Cadastral and boundary survey, by a Registered Surveyor.

What a cadastral survey is

A cadastral survey fixes where a property’s legal boundaries are. The land surveyor determines the boundary lines, marks the boundary points on the ground and records them on a certified plan that becomes part of Singapore’s cadastre, the official record of every land and strata lot. Singapore’s cadastre is coordinated: since 2004 boundaries are defined by approved coordinates, so a boundary can be re-established precisely even where a mark has been lost.

A measured survey tells you where things are. A cadastral survey tells you where the property ends, and only the second one carries legal weight. That is why the two are done by different people.

When you need one

• Rebuilding or extending a landed house, where the new walls, setbacks and boundary wall have to sit on the right side of the line.
• Boundary wall disputes with a neighbour, or a fence, drain or structure suspected of crossing the line.
• Missing or disturbed boundary marks, often after earlier works on either side.
• Subdividing or amalgamating land, where new lots need new boundaries. For strata lots inside a building, see strata subdivision.
• Buying, selling or financing a property whose boundaries are in doubt.

Who is allowed to do it

SLA is explicit: a property owner has to engage a practising Registered Surveyor to carry out a property boundary survey, and the Registered Surveyor then deals with SLA on the owner’s behalf. Registered Surveyors are registered under the Land Surveyors Act and listed by the Land Surveyors Board. No one else, however well equipped, can certify a boundary.

Boundary marks and certified plans

On a cadastral survey the Registered Surveyor determines the boundaries and marks the boundary points on the ground. On completion, the surveyor deposits a certified plan with the survey documents at SLA for inspection against the Chief Surveyor’s directives. Once accepted, the certified plan and its coordinates are the record of where the boundary is. Boundary marks are protected by law: they should not be moved or removed, and a disturbed mark is a job for a Registered Surveyor, not a contractor.

What Volumet adds

A boundary survey answers where the line is. The next question is usually what sits near it: the boundary wall, a neighbour’s eaves, a drain, a retaining wall, the building you are about to extend. We capture the site and everything along the boundary withLiDAR, and the Registered Surveyor’s boundary lines are placed on that capture. The result shows, to the centimetre, how close each structure is to the line, which is what an architect or a dispute actually needs.

The same capture gives the architect atopographical survey and the building team a baseline for setting out, so one visit serves the whole project.

Volumet and the Registered Surveyor

Cost drivers

Price follows the number of boundary points and lots, whether existing marks can be found or have to be re-established, access along the boundary, and how much of the site is captured by LiDAR alongside. SLA’s fees are passed through as disbursements. Send the address and lot number toget a quote.