A Cadastral survey is a detailed land surveying of the boundaries and metes of a given country. A large number of countries have undertaken Cadastral Surveys to record their land boundaries and to allow easy access by legal professionals for boundary disputes, land ownership, and land boundaries among others. This allows a layperson to see exactly what a land boundary is according to a country’s civil law and to understand what is an easement, a public right of way or a private landowner’s right to occupy the land. It also gives the public an idea of how much a particular land or area is worth, and this is essential in selling or buying land or properties.
Most people think of a cadastral survey as a purely administrative task whereby land is surveyed to find out the boundaries of properties. However, a cadastral survey can also be a lot more complex. For example, a town or city may want to know how many times a street has been altered since it was last surveyed so that they can plan future road improvements accordingly. If planning permission is needed then the town or city will need to apply for an addition to the current civil law land survey to enable them to do so.
Also civil law areas may require a survey to find out if there are any underground utilities that may affect the marketability of a home or block of flats. If planning permission is required for any structural changes then added to a civil survey could be vital to avoid future problems with planning applications. “The absence of defects in the record chain of title and freedom from encumbrances are major factors upon which the marketability of a land title is generally considered to depend. Such encumbrances and defects remain a clog on the title and an impediment to its marketability,” says a marketing representative at Geoinfotech Nigeria.
Geoinfotech Nigeria, further believes that, a properly executed cadastral survey can add value to land marketability in the following ways;
- It confirms the genuineness of the land or building.
- Eligible access to insurance plans.
- It grants security to land in terms of grappling and such land or building has rights to compensation in case of government’s policies and decisions. People value security in Landed properties and as such, the key factor to its marketability is assurance that the property won’t be revoked or hijacked from them.
Fred Aboagye-Larbi, Managing Director at BEACON SURVEY LIMITED, states that, “The accuracy of cadastral survey increases the confidence in the document covering the land or property.”
Additionally, when planning a building project, or altering or extending an existing one to make it more efficient, or perhaps to increase its marketable value, a cadastral survey is essential for giving the planner an accurate idea of how the property would look before construction, and this knowledge could help with the approval procedure.
According to Geoinfotech, a parcel of land remain unmarketable so long as encumbrances and defects in the record system are evident, even though the person having an interest in such land may be totally ignorant of the existence of such right. The company further points out other marketability factors which may include; access to road network and other social amenities, Proximity to development, Land use category (urban or rural settlement, industrial land use, residential land use, administrative land use) etc., personality of the land marketer of or seller in terms of reliability, trustworthiness and presentation.
There are two different kinds of cadastral surveys: traditional and modern. The traditional survey is still used by a number of voluntary organizations and government bodies. One major advantage of these traditional cadastral surveys is that they enable the organization or government body to establish the boundaries of areas of land whether the boundaries change because of new developments, or boundaries are shifted due to natural geological phenomena. Another important advantage is that these surveys are usually not particularly costly and tend to produce very accurate results. Modern cadastral surveys are less accurate and produce more random results; however they are much more expensive than traditional ones.
“Traditional cadastral surveys are executed with traditional survey equipment like theodolites and tapes or with total stations whilst the modern cadastral surveys are executed with modern equipment like GPS,GNSS,drones etc,” says Fred Aboagye-Larbi.
“The rapid rate at which advances in technology are occurring have outpaced the ability of many individuals and organizations to react quickly and appropriately to change. It will take years to fully understand the impact of emerging technology on the land surveying profession. The differences are basically advancements in; Methods and techniques, Equipment, Data collection and presentation, Data storage and retrieval system. The field of land surveying and mapping have benefited from technology innovations in personal computers, digital instruments, global navigational satellite positioning system (GNSS), geographic information system to name just a few. New tools for rapid acquisition of measured data are continually being developed and refined, and the Internet has provided the means to share such data with people worldwide,” elaborates Geoinfotech.
“New technology has not changed the boundary surveyors’ core responsibility, which is to locate, mark, and document the boundary in a legally defensible matter, for their clients, all future owners of real property, and interests in real property adjoining the boundary. Nonetheless, the global positioning system and computers have changed the way land surveyors measure, analyze, and calculate data. Land owners and land managers have turned to geographic information systems to make complex ecological and economic decisions. The increased need for better tools to manage complex issues in land matters has spawned to the realization and adoption of modern cadastral surveying over the traditional methods of rigorous, time consuming and outdated operations,” enhances Geoinfotech.
There are some problems associated with non-removable types of boundary surveys. Because of removable walls do not shift; it is difficult to determine where a boundary should be moved when new buildings are built on the boundary. In some cases an accurate survey may still be required, but in these cases it is usually possible to simply dig a trench around the boundary to define the exact position of the boundary. In addition to this other problems include access to the land and the cost involved in raising the land to the required level for the surveyor.
There are also problems associated with the traditional cadastral surveys. Landowners often find that changes to their land ownership boundaries can mean they will need to get a new survey in order to mark the new boundary. This can result in extra costs and a lengthy process; therefore it is necessary to ensure that the boundary surveyor you choose has sufficient experience and expertise in relation to your land ownership boundaries and can produce the results you require quickly and efficiently. If your boundary surveyor cannot produce the correct results then there is a good chance you will need a new one.
