Is the county GIS map good enough, or do I need a survey?

Not to settle where your lines are. The Alabama Department of Revenue says tax maps are for tax purposes only and cannot be used for conveyance. The GIS map is fine for screening a tract, but only a licensed surveyor can locate the boundary on the ground.

Who is allowed to do a boundary survey in Alabama?

A Professional Land Surveyor licensed by the Alabama State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. State law counts retracing property lines as the practice of land surveying, and it is unlawful to practice it without a license. You can look up a surveyor or firm on the board's license search.

Will the surveyor mark the corners of my land?

Yes. The surveyor sets a monument at each corner unless one is already there, and the map says which corners were found and which were set. Ask to see them on the ground when the work is done, and photograph each one so you can find it again.

What is the survey exception in a title insurance policy?

It is the line in a title commitment that leaves boundary and encroachment problems out of coverage. Read the exceptions in your commitment before closing, find that line, and ask the title company in writing what it would take to remove or narrow it.

Will a boundary survey show buried utility lines?

Not unless you ask for it. If you plan to dig near a road or a neighbor's line, ask the surveyor whether they will locate buried lines and put it in the agreement.

Can I use the seller's old survey?

It's a useful starting point, but it shows the land as it was on the date of the fieldwork, and the standards make the map state that date. Fences, drives, and corner pins can change after that. Ask your title company and lender whether they will accept it, and ask a surveyor whether it needs an update.

Do You Need a Survey Before You Buy Land in Alabama, and What Does It Tell You?

Your deed and the county map say where the land should be. A boundary survey finds it. What Alabama's standards make a survey show, and when you'll want one.

If you want to know where your land starts and stops, yes. The legal description in your deed says where the tract should be. The county GIS map is a tax drawing. Neither one puts a stake in the ground. A boundary survey does. A licensed surveyor finds or sets the corners, maps the fences and anything crossing the lines, and signs a map your title company and lender can work from.

The Deed Describes the Land, and the County Map Only Sketches It

A legal description is words. It might be a string of bearings and distances from a starting point, or a lot number in a recorded subdivision. It tells a surveyor what to look for. It doesn't tell you where the corner pin is, or whether the neighbor's fence sits on your side of it.

The county map is weaker still. The Alabama Department of Revenue's answer to what a tax map is says these drawings show "geographical features, property lines, and parcel identification numbers." Then it states the limit. Tax maps "are for tax purposes only and cannot be used for conveyance."

County parcel layers are generally digitized from those tax maps. The Department of Revenue's mapping specifications describe converting county tax maps to digital form over an aerial photo base map, so the lines inherit the tax map's limits.

LandScout's parcel outlines come from the county's GIS, so they carry the same limit. They're good for screening a tract before you ever get in the truck.

Take the Shelby County numbers (export of October 1, 2026). On the county's lines, 68.2 percent of the scored undeveloped parcels with frontage measured front a public road for at least 50 feet. The other 31.8 percent don't, at least on paper. Whether a given tract truly reaches the road is a question for the deed and a surveyor. Is This Tract Landlocked covers the access side.

Only a Licensed Land Surveyor Can Retrace Your Lines

Alabama treats boundary work as licensed work. Section 34-11-1 defines the practice of land surveying to include "locating, relocating, establishing, reestablishing, or retracing property lines or boundaries of any tract of land." Section 34-11-2 makes it unlawful to practice land surveying, or to present yourself as a land surveyor, without a license.

That license comes from the Alabama State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. The title on it is Professional Land Surveyor, often shortened to PLS. The board's license search lets you look up a person or a firm before you hire.

A friend with a GPS app can't do this job. Neither can the seller walking you around the woods, even if he knows every tree. Both may be right about where the line runs. Neither can sign a map that says so.

What Alabama's Standards Say a Boundary Survey Must Show

The rule is public, so we read it. The edition effective January 1, 2025, is the Standards of Practice for Surveying in the State of Alabama, posted by the Alabama Society of Professional Land Surveyors. State law has licensed surveyors take four hours of training on these standards every two years. That rule is Section 34-11-6, printed in the board's 2025 law and administrative code.

