Quoting a boundary survey before the search is done

A boundary survey has no honest single price over the phone. The price depends on what the plans show, how old the surrounding surveys are, and whether the marks those surveys relied on are still in the ground. None of that is known until the search is done and somebody has walked the site.

Cromer and Partners, a Tasmanian firm, says as much on its fee page: its boundary survey estimates are sometimes exceeded when further investigation turns out to be needed once the surveyor is in the field, and it commits to contacting the client from site to explain. That is the right instinct. The quote can be built so the conversation is expected rather than a surprise.

Why a boundary survey estimate moves

The causes are known in advance even when their size is not:

• The age of the parent survey and of adjoining surveys, and how much plan evidence there is to work through.
• Survey marks that have gone, which is common after renovations and landscaping.
• Slope, vegetation and steep or tight access.
• Poor sky view where the fieldwork relies on GPS.
• Distance to the control marks the survey has to connect to.
• Corner blocks, irregular shapes and more boundaries to define.

Add the one that causes the longest phone calls: fences, walls and buildings that do not sit where the title dimensions say the boundary is.

Quote it in three stages

Stage one: searches and pre-field calculations

A fixed fee for the office work, with search costs passed on at cost. The deliverable is not pegs. It is a short note to the client saying what the plans show, how old the relevant surveys are, and a firmer range for stage two.

Stage two: fieldwork and marking

An estimate as a range, not a figure, with the things that would push it to the top or past it named in the quote. The client who has read "if original survey marks are missing, the fieldwork may take longer" before you arrive takes the phone call from site very differently.

Stage three: plan or report

Fixed once stage two is known, because by then you know what has to be shown.

Name the triggers, in plain words

A line in the terms saying fees may vary is read by nobody. A short list in the quote itself is read, because it is about their block:

1. Original survey marks cannot be found and have to be re-established from further afield.
2. The fence or a structure is found to be off the boundary.
3. Adjoining surveys disagree and more evidence has to be gathered to resolve it.
4. Access or vegetation stops the planned approach and another is needed.

Call from site, not from the invoice

When a trigger happens, the call goes to the client before the work passes the top of the range, not after. Say what was found, what it means for their purpose, and what the extra work will cost as a range.

Then write the call down on the job file: the date, what was found, the new range, and that the client agreed to continue. When the invoice arrives three weeks later, that note is the difference between a paid invoice and a dispute.

Make sure the client is buying the right survey

Sydney Surveyor Solutions draws the distinction clearly on its cost page: a boundary identification locates existing evidence and marks key points, while a full re-establishment determines the boundaries with more certainty and may reinstate permanent marks, which is why it costs more. In Victoria the second is usually called a title re-establishment survey.

The owner who wants to know roughly where to plant a hedge and the owner about to take a neighbour to task over a fence need different jobs. Ask what the survey is for before quoting, and put the answer in the quote, so the scope and the price are about the same thing.

Learn from the jobs that moved

On every boundary job, record the hours for each stage and which triggers actually happened. After a few months the pattern is usually local: a subdivision where the original marks are rarely still there, an era of plans that always needs extra calculation, a suburb of steep, overgrown blocks. Widen the stage two range for those, and the phone call from site becomes the exception.