There are many different kinds of construction projects and you could be a contractor who builds literally hundreds of houses every year or you could be a private individual who just wants to build their dream home. For both of these situations, land is required to build anything and so you want to make sure that you’re paying for something that can be utilised to its full extent and that will allow you to create a row of homes or a single home in as straightforward a manner as possible. It takes time and patience to find the right piece of land for any project and when you find it and it feels just right, then you have to resist the temptation to put your money on the table and buy it outright then and there. Just because someone tells you that the land starts there and ends here doesn’t mean that it is fact and so you need to go through various procedures like a land survey to make sure that you’re getting what you paid for.
If you are a contractor then you need to maintain Construction Control at all times and it is an incredibly important piece of information to know exactly how much ground that you’re working with and if there are any impediments above the ground and below the ground that will make your construction project grind to a halt. There could be drains, tunnels or anything under the ground that you are not currently aware of and if they have any historical significance, then you might end up not being able to build what you want and you’ve paid out a great deal of money for land that you can’t use. Getting a survey done is the first thing that should happen and if you have to be sold on the idea of getting one then here are some of the benefits of doing so.
- Where it begins & ends – When you are presented with a piece of paper that seems to plot the lay of the land with measurements then you might be thinking to yourself that this is completely above board and everything is as described. It is important however to know exactly where the piece of land that you are purchasing starts and where it ends. You do not want to be paying an architect to design plans for a new housing complex and a home garden to then to find out later that you don’t own a certain part of the land that you thought you did. If you are an individual and you are just building one house, then you want to get the best possible start when it comes to the relationships with the people who live either side of you and so you want to avoid arguments as to who owns what at the very beginning.
- What lies beneath – A piece of land may look perfect by just looking around it and everything seems to be as the land paper states, but that could be a lot going on below the ground that you are not aware of and it could really hamper your whole building project. If you’re looking at the land at a dry time of the year, then that doesn’t tell you what happens during the rainy season when this ground may be experiencing flooding and you might have to spend a significant amount of money putting in drainage so that it can be properly used. The right kind of land survey will tell you exactly the lie of the land and will also tell you about any pipes or all foundations that lie under your feet.
- Eyes wide open – Your parents and grandparents have probably always told you that you should never get involved in anything that you don’t know about completely 100%. If you’re going to hand over your hard earned cash for a particular piece of ground then you want to make sure that everything is exactly as it should be. Even though you’re excited to find this piece of ground and it seems perfect at first, it just makes sense to get a land survey done to give you the peace of mind that you definitely need. Once you have the land survey in your hand and it confirms that everything is above board then that’s when you can feel comfortable signing on the dotted line and handing over your money. You can then enjoy that extended holiday that you were putting off.
The thing to remember here is that getting a land survey done by a professional institution isn’t going to cost you a great deal of money but it will certainly help to save you money if you find out that the land isn’t what it is supposed to be. You do not want to have to go through court procedures trying to get your money back because you felt that you were misled in the purchase.