Property surveys may be required whenever land ownership, property boundaries, legal interests, or development rights need to be defined, documented, or modified. JEA provides professional land surveying services throughout Vancouver Island, supporting property owners, developers, builders, lawyers, municipalities, First Nations, and strata corporations with accurate and reliable survey information.

Some scenarios include:

• Buying or selling real estate
• Subdividing land or creating strata lots
• Lot consolidations or boundary adjustments
• During construction
• Settling a property line dispute
• Creating or modifying property access rights through easements or right-of-ways
• Restrictive covenant registrations  
• Securing mortgages and financing

Our team of professional land surveyors, technologists, and field crews work closely with our clients to deliver precise boundary, topographic, and construction surveys meeting the highest standards for clarity, accuracy, and compliance.

Building layout surveys are required prior to the construction of a building or structure to precisely mark its location, orientation, and elevation, ensuring that it will:

• Comply with all zoning and setback requirements
• Fall within property boundaries
• Meet building permit requirements
• Satisfy any legal land use conditions or inspection requirements

During the construction process, as-built surveys may be required to confirm that work aligns with the layout plans.

Building location certificates (BLC), and dependent on local bylaws, height assurance letters, are required to legally verify the precise location and height of a building or structure to satisfy building inspection requirements.

Site surveys are typically one of the first steps in the planning of a land development project and provides information about the physical and topographic characteristics of a parcel of land that is then used throughout the design and construction process. Site surveys can show a property’s:

• Topography (ie. terrain, elevation, material)
• Natural features (ie. trees, watercourses, natural boundaries)
• Existing land improvements (ie. buildings/structures, roads/driveways, fences, engineered drainage, surface utilities etc.)

Legal surveys are commonly required for property transactions, subdivisions, strata developments, easement creation, financing, and land development projects.

A Legal or Cadastral survey is needed to determine and document the exact boundaries, dimensions, and legal characteristics of a property by precisely locating property lines, as well as any easements, right-of-ways, setbacks, or encroachments - all features that may affect property ownership, land use, and development. These surveys can be registered on title through the BC Land Title Office under the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC. Some examples of legal surveys that JEA provides are:

• Building or Bare Land Strata plans
• Subdivision plans
• Reference plans
• Air Space Parcel plans (used to differentiate multiple stratas within a multiuse building)
• Volumetric surveys (used to establish volumetric easements above or below the surface, or adjacent to a property)

UAV surveys can be ideal for a variety of sites, particularly those that are large or difficult to access. Our certified UAV pilots capture high-resolution imagery and topographic data quickly and efficiently to support the planning and preliminary design phases of land development projects. 

UAV surveys can also be used to measure volumes of materials such as aggregate, rock, and earth, as well as for deformation monitoring over protracted time periods.

JEA’s robotic total stations are equipped with 3D laser scanning capabilities. Laser scanning is a process that involves the use of high-resolution 3D laser technology to gather thousands of data points, then stitching them together to create a point cloud using powerful data processing software. From the point cloud, a 3D CAD drawing of the scanned area or structure can be created with exceptional accuracy. Common applications for scanning surveys include:

• As-built measurements of buildings, interiors, facades, and structures. Particularly those that have hard to measure features such as overhangs, curved surfaces, or hard to access areas.
• Deformation and settlement monitoring (ie. for retaining walls, excavations, slopes, structures etc).
• Construction verification and quality control for renovations, retrofits, and heritage conservation projects.

JEA’s team of BC and Canada Land Surveyors have partnered with local First Nations on numerous land development projects dealing with land management, development, infrastructure planning, and legal documentation. Whether for land parcel creation, housing and leasehold development, infrastructure projects, treaty and land claim implementation, or legal and natural boundary definitions – we approach our work with First Nations from a position of respect and prioritize close consultation with community members throughout.

Our surveyors have experience supporting reserve lands, treaty implementation projects, land management initiatives, infrastructure development, and housing projects throughout Vancouver Island and coastal British Columbia.

With offices in Victoria, Sooke, Nanaimo, Parksville, and Campbell River, JEA provides land surveying services throughout Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. From property line and legal surveys, to construction layout, topographic surveys and site plans, UAV surveys, and 3D laser scanning, our team delivers accurate survey information that supports land development, engineering, infrastructure, and construction projects of every scale.