Planning a subdivision? You will need a Licensed Land Surveyor

Licensed Surveyors are authorised to perform cadastral (title) surveys

If you are planning a subdivision you will need a Licensed Land Surveyor to assist in the process.  A Licensed Surveyor is the only person authorised to perform cadastral (title) surveys to define property boundaries and involves interpreting and advising on boundary locations, on the status of land ownership and on the rights, restrictions and interests in property, and subsequently make title boundary changes / amendments through a subdivision application. These days most subdivision applications are lodged electronically via SPEAR (Surveying and Planning Electronic Applications and Referrals) after you been a Planning Permit to subdivide.

The Licensed Surveyor is required to carry out field work to take measurements that enables calculations to determine the title boundary and often requires the survey to be connected (legislated) to the Map Grid of Australia (MGA) which is an overall coordinated datum. They then prepare a Plan of Subdivision that has the details of the land, any encumbrances (i.e. easements, depth limitations etc), and a layout in plan form that shows the details of the land including lot shape, bearings and distances, areas, easements, roads, reserves, building envelopes and any other detail needed. This plan is then lodged on SPEAR and is referred to authorities, Councils internal sections (i.e. engineering, planning etc). The authorities and councils sign off on the plan (called Statement of Compliance) when all items in the planning permit have been completed and usually takes a few months or longer depending on the amount of capital works required (i.e. build roads, connect to services etc). While this is happening the Licensed Surveyor is required to draw and submit Surveyors Abstract of Field Notes and an accompanying Licensed Surveyors Report which details the survey and provides information for future surveyors working in the area. These are then submitted to the Land Titles Office as a record of how the boundary of the subdivision was determined.

So there’s a lot of work for a couple of lines on a plan! Step Surveying provides all of the above services so please contact us today to discuss your project.