Your title deed and the Surveyor-General (SG) diagram describe your boundaries on paper, and the beacons in the ground show them on site. If those beacons are missing, damaged or disputed, or before you fence, build, sell or subdivide, a registered Professional Land Surveyor needs to locate or re-establish them. Under the Land Survey Act this work must be done by a registered land surveyor, and when a beacon is replaced the surveyor reports it to the Surveyor-General and lodges the survey records. Municipalities can also require a certificate from a Professional Land Surveyor identifying your boundary beacons.

We measure the building and its sections on site so a sectional plan can be drawn showing every section, exclusive-use area and the common property. The measurements are taken in the field, the plan is certified as prepared from actual measurements, and the Surveyor-General must approve it before it is registered. The plan comes with a schedule of participation quotas, which is each section’s share in the scheme, worked out largely from floor area. If a section is later extended, the plan is amended and the quotas are revised.

A topographical survey maps the shape and features of a site: ground levels and contours, spot heights, buildings, roads, walls, trees, drainage and visible services. Architects and engineers use it as the base for design, to set floor levels and plan drainage, so you generally need one before design starts on a new build, an extension or a development. It is different from a boundary survey, which fixes ownership lines rather than levels. Where the municipality asks for contours or levels on a site plan, this is the survey that provides them.

Photogrammetric mapping builds accurate maps and 3D models from overlapping aerial photographs, usually taken by drone. It suits large, steep or hard-to-reach sites and can deliver contours, ground models, orthophotos and volumes much faster than measuring the whole site on foot. Accuracy depends mostly on how well the images are tied to the ground: with surveyed ground control points it can reach survey-grade accuracy, and without them it is typically only a few times the image resolution. In South Africa, commercial drone flights must meet SACAA requirements (a licensed remote pilot, an RPAS operator’s certificate and a registered aircraft).

Engineering surveys give civil and construction teams the control they need to build exactly where the design says. We set out roads, earthworks, drainage, services and structures from the drawings with accurate line and level, check the work as it progresses, and measure earthworks volumes. At the end we produce as-built surveys that compare what was built with the design, which engineers and contractors need for sign-off and handover. Bring us in at the start so the control is in place before work begins.

Yes, it is the safest first step. Before plans are drawn we confirm your boundaries, building lines, servitudes and levels so the design fits the real stand. Municipal site plans have to show the site boundaries, building lines and servitudes, and once your plans are approved we set out the building position so the builder starts in the right place. Some municipalities also expect a land surveyor’s certificate confirming the building’s position and your boundaries before they issue an occupation certificate. Building over a boundary, building line or servitude is expensive to fix later.

Because the law requires it. The Land Survey Act defines a land surveyor as a person registered as a professional land surveyor, and it requires that surveyor to be personally present when existing beacons are located and to control the placing of new beacons. Diagrams must be signed by a registered land surveyor before the Surveyor-General will approve them. Ask any surveyor for their registration number and confirm it with the South African Council for Professional and Technical Surveyors (PLATO). Gary Pettit Surveys is led by registered Professional Land Surveyor PLS0913.

The price depends on the type of survey and the property, so we quote each job in writing. The main factors are the size and shape of the stand, the terrain and vegetation, how old and reliable the existing survey records are, how far the nearest survey control marks are, how easy the site is to access, and the scope of work, such as re-establishing one beacon versus surveying the whole boundary. To get a quote, send us the erf number or address and tell us what the survey is for.

Fieldwork on a standard survey is quick. Most standard cadastral surveys are completed within 3 working days of instruction. Anything that needs formal approval, such as a new diagram or a sectional plan, also goes through examination by the Surveyor-General’s office, which runs on its own timetable. Tell us your deadline when you enquire, and we will say what is realistic and which steps are outside our control.

An SG (Surveyor-General) diagram is the official approved diagram of your property’s boundaries and dimensions. To get started, send us the erf or stand number and address, a copy of your title deed and your SG diagram if you have them, what the survey is for, and how to arrange access to the property. If you also have approved or draft building plans, include those. If you don’t have the SG diagram, tell us and we will advise how to obtain it.