ALTA surveys and zoning reports in a loan file

The American Land Title Association's topic page on land survey standards says the 2026 ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey Standards took effect on February 23, 2026. The standards cover fieldwork, the plat or map, Table A optional items, the certification, and deliverables. Table A is a menu. The lender, the title company, and the buyer decide which optional items are ordered. A 2021 explainer described an older Table A, including item numbers that were current then. Those item numbers are not repeated here as if they were still the 2026 menu, because the association's current page says the table changed. This note is general information, not legal advice, and not a survey.

Wikipedia's article titled for an ALTA survey is about the American Land Title Association as a trade group founded in 1907. It does not set out the survey standards or Table A. Do not cite that article as the survey specification. The specification is the association's standards page. A survey matters to a loan because the lender's title policy and endorsements often depend on what the map shows: boundaries, easements, improvements, and access, among other matters the ordered Table A items address. Which endorsement is available is the title insurer's decision on that file.

Zoning is a second report

A zoning report tells the reader how the jurisdiction classifies the property and whether the jurisdiction says the current use is permitted. A use that was legal when it began and does not match today's code is often called legally nonconforming. Whether it may be rebuilt after a casualty, or expanded, or financed, is not a sentence this note can finish. A land-use attorney reads the local ordinance and the report. Parking counts and rebuild rights are in that local law and in the report's citations. This page does not invent a parking ratio.

Survey matters and zoning matters travel together because a lender does not want to fund a building the map shows in an easement or a use the city says is illegal. They are still different vendors and different documents. Order both when the term sheet requires both. The closing sequence is Arizona commercial closings. The environmental report, which is not a survey, is Phase I. Tenant estoppels, which confirm lease facts rather than boundary facts, are estoppels and SNDAs. The checklist is commercial loan documents.

What to hand the surveyor

Hand over the title commitment, the old survey if one exists, and the Table A items the lender checked. A survey ordered without the commitment often comes back and has to be redrawn once the exceptions are known. If the zoning report and the survey disagree about where a setback line is, stop and ask both vendors. Do not average them. Counsel resolves the disagreement if it is a legal nonconformity rather than a drafting error.

The office is 7373 E Doubletree Ranch Rd #255, Scottsdale, AZ 85258. The phone is (480) 495-8072. Capital Market Funds, LLC - CBK-2007014 - Commercial Mortgage Banker and NMLS 1445066. We can tell a lender which reports the file has. We do not certify the map and we do not opine that a use is legal.