ILC vs. Survey in Colorado: Which One Does Your File Actually Need?

Two calls I get every month, and they are really the same call.

The first one: "The lender wants an ILC and my seller says they already have a survey from when they bought the place in 2019. Can we just use that one?"

The second one: "The ILC came back and the neighbor's fence is three feet onto my buyer's lot. What do we do?"

Both trace back to the same thing. Most people in this business use ILC and survey interchangeably, and in Colorado they are not the same document. They cost different money, they take different amounts of time, and one of them says in writing, on its own face, that you are not allowed to rely on it for the thing your client is about to do with it.

Here is the difference, what your title commitment does with each one, and where these files go sideways.

What an ILC actually is

An Improvement Location Certificate is a specific Colorado product defined by statute at C.R.S. 38-51-108. A licensed Colorado professional land surveyor prepares it based on their general knowledge of land boundaries and monuments in the area. They are not re-establishing your boundary. They are locating the improvements relative to the deed lines and telling you whether anything looks out of place.

Every ILC has to be prominently labeled "improvement location certificate" and carry this statement, straight out of the statute:

"I hereby certify that this improvement location certificate was prepared for [client], that it is not a land survey plat or improvement survey plat, and that it is not to be relied upon for the establishment of fence, building, or other future improvement lines."

Read that last clause again, because it is the answer to about half the ILC questions agents get asked.

What the surveyor is certifying on an ILC:

• The improvements on the parcel, except utility connections, are entirely within the boundaries — except as shown.
• There are no encroachments onto the property from improvements on adjoining property — except as indicated.
• There is no apparent evidence or sign of any easement crossing or burdening any part of the parcel — except as noted.

The surveyor assumes full responsibility for what they certify. It is a real professional document, not a guess. But two limits matter: monuments may be found on an ILC, they cannot be set, and an ILC is not recorded with the county. It stays with whoever ordered it.

What a survey is

When people in Colorado say "survey" in a residential deal, they usually mean an Improvement Survey Plat (ISP) — or on vacant ground, a Land Survey Plat.

This is a boundary determination. The surveyor does full record research, finds or sets monuments at the corners, resolves conflicts between what the record says and what is actually happening on the ground, and shows easements of record along with anything apparent in the field. An improvement survey plat adds the improvements on top of those verified boundaries.

Plats required under C.R.S. 38-51-107 get deposited with the county. And because the boundary has actually been established, this is the document your client can build off of.

Side by side

	Improvement Location Certificate	Improvement Survey Plat
What it is	Improvements located against deed lines, based on the surveyor's general knowledge of the area	A verified boundary, with improvements shown inside it
Boundary established?	No	Yes
Corner monuments	May be found — cannot be set	Found or set
Recorded?	No — stays with the client	Deposited with the county
Can you build a fence off it?	No — the statute says so explicitly	Yes
Shows encroachments and apparent easements?	Yes, as observed	Yes, in more detail, with record easements plotted
Relative cost and time	Much less of both	Substantially more research, field work, and cost
Typical residential use	The default on a platted subdivision resale	Vacant land, acreage, disputes, anything being built

I am deliberately not putting dollar figures in that last row. Pricing moves with acreage, records research, terrain, and how booked the surveyor is. Get a written quote with a firm delivery date before you promise your client a number.

Why your title company cares about this at all

Here is the part that connects a few hundred dollars of surveyor work to your buyer's coverage.

A Colorado title commitment carries a set of standard exceptions on Schedule B-2. The first several — parties in possession, unrecorded easements, and matters an accurate survey would disclose — are commonly called the survey exceptions. They are there because the title company has searched the record but has not looked at the dirt.

Those exceptions come off when the title company receives a satisfactory New ILC or New Survey. Either one can do it. That deletion is a core piece of what your buyer is paying for with owner's extended coverage.

Two things agents miss constantly:

1. The ILC has to be certified to the title company. The ILC the seller found in a drawer, certified in 2019 to the seller and their old lender, does not do the job for your file. That is exactly why the contract requires the surveyor to certify the New ILC or New Survey to everyone who is supposed to receive it — buyer, seller, and the issuer of the title commitment.

