlands please have environmental issues evaluated by an environmentalist"
"The surveyor is not a structural engineer, and even a structural engineer won't certify to anything they didn't design and build".
etc. etc. (Okay, poor wording, I just made it up as I typed but you get my drift.)
How about this:
This survey is subject to what a true and accurate survey would show.
