The PYB Process™ Step 3: Understand your land

Learn to read and interpret your survey plan and related ownership documents. Understand precisely what you own, and exactly where your property boundaries are located.

Interpreting your survey plan and supporting documents enables you to understand your land and property rights and is crucial to resolving your particular boundary issue or property challenge. Vital information contained in these documents will enable you to act with confidence and certainty in a boundary dispute or land improvement project.

Boundary dispute

If you are disputing a boundary, certain documents will help you to resolve the dispute quickly and with the least expense.

Your will help you to visualize your property boundaries. Locate the building outline, then identify the house (distances from building corners to boundary line). Click here to learn how to read a survey plan.

Using a tape measure, measure these distances from the corner of the house to the property line to approximate where the boundary is. Using the SRPR, you may be able to locate and identify the iron bars at the front of your property that are official property corner markers permanently set by licensed Ontario Land Surveyors.

Please note that only an Ontario Land Surveyor can officially mark the boundary, and the mothods above are advised for general information purposes only. However, when used correctly these simple steps could suggest a fence located on the wrong side of the property line, a driveway encroaching on a neighbouring property, a shed built too close to the property line, or other boundary issues.

Checklist

•   Read the documents and highlight the critical items from each document.