How do we hire a land surveyor to mark our HOA's common area boundaries?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 27, 2026

How an HOA board hires a licensed land surveyor to mark common area lines: survey types, records to gather, scope, owner notice, monuments and using the results.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Hire a licensed professional land surveyor for a boundary survey of the common area parcels you actually need located, with corners set or recovered and the lines flagged on the ground. Before you ask for proposals, pull the recorded plat, the deeds that put the common area in the association's name and a current title report, because the surveyor will ask for them and the price drops when you hand them over. Put the scope in writing, tell the owners along the affected lot lines that a crew is coming, and decide at a board meeting what happens to the results before anyone reads them as a verdict on a neighbor's fence. Licensing and survey standards come from state law and state board rules, and what the board may spend without an owner vote comes from your governing documents. This guide is education, not legal advice.

Decide what question the survey has to answer

Surveyors sell several products, and boards often buy the wrong one. A boundary survey locates the record lines of a parcel on the ground and sets or recovers the corner monuments. That is what you want for a greenbelt, a detention pond lot or an entry parcel where owners' yards meet association land. An improvement survey adds the buildings, fences and other structures near the lines, which helps when you already suspect encroachments. A topographic survey maps elevations for drainage or construction design and does not settle where a line is unless it also includes boundary work. An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey follows a national standard written for lenders and title insurers. The current version, the 2026 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, applies to surveys begun on or after February 23, 2026. A board rarely needs one unless a bank or buyer is asking for it. Colorado boards should watch for one trap. Under C.R.S. 38-51-108, an improvement location certificate must say it is not a land survey plat and is not to be relied on for fence, building or other future improvement lines. It is a mortgage document. It will not mark your boundary. Write down the reason for the survey in one sentence, such as 'locate and stake the line between the Creekside greenbelt and Lots 30 through 48,' and hand that sentence to every surveyor you call.

Gather the records first

A surveyor's first hours go to record research, and you pay for them. Cut that bill by collecting five things. The recorded subdivision plat and any replats, from the county clerk. The deed or plat dedication that conveyed each common area tract to the association. A title report or ownership and encumbrance report on the common area parcels from a title company, which lists recorded easements. Any earlier surveys the developer, the city or an owner has shared with the board. And a marked-up map showing the problem spots. Florida's surveying standards, rule 5J-17.052 of the Florida Administrative Code, say plainly that the surveyor is not required to perform a title search, and that when the client wants easements of record located beyond those on the recorded plat, the client has to furnish that information. If the board wants a recorded drainage or utility easement shown, give the surveyor the recorded document. Colorado's statute on land survey plats, C.R.S. 38-51-106, lets a client ask that rights-of-way and easements be left off, but then the plat must say so. Do not ask for that on an association survey.

Check the license and write the scope

Look up every candidate on the state licensing board's website before you talk price. In Texas, Occupations Code section 1071.251 bars anyone from practicing professional surveying without a license, and the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors keeps the register. In Florida, surveyors and mappers are licensed under chapter 472 through the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In Colorado, it is the State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors. Ask for proof of professional liability and general liability insurance. Then send the same scope to two or three firms, in the format our guide on writing an HOA request for proposal describes. The scope should name the parcels and the lines to locate, say whether corners are to be set where missing, ask for lath or flagging at a set spacing along lines that run behind yards, list the deliverables (a signed and sealed survey plat, a PDF and the drawing file), and ask how the firm will handle a conflict between the plat and what it finds in the field. Ask for a fixed fee with an hourly rate for extra work, and a date when the crew will be on site.

What drives the price

Proposals for what sounds like the same job can differ a lot, and the reasons are usually visible if you ask. Length of line and number of corners matter most. Record quality is next: a recent subdivision plat with monuments at every lot corner is quick work, while common area described by metes and bounds in a 1970s deed, with corners buried under decades of landscaping, can take days. Brush, fences and water add field time. So does missing evidence, since every lost corner has to be reestablished from other monuments. Do not choose the lowest number if that firm skipped the research line or offered to 'shoot the fence line' instead of recovering corners. A survey is normally a professional fee in the operating budget. If the documents cap board spending without an owner vote, check the cap before signing, and record the decision in the minutes with the proposal attached.

Tell the neighbors and sort out access

Crews walk through side yards, dig for buried iron rods and hammer lath into flower beds, so owners should hear from the board first. Texas gives a private surveyor no general right to cross an unwilling owner's land. Under Occupations Code section 1071.3585, a surveyor who is refused permission must ask a district court for an order, which a court grants for a county surveyor acting officially or when the order is in the public's best interest. Florida section 472.029 lets surveyors go onto others' land when needed to make surveys or set monuments without it being a trespass, but they may not damage or move improvements without the landowner's written permission. Either way, a friendly letter saves trouble. Sample paragraph: 'The association has hired [firm], a licensed land surveyor, to locate the boundary between the common area and the lots on [street]. A crew may be in rear yards between [dates] to find existing corner markers and set new ones. Please leave the metal pins and wooden stakes in place. The survey is to confirm where the association's land is. The board will share the results with affected owners before taking any action.'

Use the results

When the plat arrives, read the notes first, since that is where the surveyor reports found and set monuments and any conflicting boundary evidence. Florida's rule requires the map to show fences, walls and other open evidence of boundary lines with their distance to the line, and to note any apparent use onto or from adjoining property. Colorado's C.R.S. 38-51-106 requires the plat to list conflicting boundary evidence and describe every monument found and set. Colorado has a filing duty too. Under C.R.S. 38-51-107 and 38-50-101, a surveyor who accepts or sets a monument that is not already of record must deposit a plat with the county office the commissioners designate within 12 months, unless the monuments sit in a subdivision platted within the previous 20 years. Ask whether your survey triggers that and get the reception number for the records. Then do four things. Adopt a motion to accept the survey and place it in the association's permanent records. Give the landscaper and pond contractor a copy so the mowing and treatment lines match the property lines. Ask owners not to pull the new pins. And put any encroachment the survey shows on the next board agenda, using our guide on handling an owner encroaching on HOA common area. If the survey disagrees with the recorded plat itself, send both to the association's attorney.

A sample timeline

Week 1: the board states the purpose of the survey and a director or manager gathers the plat, deeds and prior surveys. Week 2: the title report is ordered and the scope goes to three licensed firms. Week 4: proposals come back and the board votes on one at a meeting. Week 5: the notice goes to affected owners at least 10 days before the crew arrives. Weeks 6 to 9: field work, which depends heavily on weather and the firm's backlog. Weeks 10 to 12: the draft plat arrives, the board asks questions, and the final signed plat follows. Next meeting: accept the survey, file it, and put any encroachments on the agenda.

Mistakes boards make

Treating a county GIS map or a mortgage survey an owner found as a boundary survey. Hiring the surveyor an owner in a fence dispute recommended, which invites a claim that the result was bought. Ordering a survey with no written purpose, then paying for lines nobody needed. Keeping the title report from the surveyor and wondering why the drainage easement is missing. Letting the crew show up unannounced. Announcing violations the day the flags go in, before the board has read the plat. And filing the plat in a director's garage, so the next board pays to survey the same line again.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

More on living with an hoa

Or browse all living with an hoa guides.