How a land survey worksThe record search, the field traverse, the monuments and the sealed plat
A boundary survey is a sequence with a rule at each step: the land records first, then a measured loop around the tract, markers left in the ground, and a plat that has to say what kind of work it is.
The adjoining deeds get read before the tract gets walked
A land survey in Virginia starts indoors. Before anyone carries an instrument across a pasture, the surveyor pulls the recorded description of the tract, and then the description of each neighboring tract along the lines the two share.
Who may do that work, and to what standard, is set in the Code and the regulations. Under Va. Code 54.1-400 the practice of land surveying includes establishing or reestablishing land boundaries and determining topography or the location of physical improvements, and Va. Code 54.1-406 requires a valid license before anyone engages in that practice, unless one of the exemptions the statute lists applies. The minimum standards for a boundary survey sit in 18VAC10-20-370, a regulation most recently amended effective May 1, 2026, so a summary of Virginia survey standards written before that date may be out of date.
The professional must search the land records for the proper description of the land to be surveyed and obtain the description of adjoining land as it pertains to the common boundaries.
18VAC10-20-370
The adjoiners matter because a line has two sides. The neighbor's deed describes the same boundary from the other direction, and a survey built on the client's deed alone would rest on half the written evidence.
A measured loop around the tract has to come back to where it began
With the record descriptions in hand, the fieldwork is a traverse: a chain of measured angles and distances run from point to point around the boundary and back to the starting point.
No field measurement is exact, so the computed loop ends a small distance from where it started. That gap, weighed against the length of the whole traverse, is the error of closure, and the regulation puts a ceiling on it.
For a land boundary survey located in a rural area, the maximum permissible error of closure for a field traverse is one part in 10,000 (1/10,000).
18VAC10-20-370
Along the way the surveyor compares what the deeds call for with what turns up on the ground: old markers, fence lines, a road, a stream. Hunting for those markers yourself, before any survey is ordered, is covered in how to find your property corners.
What the traverse does not lean on is the county parcel map. Carroll County's Web GIS says its map layers are for general reference only.
Permanent markers at the corners, with three rules that bend the count
A boundary survey leaves evidence behind. The regulation requires each land boundary survey to be monumented with objects made of permanent material at all corners and changes of direction on the boundary.
- Meanders are excepted. A line that follows a stream, tidelands, a lake, a swamp or a prescriptive right-of-way is not monumented at every bend.
- Reference monuments can stand in. Where it is not physically feasible to set an actual corner, appropriate reference monuments are set, preferably on the boundary line, and the location of each is shown on the plat.
- A partial survey reaches the old lines. When a survey provides for a division and only the division, rather than the entire parcel, is surveyed, any new corners established along existing property lines require those existing lines to be established through their entire length.
The third rule is the one that changes the scope of a job: surveying only the lot cut from a larger tract can still mean retracing the full length of each existing line a new corner lands on. Whether a particular split calls for a new survey in the first place is its own question, answered in whether you need a new survey to subdivide.
Owner, adjoiners, bearings and area: what the drawing has to carry
The fieldwork ends as a drawing. A plat of a land boundary survey carries a list of required items, and several of them tie the drawing back to the records the survey started with.
| Item | What the plat shows |
|---|---|
| Owner of record | The owner's name, with recording references |
| Adjoining owners | The names of all adjoining owners of record, with recording references |
| Bearings | Every property line and meander, to the nearest one second of arc |
| Distances | Every property line and meander, to the nearest hundredth of a foot |
| Area on rural property | To the nearest hundredth of an acre |
| Parcel reference | Tax map designation or geographic parcel identification number, if available, for the surveyed parcel and the adjoining parcels |
| Monuments | A description of each monument found and each monument set |
The bearings and distances around the boundary are the tract's metes and bounds, and on rural land the area is stated in acres to two decimal places. For scale, an acre is 43,560 square feet.
The parcel reference is required only if one is available, and what each locality calls its number is taken up in the guide to plats and parcel numbers.
Field work or compilation, and whether a title report was in hand
Three statements on the plat tell a reader what kind of document it is. They are worth finding before leaning on anything else the drawing shows.
Current field survey, or compilation
The plat must state whether the boundary rests on a current field survey or on a compilation from deeds, plats or surveys by others. A compilation has to be titled so that it plainly does not represent a current land boundary survey, and it may not be titled as one.
