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Real Property for Indiana Paralegals

Surveys and Surveyors

Often, when property is bought or sold, platted to make a subdivision, a structure is built, or there is a boundary dispute, a surveyor is hired by the parties to determine boundaries, size of the parcel, and so forth. A surveyor is, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, “One who makes surveys of land.”[1] Well, then, a survey is, “The process by which a parcel of land is measured and its contents ascertained; also a statement of the results of such survey, with the courses and distances and the quantity of the land.”[2]

These definitions are only a basic summation of the jobs in which a surveyor may be employed. Depending on what is happening with a particular parcel of land, a surveyor may be employed in a variety of ways. There are different kinds of survey; in the sections below, we will explore the more common and important types of surveys and when they might be used.

[1] Id.

[2] Id.