ALTA/NSPS Surveys

What is an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey?

An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a detailed boundary survey prepared to a single national specification rather than to state minimum requirements alone. The controlling document is the 2021 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for Land Title Surveys, adopted jointly by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors and effective February 23, 2021. Older paperwork sometimes still calls it an ALTA/ACSM survey, after the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, the body that NSPS succeeded as ALTA's partner on the standard. The research and field measurement go well beyond a residential boundary survey, because the finished drawing has to satisfy a title underwriter and a commercial lender, not just the property owner.

The reason a commercial deal orders one is title insurance. A title commitment normally carries a general exception for any matter that an accurate survey and inspection of the property would disclose, which leaves encroachments, gaps, overlaps and unrecorded easements sitting outside the policy. Once a licensed surveyor maps the boundary, the improvements, the easements listed in the commitment and any visible encroachments, the title insurer has the evidence it needs to remove that general exception or replace it with narrow, specific exceptions. That is survey coverage, and on a commercial land survey in Georgia it is usually the outcome the lender is actually paying for.

The base standard is fixed, but the scope is not. Table A is the optional items list that the client, lender or title company selects from before fieldwork begins. Commonly requested categories include topography and contours, observed and record utility locations, parking space counts and striping, zoning and setback detail drawn from a zoning report, and flood zone notation taken from current FEMA mapping. Table A items drive how much field and office work the survey requires, so we confirm the selections in writing at the start instead of discovering them at review. If your lender or underwriter has not issued a Table A list yet, we can walk through the usual selections with you.

An ALTA survey is ordered by whichever party needs the certainty: the lender underwriting the loan, the title company issuing the policy, the buyer performing due diligence, or the closing attorney assembling the file. The certification printed on the face of the drawing names those parties, so we confirm who needs to be certified before the final sheet is plotted. If you want a plain-language walkthrough before you order, read our explainer on what an ALTA survey is. S&S Land Surveying handles ALTA survey work throughout Polk, Floyd, Bartow, Paulding, Carroll, Haralson, Douglas and Gordon counties, and across the wider Northwest Georgia and metro Atlanta region.

Who Needs an ALTA Survey?

• Buyers purchasing commercial property, from retail and office to industrial sites and raw acreage
• Owners refinancing a commercial property, where the lender is re-underwriting the collateral
• Title insurance policies that require survey coverage before the general survey exception can be removed
• Lenders that make a current ALTA/NSPS land title survey a condition of closing
• Developers running due diligence on a site before committing to a purchase or an entitlement process
• Tenants and landlords negotiating leases on large commercial space, where the demised area and access matter

Our ALTA Survey Process

1. Review the title commitment. We read the title commitment and the recorded documents listed in Schedule B, then confirm the Table A selections in writing with you, your lender and the title company, so the scope is settled before a crew mobilizes.
2. Research the records. We pull deeds, recorded plats, easements, rights of way and adjoining parcel records from county courthouse and tax records to reconstruct the boundary and account for every document referenced in the commitment.
3. Complete the field survey. Our crew recovers existing monuments, measures the boundary, and locates improvements, visible utilities, encroachments, access points and whatever else the agreed Table A items call for.
4. Prepare the drawing. We resolve the boundary, plot the record easements against what was found on the ground, and draft the survey to the 2021 ALTA/NSPS standard with the surveyor's signed and sealed certification naming the parties who rely on it.
5. Deliver to the title company and lender. The finished survey goes to you, the title company and the lender, and we respond to underwriter comments so the exception can be addressed and the file can close.

Why Choose S&S Land Surveying

ALTA Survey FAQ

Related Services

ALTA surveys are frequently ordered alongside these services: