Direction 19: Seeking Surveyor General Approval for Amended Plans to be Filed in the Land Title Office

Direction to Land Surveyors No. 19 (October 31, 2024)

The Surveyor General acts as statutory decision maker on various Land Title Act and Strata Property Act plans filed in the land title office.  Accordingly, the Surveyor General is required to endorse a certificate on an Application to Deposit Plan (DSPL) form under various authorities, such as Section 69(3) of the Land Title Act for a Block Outline Survey, Section 94(1)(c) or (d) of the Land Title Act to update the location of a natural boundary, Section 80 of the Land Act to establish a public road allowance through Crown land, and others.

In all cases, the Surveyor General or delegate carefully reviews the electronically certified survey plan bearing the land surveyor’s digital signature on the Survey Plan Certification (SPC) form.  If the plan is found to be acceptable, the appropriate certificate will be endorsed on the DSPL and the form will be returned to the land surveyor or legal professional so that the plan may be filed in the land title office.

As part of our review, Surveyor General staff always confirm that the control number generated on the SPC matches the one that is entered on the DSPL provided, to ensure that we are reviewing and approving the version of the plan that is intended to be filed in the land title office.

Recently, we have been discovering that a large percentage of plans we have approved are being filed in the land title office with a different control number from what we had reviewed.  This means that something has changed on the plan, and we were not notified of what the change was.  As a result, we have not given our approval of the version that was filed in the land title office.

In keeping with best practices for electronic filing, Surveyor General staff must be notified any time a change is made to a survey plan – no matter how small the change is – that results in the generation of a new control number after we have signed the DSPL, and we must be given the opportunity to review and consent to the changes that have been made.  This requirement applies equally to changes made prior to submission to the land title office, and to those made in response to a land title defect.

Whenever you make changes to a Land Title Act or Strata Property Act plan after having obtained Surveyor General approval, please send an email to the Surveyor General contact who sent you the original approval, or to the surveyor.general@ltsa.ca mailbox, providing a copy of the amended, certified plan and a detailed description of what has been changed.  We will review the changes on your plan and, if the changes are deemed acceptable, we will advise whether we are comfortable allowing our prior approval signature to stand, or whether we wish to re-endorse the certificate on an updated DSPL with a corresponding updated control number.

Dave Swaile, BCLS, CLS