2. Deleting the survey exceptions does not mean the title company insures over a problem the ILC found. It means the buyer is covered for what an accurate survey would have disclosed but did not turn up. Anything the ILC actually shows — a fence over the line, a shed in a utility easement — gets written up as its own exception. The document does not make the problem go away. It makes the problem known, and known problems get excepted.

That second point is the whole game. An ILC does not fix anything. It tells you what you are dealing with while you still have contract deadlines left to deal with it.

What the contract actually says

In the Commission-approved Contract to Buy and Sell, this lives in Section 9, New ILC, New Survey, with three matching rows in the Dates and Deadlines table:

Contract item	What it controls	What to watch
Check box for New ILC or New Survey	Whether one is required at all, and which one	If nothing is checked, nobody is ordering anything. Agents assume the title company just handles it. We do not order it for you.
Who orders it	Seller or Buyer	A prior ILC or survey can qualify if it is recertified and updated to a date after the contract date and is in the required form
Who pays	Seller, Buyer, or split however you write it	Negotiable. In our market it is commonly the seller on a resale, but write it, do not assume it
New ILC or New Survey Deadline	Delivery to buyer, seller, and the title commitment issuer	Back this date up. Surveyors get booked, and weather moves field dates
Objection Deadline	Buyer's window to object or terminate over what it shows	Usually only a handful of days after delivery. A late ILC compresses this to nothing
Resolution Deadline	Window to fix the objection before the contract terminates	This is where a boundary problem either gets solved or kills the deal

The practical failure mode is almost always the same: the ILC is ordered late, it lands the day before the objection deadline, it shows something real, and now the buyer is deciding whether to terminate on a document nobody has had time to understand. Order it early. If it is clean, you have lost nothing.

When an ILC is not enough

Situation	What you need	Why
Vacant land	Survey	There are no improvements to locate. An ILC has nothing to certify
Client is building anything — fence, addition, garage, deck, pool, shop	Survey	The ILC states on its face it cannot be relied on for future improvement lines
Acreage, metes and bounds, or unplatted ground	Survey	The deed lines are not backed by a recent subdivision plat and monuments
Known boundary dispute or a neighbor who "moved the fence"	Survey	You need an established boundary, not an observation
The ILC came back showing an encroachment and someone wants it resolved	Survey	You cannot write a boundary line agreement off a document that disclaims boundary determination
Lot line adjustment, subdividing, or a replat	Survey	County requires a recorded plat
Commercial or investor deal where the lender asks for ALTA/NSPS	ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey	Different standard entirely, and priced accordingly
Standard resale in a platted subdivision, no construction planned	ILC is usually fine	This is what the product was built for

The ILC came back ugly. Now what?

Do not panic and do not immediately tell your buyer to terminate. Most of these have a path.

What it shows	Realistic options
Neighbor's fence sits on the subject property	Confirm with a survey; recorded boundary line agreement; encroachment or license agreement; neighbor moves it; or buyer accepts and the policy excepts it
Seller's shed, deck, or driveway crosses onto the neighbor	Same menu, reversed — and this one usually needs to be solved before closing, because the buyer is inheriting the problem
Improvement sitting inside a recorded utility easement	Check whether it is a real risk or a paper one. Some utilities will issue a consent or encroachment agreement. Some will not, and the improvement is at risk whenever they need access
Setback or building line violation	City or county zoning question, not a title question. May need a variance. Get the municipality involved early
Apparent easement on the ground that is not in Schedule B-2	Worth a real look. An unrecorded prescriptive claim is exactly the kind of thing the survey exceptions exist for
Improvements shown well inside the lines, nothing noted	Send it to your title company and get the survey exceptions deleted. That is the win

The one move I would push back on: quietly ignoring it because the objection deadline is tight. Once it is disclosed on an ILC, it is a known matter. It will show up again at the next sale, and the next agent will be having a harder conversation than the one you are having now. See also: the title problems we catch before closing.

