What is a Cadastral Survey?
The Surveyors Board of Queensland describes cadastral surveying as “accurately defining property boundaries and understanding the laws of land ownership. This may include the identification of residential or rural boundaries, re-establishing boundaries that have been previously surveyed or creating new boundaries as part of the land subdivision process.”
The Surveyors Board of Queensland is the governing body to ensure that surveyors complete works to the requirements of the Surveyors Act 2003. All cadastral surveyors must be registered with the board to protect the public and ensure public confidence in the profession of surveying. More information regarding this can be found at: http://sbq.com.au/about-surveyors/cadastral-surveyor/
The following are the Cadastral Survey Services Statewide Survey Group provides – if you are unsure what applies to you, don’t hesitate to contact us here.
Identification Survey of Boundaries
Identification surveys establish & define the boundary for a parcel of land. Most commonly these surveys are undertaken when a new fence is being built, an extension/structure is being built near the boundary, the property is being sold and the confirmation of boundaries are required during the due diligence period or a neighbour dispute regarding the boundary is underway.
Subdivision | Reconfiguration Surveys
A subdivision is conducted to reconfigure existing allotments into smaller lots of land. Subdivision surveys can be as small as splitting one lot into two or as large as one lot into one hundred. They can also reconfigure lots, such as two lots into three or three lots into three.
Subdivision surveys are not only applicable to land – buildings can also be subdivided for sale or lease of individual units. These types of subdivision surveys plans are called Building Format Plans.
Subdivision survey are restricted by the location of the lot, the council & the relevant planning legislation.
In order to complete a subdivision survey, you must have an Approved Development Application with relevant Council, something our Town Planners can assist with here.
Building Format Plans
Units, townhouses and mixed use developments often require subdivision in strata. Statewide Survey Group can assist with all aspects of projects of this nature. We can Assist with:
- Draft building format, i.e. plans for presale contracts
- Exclusive use plans for inclusion in CMS
- Service location diagram for inclusion in CMS
- Occupational authority plans
- Final survey of completed building – building format plans
- Volumetric Subdivision for retail/commercial interests within building
- Shared use plans
- Titling advice
- Easements within buildings and common property
- Staging of development
- Amalgamation of strata developments with schemes
Volumetric Plans
These surveys create parcels of land or easements that are restricted in a three dimensional sense. They are often used to separate ownership of commercial and residential uses in new mixed use developments of buildings.
Easement Surveys
Easement survey and plans are prepared between parties to allow the use of part of an allotment. There are different types of easement surveys including – service, right of way & access.
Lease & License Plans
Lease & license plans are created to form part of a lease agreement between landlord and tenant. A number of different types of lease plans are produced by our company, including leases within buildings and leases of land. A lease survey requires a Surveyor to measure the inside of building walls & provide a plan with the measured area to be leased to a tenant. Similarly, a license plan also provides a measured area to be leased to a tenant, however, this is outside of a building, such as a footpath.
Form 12 Certification
Surveyors complete Form 12 Certification surveys at the completion of new buildings and other structures for certifiers. The survey is to confirm the location, height or floor level of the structure has been built in accordance with the approved design plans or council requirements. These were previously called Form 16s.
Property Amalgamation
Property amalgamation is the joining of two or more land parcels (or lots) into one. Each land parcel is required to have the same registered owner. This process of amalgamation can only be done by a registered cadastral land surveyor. Depending on the circumstances affecting the particular properties, one of two approaches will be taken in amalgamating adjoining properties:
A licensed surveyor will collate the relevant registered title plans to determine if the existing documentation of the property boundaries are reliable enough to compile a new property boundary based on existing survey information alone. If this can be done, a new plan will be drafted and lodged with the Department of Resources or;
In areas where reliable boundary information is not available a field survey of the boundaries will be required before a new plan can be drafted and lodged. This process will prove to be more time consuming and will attract additional expenses but may prove to be a necessity in some areas (particularly older subdivisions).
