Survey Division
What We Do
The Survey Section provides survey services to all City Departments, primarily in the following areas:
- Provides legal survey services to support Engineering, Parks Recreation & Culture and Civic Facilities annual capital programs
- Provides engineering survey services to support Engineering, Parks Recreation & Culture operations
- Manages the digital plan submission process for the City's cadastral database mapping
- Provides land tenure expertise for land development applications
- Maintains the horizontal and vertical control monumentation network in the City
Types of land surveyors
You might see two types of land surveyers in Surrey. City surveyors only work on City projects, while private land surveyors typically work on provincial infrastructure projects, land development projects, or surveys for home sales. The City’s COSMOS website is a great tool for you to use to find out where development is occurring and toresearch capital construction projects in the City.
Land surveyors and residential matters
To find a copy of the survey of your house, BC Land Surveyor’s Building Location Certificates are submitted to the Building Division and archived by the Building Division File Registry, Planning & Development Department.
Property lines between neighbours are a private matter. If property corners are missing it is the responsibility of the owner to hire a private BC Land Surveyor to resurvey the boundary and reinstate the property corners. Subsequently, the location of the proposed fence line can be established by the land surveyor.
If your neighbour is encroaching on your land, it is best to talk to your neighbour to establish what the issue is first. If you can't resolve your concern, hire a private BC Land Surveyor to re-survey the boundary.
For general enquiries or digital plan submissions, contact the Survey Section at survey@surrey.ca or 604-591-4253.You can also access digital data and as-built drawings online through the GIS Division.
Digital Plan Requirements
See the following documents and bulletins regarding City of Surrey's digital plan requirements:
- Digital Legal Plan Survey Submission Guidelines
- Digital Legal Plan Survey Standards
- Drawing Example
- Sample Plan
- LMG Bulletin 2005 - new email addresses in effect
- LMG Bulletin 2004 - additional files required
- LMG Bulletin 2002 - digital submissions now in effect
For more information about general land surveying, visit the Association of BC Land Surveyors website.