Most people going into a commercial real estate transaction  assume that a clean title report means a clean property. It doesn’t. A title report tells you about recorded documents. ALTA land surveys tell you about the land itself. Those are two different things, and the gap between them is where real problems live.

A title report can be completely clear while a building sits three feet over the property line. It can show an easement on record without telling you whether a structure has been built inside it. None of that is the title report’s fault. It was never designed to verify physical conditions.

Why Title Reports Have Limits

A title report is built from documents. It searches public records, including deeds, plats, mortgages, and court filings, to trace ownership and identify recorded claims. It does that job well.

What it can’t do is leave the office. It has no way to verify whether a recorded easement corridor is actually clear, whether the fence along the north boundary sits on the right side of the property line, or whether a neighboring structure has expanded onto the subject parcel. These are physical facts, and verifying them requires someone on the ground.

Title insurers understand this. Without a current survey, they routinely add a survey exception to the policy, removing coverage for any physical conditions or boundary issues a survey would have caught. Removing that exception requires an ALTA land survey.

What ALTA Land Surveys Find on the Ground

When a licensed surveyor conducts an ALTA land survey, they are looking for things that no document search can find. The most significant categories of findings include:

• Gaps and overlaps in adjoining deeds. Sometimes two neighboring properties have legal descriptions that don’t perfectly connect. The result is a strip of land that technically belongs to neither owner, or one that both descriptions claim. These don’t appear in title searches but show up clearly when a surveyor maps both parcels.
• Improvements that violate setback requirements. A structure built legally decades ago may not meet current setback requirements due to zoning changes. The survey measures actual distances from buildings to boundary lines. Title records won’t catch this because it’s a measurement, not a document.
• Shared driveways without recorded agreements. In older commercial areas across St. Louis, driveways and loading areas are sometimes physically shared between properties but have no formal recorded access easement. The survey documents the physical condition and surfaces the issue so it can be addressed.
• Utility infrastructure not tied to recorded easements. Above-ground features like poles, guy wires, and transformer pads are noted in the survey even when they aren’t connected to a formally recorded easement. Their location matters for any planned construction or site work.
• Water features and drainage channels. Ponds, streams, and drainage areas affect what you can build and where. Their physical location on the parcel matters for permitting. The survey documents them as they actually exist, not as they may have been mapped years ago.

Each of these findings is physical. None of them can be confirmed by reading records alone.

How Title Reports and ALTA Land Surveys Work Together

These two tools aren’t competing. They’re meant to be used as a pair.

The title report gives the surveyor the Schedule B exceptions, which are the recorded items that need to be plotted on the survey, including easements and rights-of-way. The surveyor takes that list into the field and checks each one against physical conditions on the ground.

When the survey comes back, the title company reviews it alongside the title commitment. If the survey shows a building inside a recorded utility easement, the title company knows before issuing the policy. They can require the seller to resolve it, add a specific exception, or decide whether coverage can still be extended. Without the survey, they’re working blind on the physical side of the deal.

What This Means for Buyers in St. Louis

St. Louis has a large stock of commercial properties with deep ownership histories. Industrial corridors, retail strips, and mixed-use buildings throughout the city have changed hands many times. Records from earlier transactions aren’t always complete, and physical conditions don’t always match what’s on file.

Relying on a title report alone means accepting whatever the survey would have caught. That could be a minor issue handled easily at closing, or it could be a shared access situation that turns into a dispute years later. The survey converts unknowns into knowns. A title report clears the legal history. An ALTA land survey clears the physical present. You need both.