By Lydia Blair
Special Contributor

One of the most common mistakes and needless expenses that home sellers encounter involves the survey section of their sales contract. Despite the bold type and plain English, there are often disputes and confusion about providing a survey.

The survey section is on page 2 of the standard TREC contract. Paragraph 6C specifically addresses who will provide a survey and when it is due. Note that there are 3 options on the contract regarding the survey. One – and only one – of these options should be checked before completing the contract. The most commonly checked option is paragraph 6C (1).

Paragraph 6C (1) states that the seller will provide an existing survey along with the notarized survey affidavit within a specified number of days. If the survey is not acceptable to the title company or buyer’s lender then there is a place to check whether the buyer or seller will pay for a new survey.

This is where we see a lot of misunderstanding. Often the box is checked that the buyer will pay for a new survey in this paragraph. And sometimes the seller mistakenly thinks that if they can’t find their survey, this means the buyer will pay for a new one. That is not the case. If box 6C (1) is checked, the buyer would only pay for a new survey if the seller’s existing survey was unacceptable to the title company or lender.

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