Contract Closeup: Surveys for Residential Properties – Texas REALTORS®-2021十大正规彩票app

June 01, 2020

Paragraph 6C of the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) (TXR 1601) includes requirements for property surveys.

This paragraph requires that the survey must be prepared by a registered professional land surveyor acceptable to the title company and the buyer’s lender. An agent should ensure that the survey meets these standards if the party the agent represents is required to obtain a survey for the property.

Paragraph 6C(1) should be used when the seller has an existing survey of the property. It is imperative for the seller’s agent to ensure that the seller has an existing survey before selecting this option. In this subparagraph, the seller agrees to provide a copy of the existing survey and a T-47 Residential Real Property Affidavit to the buyer and title company within the prescribed time. If either document is not delivered, the contract specifies that the buyer will obtain a new survey at the seller’s expense no later than three days before closing.

If the existing survey and T-47 affidavit are delivered but either or both of them are unacceptable to the title company or the buyer’s lender, the buyer must obtain a new survey. The contract includes checkboxes the parties can use to specify who will pay for the new survey. The contract implies that the buyer will select the survey company regardless of who is paying for it.

Paragraph 6C(2) should be used when the parties are aware that the seller does not have an existing survey and have agreed that the buyer will obtain and pay for a survey within an agreed-upon number of days after the effective date. This subparagraph states that the survey is deemed to have been received either on the actual date of receipt or the date that is in the contract, whichever is earlier. This is important to note for purposes of the date calculations in Paragraph 6D regarding objections to the title, survey, and exception documents.

Paragraph 6C(3) should be used when the parties are aware that the seller does not have an existing survey and have agreed that the seller will obtain and pay for a survey that will be delivered to the buyer within an agreed-upon number of days after the effective date.

Though Paragraphs 6C(2) and 6C(3) do not expressly specify that the survey will be delivered to the title company and buyer’s lender, it is implied from the language at the beginning of Paragraph 6C that the survey will be delivered to both. Except in those instances in Paragraph 6C where the contract specifies what happens if the obligation is not performed or the obligation is deemed to have been performed, if one of the parties does not comply with the terms of the contract and does not complete his or her obligation, that party would be in default, and the non-defaulting party could exercise the remedies in Paragraph 15.

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