The standards call a property boundary survey "a professional opinion on the physical location of property lines." It "includes the setting or recovery of corner monumentation." Here is what the map has to carry.

Corners, found or set. The surveyor sets a monument (a durable marker) at each corner unless one already exists. A typical one is at least 18 inches long and half an inch across, with a cap bearing the surveyor's or firm's Alabama number. Number 4 rebar qualifies. The map gives each monument's size, material, and cap, and says whether it was found or set.
Evidence of the lines. Fences, walls, buildings, and monuments get drawn, with measurements to the boundary.
Visible encroachments. Anything crossing onto the land, off of it, or into an abutting street is shown, along with how far it reaches.
Visible easements. Signs of an easement or right-of-way across the land get located. If an abutting street right-of-way isn't physically open, the map says so.
Buildings and graves. Dwellings and major structures are measured and tied to the lines. Cemeteries are shown if the surveyor sees them or is told about them.
The record beside the ground. The map cites the deed or plat the surveyor worked from. It compares the record bearings and distances with the measured ones, and notes any difference the surveyor thinks is significant.
A signature and a seal. The map states the type of survey, the date the fieldwork was finished, and the surveyor's license number.

There's a precision rule, too. On a rural tract measured by closed traverse (a loop of measurements that returns to its start), the error can be no worse than 1 foot in 5,000 feet.

Know the limits. Underground features, like buried lines, aren't required unless the surveyor agrees to locate them. Recorded easements appear on the map only if you or your representative give the surveyor the documents. And a map that shows property lines without a boundary survey behind it must carry a note saying so.

A Survey Map and the Recorded Plat Answer Different Questions

A recorded plat shows how a subdivision was laid out on the day it was filed. A boundary survey retraces one tract as it sits today. The standards make the surveyor cite the plat or deed they started from, and show where the ground disagrees with it. So the plat is one of the survey's inputs. We cover how to read one in What Does a Recorded Plat Actually Show.

A tract described only by bearings and distances from a starting point (called metes and bounds) has no plat at all. There, the surveyor works from the deed, the other recorded papers that touch the land, and what turns up on the ground.

Without a Survey, Title Insurance Leaves the Lines to You

Title insurance covers problems in the public record, like an old lien or a flaw in an earlier deed. It has a standard blind spot. The U.S. Department of Justice's title regulations for federal land purchases describe the gap. Commitments "routinely except matters not shown in the public land records from policy coverage."

The department's sample title opinion names what stays open: "discrepancies, conflicts in boundary lines, shortages in area, encroachments, and other facts which a correct survey and inspection of the premises would disclose." Title companies call the matching line in a commitment the survey exception.

The same regulations add that "the exceptions will be deleted if a survey meeting American Land Title Association standards is provided to the title insurer." That's a more detailed type of survey, built to standards set by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors. Those rules govern federal purchases, and your title company sets its own terms. Ask it in writing what survey it needs before you order one.

Lenders care about the same gap. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says it "will not purchase or securitize a loan secured by property that has an unacceptable title impediment, particularly unpaid real estate taxes and survey exceptions." Where surveys are not commonly required, the lender can supply an ALTA 9 endorsement instead, an add-on to the title policy that covers some boundary and access risks.

That guide covers the home loans Fannie Mae buys. A loan on bare land may follow the lender's own rules. Either way, ask your lender early whether it needs a survey, an endorsement, or neither.

Paying cash? No lender will ask for a survey, so the choice is yours. Skip it, and the survey exception in the title policy stays with you.

What to Ask the Surveyor Before You Close

Call early, because fieldwork takes scheduling. Then ask:

What is your Alabama license number? (Check it on the board's search.)
Is this a property boundary survey under the Alabama standards, and does it meet what my title company asked for?
Will you set or recover every corner and show me where they are?
What do you need from me? Bring the deed, the title commitment, any recorded easements, the plat if there is one, and any earlier survey.
Will the map show the access road and where it meets a public road?
Do I need anything underground located?
When will I get the signed and sealed map, and what is the price in writing?

Then write the contract so closing waits on a survey you can live with. It's the same habit as making the septic site evaluation a condition of the sale.

LandScout shows each parcel's county outline and mapped road frontage for screening before you order a survey, and the plans are on the pricing page.