Where I can help

• Before you write the contract — tell me the address and I will tell you whether the file wants an ILC or a survey, and whether the deadline you are about to write is realistic.
• Prior documents — if we have closed the property before, there may be an ILC or improvement survey plat in the file already. Worth asking before anyone pays for a new one.
• Underwriting answers — exactly what our underwriter needs to delete the survey exceptions and issue extended coverage on your specific file.
• Reading it against the commitment — I will line the ILC up against Schedule B-2 so you know which easements shown are recorded and which ones are news. That is a fifteen minute conversation that saves a week.
• When something shows up — a fast, honest read on whether it is a real problem or a paper one, and what your options actually are.

• Email: ben.gosz@ctt.com
• Phone: 719.602.9431

This article is general information for real estate professionals and consumers, not legal advice. Statutes, contract forms, and underwriting requirements change, and every property has its own facts. Boundary and encroachment questions should go to a licensed Colorado professional land surveyor and, where there is a dispute, an attorney.

Frequently asked questions

Is an ILC the same thing as a survey in Colorado?

No. An Improvement Location Certificate is prepared under C.R.S. 38-51-108 based on the surveyor's general knowledge of boundaries and monuments in the area, and it must state on its face that it is not a land survey plat or improvement survey plat. A survey establishes the boundary through record research and monuments found or set. They look similar on paper and do completely different jobs.

Can my buyer build a fence using the ILC?

No, and this is the most common misuse of the document. The required certification language says an ILC is "not to be relied upon for the establishment of fence, building, or other future improvement lines." If your client is putting in a fence, an addition, a garage, or a pool, they need an improvement survey plat with actual monuments set. Building off an ILC is how neighbors end up in court.

Can we use the seller's old ILC instead of ordering a new one?

Sometimes. The contract allows a previous ILC or survey to satisfy the requirement if it is in the required form and is certified and updated as of a date after the contract date. Two catches: it has to be recertified to the parties who are supposed to receive it, including the title commitment issuer, and anything built since it was prepared will not be on it. A recertification is usually cheaper than starting over, so it is worth asking the original surveyor.

What does an ILC do for title insurance?

A satisfactory New ILC or New Survey is what lets the title company delete the standard survey exceptions from Schedule B-2 — parties in possession, unrecorded easements, and matters an accurate survey would disclose. Deleting those is a central piece of owner's extended coverage. Important nuance: it covers what an accurate survey would have found and did not. Anything the ILC actually discloses becomes its own exception rather than covered risk.

Who pays for the ILC in Colorado?

Whoever you write into the contract. Section 9 has a box for seller, buyer, or another arrangement. In the Colorado Springs resale market the seller commonly pays, but that is custom, not law, and it is negotiable like anything else. Write it rather than assuming, especially on new construction and investor deals where local custom does not apply the same way.

Do I need an ILC on vacant land?

An ILC does not work on vacant land, because there are no improvements to locate. If you are buying ground, you want a land survey plat or improvement survey plat, and you should budget more time and money than a standard residential ILC. This catches people on lot purchases constantly, and it catches them late, because the contract box says "New ILC or New Survey" and they check it without deciding which.

The ILC shows the neighbor's fence a few feet onto my buyer's lot. Is that a title problem?

It is a real issue and it is worth solving before closing rather than after. Options generally include confirming the line with a survey, a recorded boundary line agreement between the owners, an encroachment or license agreement, having the fence moved, or the buyer accepting it with the matter excepted from coverage. What you do not want is to close with it noted and unaddressed, because a long-standing encroachment can mature into an adverse possession or prescriptive claim, and the next seller inherits a harder file.

How long does an ILC take to get back?

Less time than a survey, but the honest answer is that it depends on the surveyor's schedule, the season, and the property. Winter field work in Colorado moves. Ask for a firm delivery date in writing when you order it, and set the contract deadline with room to spare — the objection deadline sits only a few days behind delivery, and a late ILC leaves your buyer making a termination decision with no time to think.

Does the ILC get recorded?

No. An ILC stays with the client who ordered it. Land survey plats prepared under C.R.S. 38-51-107 are deposited with the county, which is one practical reason a survey has lasting value beyond the closing — it is findable later. If your client gets an ILC, tell them to keep the PDF somewhere they will find it in five years.