ALTA/ACSM Question

Question:

I have a question that’s been bugging me, especially lately.  I have been getting Table A’s recently from some clients who are checking off items 20a and 20b.  I have been doing ALTA’s for years, but only recently have I been getting these items checked off.

I have spoken to several of my colleagues about it, particularly about 20b.  I get a different take on what needs to be done from everyone I talk to.

Can you tell me what your thoughts are regarding 20b?  I cannot get my head around what the limits of this might be, where do you stop?  And what is meant by the term “monument?”  I wonder if Lenders & Attorneys really understand what this means?

For reference, Table A, Item 20 reads as follows:

(a) Locate improvements within any offsite easements or servitudes benefitting the surveyed property that are disclosed in the Record Documents provided to the surveyor and that are observed in the process of conducting the survey (client to obtain necessary permissions). 

(b) Monuments placed (or a reference monument or witness to the corner) at all major corners of any offsite easements or servitudes benefitting the surveyed property and disclosed in Record Documents provided to the surveyor (client to obtain necessary permissions).

Response:

First and foremost it is important to remember that whether, and to what extent, any initially requested Table A items are to be addressed is to be negotiated between the responsible party (person/entity purchasing the survey) and the surveyor. The responsible party may very well be influenced by others (title company/attorney/etc.) regarding whether or not a particular Table A item is in fact desired/needed. Whether or not “lenders & attorneys really understand what is intended” by Table A items is a hard question to answer. It seems that often Table A items are initially requested, but dropped once the magnitude of the effort/cost to provide them is understood.

A key phrase here is “record documents provided to the surveyor”. This means that the surveyor is not required to exhaustively search out such documents during record research to collect boundary determination evidence.

20(a) is intended to basically treat (survey) off-site easements as if they were a fee parcel - locating improvements therein like fences, drives, observed evidence of utilities, etc.  But only within off-site easements that have been identified in documents provided to the surveyor.

20 (b) deals with setting a physical marker (iron pin/stake/etc., whatever is negotiated) at the major corners/break points along any easement/servitude that is “disclosed in the Record Documents”. A reason Item 20 (b) may be desired is to find out the physical limits of the easement or servitude.

The “client to obtain necessary permissions” phrase of course means the responsible party is to obtain permission (preferably written permission) from the owner for the surveyor to enter the offsite property upon which an easement or servitude lies.