Providing Property Survey

When selling a house vendors are often requested by potential buyers to provide a property survey. Buyers need the survey to confirm the size of the property as well as the locations of fences and structures on the property (i.e., house, garage, sheds) are within the property boundaries.

A valid plan of survey is a schematic sketch showing the boundaries of a property, including fences, any structures and rights of way. A valid survey is prepared by an Ontario Land Surveyor who has physically examined the property.

As a seller you have to make sure you have a valid survey before agreeing to provide one. Sometimes sellers believe the document they have is a plan of survey, but when the closing arrives, it turns the document is not valid, and they must compensate the purchaser.

If you are unsure of validity of the survey on hand, you should check with your real estate lawyer before committing to providing one in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. In fact, you should discuss it with your realtor before listing the property for sale to avoid false representations.

The other option to avoid liability is to include wording “if any” in the survey clause, so it reads as the following: “The Seller agrees to provide, at the Seller’s own expense, an existing survey IF ANY of said property prior to closing.” This way if the survey you provide turns out to be not valid, you will not be on the hook to provide one on closing.

In today’s market, it is common to complete a house purchase without providing a survey, because one is not available. In most cases, title insurance protects the purchaser from defects that might not have been disclosed and the are discovered later with a new survey.