S. Howard and Associates
EFS Allows Fast and Convenient Electronic Filing of Survey Plans
Since May 2007, Smithers-based surveying firm S. Howard and Associates has been depositing and registering electronic survey plans of titled lands into the Land Title Registry with ease using the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia's (LTSA) electronic filing system (EFS).
The ability to create and submit electronic survey plans is due to a new extension of EFS that was tested in a pilot project from May to December 2007. Through this function, consents and approvals necessary for the deposit of plans into the Land Title Registry can be obtained concurrently via the Internet. Electronic plans and supporting documents are submitted to the Registry through EFS.
Angie Allwood is a survey technician at S. Howard and Associates working with her colleagues to create legal plans such as subdivision, right-of-way, explanatory and posting plans. She is responsible for ensuring that the plans developed by her company are submitted and registered with the LTSA.
With EFS, Allwood finds that she is producing far fewer physical mylar survey plans. Since couriers are no longer a daily requirement, her company is saving money, time and is reducing its ecological footprint.
Before the EFS functionality for survey plans was available, Allwood would send mylar plans by courier to each of the chargeholders and authorities to gather their signatures and consents, managing each step of the way until plan registration " often a lengthy process. Now, plans are produced electronically and distributed by e-mail to all signatories at the same time. Once all signatures and consents are gathered, the legal plan and supporting documents are certified by digital signature and submitted through EFS. The result is a much easier, faster and more streamlined process.
Allwood recalls a specific instance where a right-of-way agreement required sign-off from five individuals, including three owners, the provincial approving officer at the Ministry of Transportation and the Surveyor General. With one owner residing in New York, Allwood estimates that this plan would have taken approximately two months to register if it had been processed using the over-the-counter method. With electronic filing, it was possible to register the plan in as little as three weeks. Allwood says filing electronic survey plans via EFS is a vast time saver for her firm. In fact, S. Howard and Associates now files 100 per cent of its plans electronically.
Allwood unequivocally recommends electronic filing to her industry colleagues and gives kudos to the LTSA for modernizing the submission process for survey plans. "As our profession moves more and more into the electronic age, surveyors will greatly benefit from this technological advance. LTSA staff has done a fabulous job of making this an easy process to adopt.
