Surveys, inspections and title searches
Three different checks, three different professions: what does each one actually look at?
People merge these three into a single idea called "the checks". They ask different questions, are performed by different people, and each is silent about what the others cover. Understanding the boundaries between them is what prevents the assumption that something was checked when it was not.
| Check | The question it answers | What it does not tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Boundary survey | Where exactly does this parcel lie, and what stands on it? | Nothing about the condition of the building or the quality of the title. |
| Building inspection | What is the visible condition of the structure and its systems today? | Nothing hidden behind finishes, and nothing about ownership or boundaries. |
| Title search | Who owns it, and what claims, rights and restrictions travel with it? | Nothing about whether the building is sound or correctly sited. |
The boundary survey
A survey establishes the legal extent of the parcel and plots what physically sits on it. The recurring discoveries are ordinary and expensive: a fence built a metre inside the neighbour's land twenty years ago, a garage that crosses a setback line, a driveway that serves two properties without a recorded right, or a shed sitting on an easement that a utility can require to be cleared. None of these are visible from a photograph and none of them will be mentioned by anyone else in the transaction.
The building inspection
An inspection is a visual, non-destructive examination of what can be reached. It looks at structure, roof covering, drainage, heating and cooling plant, electrical arrangements, plumbing, and evidence of water where it should not be. Its most useful output is not a list of faults but an ordering: what needs attention this year, what is a five-year question, and what is simply the age of the building.
Its limits are real. An inspector does not open walls, lift fitted floors, or certify that a system will not fail next month. It reports what was visible on the day. Where the building type warrants it, separate specialists exist for heating plant, chimneys, drainage, wells, septic systems, wood-destroying insects and environmental questions.
The title search
A title search reconstructs the chain of ownership from the public record and looks for anything that would prevent a clean transfer. The categories that surface are:
- Liens. Unpaid taxes, a lender's charge, a contractor's claim for unpaid work, or a judgement against a previous owner.
- Easements. A recorded right for someone else to cross, drain through, or run services under the land.
- Covenants and restrictions. Limits on use, building form, or alteration, sometimes very old and still enforceable.
- Defects in the chain. A gap, an unclear inheritance, a signature that should not have been given, a deed recorded incorrectly.
Title insurance exists because the search cannot be perfect: the record itself can be wrong or incomplete. The policy covers the residual risk that something not found in the record later emerges.
How the three interact
The interesting problems live between them. An extension is structurally fine (inspection passes), sits partly over the boundary (survey finds it), and was never permitted (a document question). A right of way is recorded (title finds it) and runs exactly where the garden is (only the survey shows you that). Reading the three outputs against each other, rather than filing each one separately, is where the value is.
What to do with the findings
Sort every finding into three boxes: things that change the price, things that must be resolved before the transfer, and things that are simply the maintenance schedule of an older building. Most findings belong in the third box, and treating them as the first is how negotiations collapse over a building that is behaving exactly as its age suggests.