Yes. A transaction team can request and scope an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey before the latest title commitment arrives, and the surveyor may agree to begin appropriate preliminary work. Completing the survey requires the current commitment or other title evidence satisfactory to the title insurer under the 2026 standards. Identify what is missing and agree on the records handoff before treating a delivery date as fixed.
Separate the request from the complete title package
A buyer, lender, or title team can send the property identification, current record description, available prior survey, intended transaction, requested recipients, and target review date to start a scope conversation. A written authorization to proceed must come from the party responsible for paying for the work. The request should identify the 2026 ALTA/NSPS standard and any optional Table A items to be included.
Section 4 of the 2026 ALTA/NSPS standards calls for the most recent title commitment or other title evidence acceptable to the insurer, the current property description, and applicable recorded easement and covenant documents. An exception list without the instruments behind it may leave the surveyor unable to locate or explain a recorded right. The insurer and surveyor may need additional research when the commitment is unavailable; that scope belongs in the agreement.
Agree what can proceed while records are pending
Ask the surveyor which research or field tasks, if any, are sensible with the records already available. Ask the title officer which substitute evidence the insurer will accept and when the complete package will arrive. Do not assume preliminary fieldwork settles the mapped title matters or that a partially supplied package can support a final certification.
Name one transaction contact to deliver updates. If a revised commitment changes the estate, legal description, exceptions, or relying parties, circulate it promptly and ask whether the survey scope, drawing, or delivery milestone changes. Terrane’s article on late-arriving title exceptions covers that later handoff.
For the initial request, send what you have, list what is outstanding, and obtain a written plan for the missing evidence. The ALTA survey service page describes Terrane’s commercial survey work; the specific assignment still depends on the property and transaction requirements.
