What Is a Property Survey?

Short answer

A property survey is a signed and sealed map by a licensed surveyor that shows a lot's boundary lines, buildings, fences, easements and any encroachments. In Florida, a boundary survey must meet rule 5J-17.052, which requires monuments at the corners and showing all apparent use onto or from neighboring land (as of November 2026). Title companies use it to remove the survey exception from your title policy.

Definition

A professional measurement of a parcel by a Florida licensed surveyor and mapper, showing where the legal boundaries are and how the improvements sit relative to them.

Worked example

Example only: a buyer's survey on a Hialeah home shows the neighbor's fence sits 1.5 feet inside the buyer's lot and a pool deck crosses a 5-foot utility easement. The title company then lists those items as exceptions on the policy. The buyer can ask the seller to fix it, get an encroachment agreement, or accept it, all before closing. Without a survey, those issues would be excluded from coverage by the standard survey exception.

What a Florida boundary survey shows

Under Florida Administrative Code rule 5J-17.052:

• Corner monuments found or set, with the surveyor's license or business number
• Fences, walls and buildings, with dimensions to the boundary
• Easements on the record plat and open evidence of easements
• Significant differences from the record legal description
• The words "Boundary Survey" on the map

Who needs one

Most single-family and townhome purchases include a survey, and lenders or title companies often ask for one. Condo units usually do not need one, since the association owns the land. The cost goes on your closing costs. Loans are subject to credit approval and property eligibility.

In South Florida

A boundary survey does not show flood elevations; that is a separate FEMA Elevation Certificate, which must be prepared and certified by a licensed land surveyor, registered engineer or architect. Per FEMA (as of November 2026), an Elevation Certificate is not required to buy NFIP flood insurance, but owners can submit one to see if it lowers the premium, because first floor height is a rating factor. In low-lying South Florida, ask the seller for an existing one and check the flood zone early.