A boundary survey identifies and documents the boundaries of a property. The surveyor researches available property records and performs fieldwork to locate or establish property corners and boundary lines. Boundary surveys can be useful before purchasing property, installing a fence, beginning construction, resolving a boundary question, or planning improvements.

You may need a property survey when buying or selling property, building a home or addition, installing a fence, dividing or combining property, obtaining certain permits, resolving a property-line concern, or planning improvements near property boundaries.

A boundary survey focuses primarily on the location of property lines and corners. An elevation survey focuses on the elevations of the property, structures, or specific points on the site. Depending on your project, you may need one or both.

A plot plan shows the location of proposed or existing improvements in relation to property boundaries and other site features. Plot plans are commonly needed for new construction, additions, pools, accessory structures, permitting, and other property improvements.

A building stakeout transfers information from construction plans onto the actual property so builders can accurately locate a proposed structure or improvement. Surveyors establish reference points in the field to help guide construction according to the approved plans.

An ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey is a detailed survey commonly used in commercial real estate transactions. It follows nationally recognized standards and may include property boundaries, easements, rights-of-way, improvements, access, and other information important to lenders, title companies, buyers, and property owners.

A survey provides important information about property boundaries and existing site conditions, but where you can build may also be affected by setbacks, easements, zoning regulations, flood requirements, wetland protections, drainage requirements, and other local development standards. Depending on the project, additional engineering or permitting review may be necessary. Once complete, a survey sheet will be provided to you showing the collected data and pertinent information of your survey. We can also stake and flag property corners, points on line, and other points in the field on your property to show your property’s extent and what restrictions are placed upon it.

An EC or elevation certificate is an official document that records a property’s elevation information. It is an important administrative tool of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This document is used to determine a property’s compliance with floodplain management regulations, to set flood insurance requirements and premiums, and may be used to support a request to amend or revise the flood zone boundaries of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). Your community may require multiple elevation certificates for before, during, and after construction of your property.  We can help you with understanding what you need and with creating an elevation certificate for your property.

To determine if your property is in a flood zone you can contact us or you can use the FEMA Flood Map Service Center website. Entering your property’s address in the Flood Map Service Center website will show your property’s location on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). The FIRM will show the boundaries of flood zones, the flood zone types, the base flood elevations, your area’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) community number, the FIRM map panel number, and the map’s effective date. We can help you make sense of this information.

A flood zone’s BFE or base flood elevation is the elevation of the flood water above sea level that FEMA expects for a 100-year storm or a storm that has a 1% chance of happening each year.  For example if your property is in a flood zone with a base flood elevation of 18 feet and the elevation of the land around your property is 17 feet then there is a 1% chance each year that your property may experience 1 foot of flood water.

The required height of your property depends on the type of flood zone in which your property is located, the base flood elevation of the flood zone, and the floodplain management regulations and ordinances of the county or city in which your property is located. Please be aware that the floodplain management regulations across the Mississippi Gulf Coast are not unified. Different cities and counties have different requirements. Typically either the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member or the top of bottom floor must be at or above the base flood elevation plus any additional freeboard required by your city or county. We can help you figure out how high your property needs to be.

Yes, based on the elevation of your land and other factors you may be able to request an amendment or revision to the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) that proves that your property does not belong in a flood zone. We can assist you with creating a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) or a Letter of Map Revision based on Fill (LOMR-F) to request FEMA to remove your property from a flood zone.Please be aware that while having your property outside of a designated flood zone may reduce your flood insurance requirements and premiums, it does not eliminate the chance of your property flooding.