The survey and the T-47 affidavit
Draft Pending review by a Texas title professional before it is final.
Title companies and lenders want to know where the lot lines are and what sits on them. Often the survey from when you bought the home, with a signed T-47 affidavit, is enough. Here is how it works.
Updated
What a survey shows
A survey is a drawing, made and sealed by a licensed surveyor, of your lot’s boundaries and what sits on it: the house, garage, fences, driveway, pool, and the easements and building lines that cross it. Title companies and lenders use it to see problems a deed can’t show — a fence over the line, a shed on a utility easement, a neighbor’s driveway across a corner.
The three choices in the contract
The TREC contract gives three ways to handle the survey, and the offer picks one (¶6C):
- The seller’s existing survey, with a T-47 affidavit, delivered within the number of days the contract sets. If the title company or the buyer’s lender won’t accept it, a new survey is made at the expense the contract names.
- A new survey paid for by the buyer.
- A new survey paid for by the seller.
Who pays is a negotiation like any other term, and it shows up in what you keep.
The T-47 affidavit
The T-47 — the Residential Real Property Affidavit — is a form from the Texas Department of Insurance. The owner signs it before a notary, swearing that nothing on the survey has changed since it was made: no additions, pools, fences, buildings or other improvements, or listing the ones there are. The title company then decides whether it will rely on the old survey with the affidavit.
When a new survey is needed
A new survey is usually needed when:
- there is no survey, or nobody can find it;
- something was built or changed after the survey was made — an addition, a pool, a new fence line;
- the title company or the buyer’s lender won’t accept the old survey; or
- the buyer simply wants one.
A new survey takes time to schedule, so it is one of the first things ordered once the contract is signed.
The survey and the title policy
The owner’s title policy normally excludes problems a survey would show, and discrepancies in the lot’s area or boundary lines. With a survey the title company accepts, the buyer can ask it to change that exception to cover more, for an added premium; the contract says who pays for the change (¶6A).
Finding your survey
Look in the papers from when you bought the home: the survey is often in the closing package. The title company that closed your purchase, your lender or the surveyor may also have a copy. If you find it, the questions on the T-47 are easier to answer now than in the middle of a sale — and getting your title ready covers the rest of what a title company will ask.