When it is time to order an American Land Title Association (ALTA) Survey, there are Optional Table A items to choose from. Some ofthese items will significantly increase the cost to produce theALTA Survey so it's important to consider thedifferent options available, and understand which will fulfill thevarious requirements of a realestate transaction. In this blog, I will look at one of theoptional ALTA Survey items: utilities.

How to select the Utility option that's right foryou
Almost all lenders require some form of mapping of utilities, butin an ALTA Survey this is not a standard requirement, but anoptional one. In the Standard 2011 ALTA Requirements, the Utilitiesoption can be found in “Table A: Optional Survey Responsibilities andSpecifications”, under item 11. Within this item, clients canorder two different options:

Option 11 (a) is the “location of utilitiesexisting on or serving the surveyed property as determined byobserved evidence.” This is the least expensive option for theland surveyor and client. 'Observed evidence'(also commonly known as 'above-ground evidence') refers to theitems that the surveyor is able to see when he conducts his fieldwork. Symbols are used to show various above-ground utilitystructures - including storm and sanitary manhole covers, water andgas meters and valves, fire hydrants, utility poles, electricboxes, storm outlets and inlets, and others - on the survey map. Underground utility lines are notmapped as part of this option.

The second option 11 (b) uses “observedevidence together with evidence from plans obtained from utilitycompanies or provided by client, and markings by utility companiesand other appropriate sources” to map various utilities.The surveyor interprets the data from these sourcesto establish the location of utility systems, and transfers thisinformation to the ALTA Survey. This is a more comprehensive studythat can provide information about below-ground utilities, but itis also more labor intensive – and thus costly.

Limitations
In today's world, obtaining maps and other information from utilitycompanies is often a difficult and slow process that can causesignificant delays, and often the accuracy of the provided mapscan't be guaranteed.