Title report furnished, or not
The plat must state whether a current title report was furnished to the surveyor. Read that line beside the rule from step one.
Easements and improvements shown, or not
The plat must state whether any or all easements and physical improvements are shown. A shed or fence that crosses the line, an encroachment, will not appear on a plat that leaves the improvements off.
The application of the professional's seal, signature, and date as required by this regulation will be evidence that the land boundary survey is correct to the best of the professional's knowledge, information, and belief
18VAC10-20-370
An older plat raises a different question, how long it stays useful, and that is taken up in how old a survey can be and still be used.
Under two acres, a physical improvements survey answers a narrower question
Not every drawing handed across a closing table is a boundary survey. A separate standard, 18VAC10-20-380, governs surveys that locate physical improvements on a parcel or lot containing less than two acres, which is what a house location survey is.
Unless the client asks otherwise and the plat notes it, that plat carries a caption naming the type of survey and the date of survey, and a statement whether a current title report was furnished. In the field the surveyor locates fences close to the boundary lines, cemeteries that are known, disclosed or discovered during the survey, and roads or traveled ways that cross the property to serve other properties.
The regulation builds in a handoff to the fuller product. When the surveyor finds discrepancies "of sufficient magnitude to warrant, in the professional's opinion, the performance of a land boundary survey," the client or the client's agent must be told that such a survey "is deemed warranted as a requisite to completion of the physical improvements survey."
Residential sales carry a similar pointer. For property the disclosure act covers, the statement the Real Estate Board provides under Va. Code 55.1-703 must say that the owner makes no representation about current lot lines, and that "purchasers are advised to exercise whatever due diligence a particular purchaser deems necessary, including obtaining a property survey."
A written description, a recordable plat, or a line still in question
A finished plat can lead three directions, depending on why the survey was ordered.
Into a deed. If the client or the client's agent asks, the surveyor must prepare a narrative metes and bounds description for a newly performed land boundary survey. It recites bearings, distances and curve data sufficient to reconstruct the geometry, along with the area, the monuments and the adjoiners, and it is customarily recited clockwise around the property. Whether and how it goes into a deed is an attorney's call.
Onto the record as a subdivision. A plat meant to divide land carries its own preparer's certificate and, where a subdivision ordinance applies, needs the locality's approval before a clerk records it; that path is laid out in the guide to plats and parcel numbers.
Into a disagreement. Sometimes the finished plat shows the neighbor reading the line differently. Adjacent owners can resolve a bona fide line dispute, within limits on distance, acreage and more, through a boundary line agreement. Separately, a person with a subsisting interest in the land and a right to its possession may file a motion for judgment under Va. Code 8.01-179 asking a court to ascertain and designate the true boundary line. Which line controls, and how those routes compare, is the subject of boundary disputes basics.
Ask about a survey question
Send a few details and Lowell will come back with an honest read. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Good questions, straight answers.
What does one part in 10,000 mean on a rural boundary survey?
It is the largest error of closure 18VAC10-20-370 allows for a field traverse on a land boundary survey in a rural area. A traverse runs measured angles and distances around the boundary and back to the start. Read as a ratio, the loop may miss its starting point by no more than one unit for every 10,000 units measured around it.
Does a person need a Virginia license to survey land?
Yes, unless one of the exemptions the statute lists applies. Va. Code 54.1-406 requires a valid license before a person engages in the practice of land surveying, and Va. Code 54.1-400 defines that practice to include establishing or reestablishing land boundaries and determining topography or the location of physical improvements. What the exemptions cover is not described here.
Will every easement on the land appear on a boundary survey plat?
Not necessarily. Under 18VAC10-20-370 the plat must state whether any or all easements and physical improvements are shown, and whether a current title report was furnished to the surveyor. What the land records show about easements on a tract is the work of a title search.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 54.1-400: definitions, including the practice of land surveying Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 54.1-406: license required to practice land surveying Virginia General Assembly
- 18VAC10-20-370: minimum standards and procedures for land boundary surveys Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects
- 18VAC10-20-380: surveys locating physical improvements Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects
- Va. Code 15.2-2201: definitions, including boundary line agreements Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-703: residential property disclosure statement Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 8.01-179: suit to establish a boundary line Virginia General Assembly
- Carroll County Web GIS: public access terms Carroll County
- NIST Handbook 44 (2026), Appendix C: units of area, including the acre National Institute of Standards and Technology