ALTA/NSPS surveys in commercial lending can be easy to treat as just another item on the closing checklist. But for lenders, an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey can reveal issues that directly affect the collateral, title coverage, access to the property, and ultimately whether the loan is ready to fund.
The current 2026 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements became effective February 23, 2026. The standards are intended to create a consistent framework for surveyors, title insurers, lenders, and other parties relying on the survey as part of a real estate transaction.
That does not mean every survey comes back clean.
Here are several red flags commercial lenders should watch for before closing.
1. The Legal Description Does Not Match
One of the first things to confirm is that everyone is talking about the same property.
The legal description used in the survey should be reviewed against the title commitment and the legal description expected to appear in the mortgage or deed of trust. A discrepancy may be minor, but it should not simply be ignored because the street address looks right.
Commercial properties can involve multiple parcels, easements, complicated boundaries, or property assembled through multiple prior conveyances. If the legal description is inconsistent, the lender should understand why and make sure the issue is resolved before the security instrument is recorded.
2. Access Is Not as Clear as Expected
A commercial property may physically appear to have access to a public road, but lenders should look beyond what can be seen from the parking lot.
The 2026 ALTA/NSPS standards require surveys to address certain evidence of physical access to abutting public or private ways, including items such as curb cuts and driveways observed during fieldwork. They also address certain ways others may be accessing or crossing the property.
For the lender, the practical question is whether the property has the access the borrower needs to operate and whether that access is consistent with the lender’s understanding of the collateral.
An access issue discovered shortly before funding can quickly become a title, documentation, or underwriting issue.
3. Easements Affect More of the Property Than Expected
Easements are common in commercial real estate and are not automatically a problem. Utility easements, access easements, shared driveways, drainage easements, and other rights may be perfectly ordinary for the property.
What matters is where they are located and what they allow.
The survey should be reviewed alongside the title commitment so the lender can understand how recorded easements relate to the actual property. The 2026 standards specifically contemplate the surveyor’s review of recorded easements and servitudes provided through the title process, as well as certain evidence of uses observed during fieldwork that may not appear in those documents.
A lender should pay particular attention when an easement crosses a building, limits an area important to the property’s use, affects future construction, or creates access rights in favor of another property.
4. Improvements Do Not Stay Where They Are Supposed To
Buildings, fences, driveways, structural projections, and other improvements do not always line up neatly with property boundaries, easements, or setback areas.
That is one reason the physical survey matters.
An improvement may extend across a property line. A neighboring structure may encroach onto the collateral. A driveway may cross another parcel. A building or other improvement may sit within an easement area.
The ALTA/NSPS standards require surveyors to locate certain improvements along boundaries and identify evidence of potential encroachments observed during the survey process, without the surveyor offering a legal conclusion about ownership or the legal effect of the condition. Once an issue appears on the survey, the lender and its counsel can determine what additional review, title coverage, documentation, or other resolution may be appropriate.
5. The Survey Was Ordered Without the Right Lender Requirements
An ALTA/NSPS survey has minimum requirements, but lenders may need additional property information depending on the transaction.
The standards include optional items that can be requested when the survey is ordered. Those additional items are commonly referred to as Table A items and can expand the scope of information shown on the survey. The applicable items should be determined based on the property, loan structure, lender requirements, and title insurer’s needs. This is where timing becomes important.
If the lender does not communicate its requirements until the survey is already complete, the surveyor may need to perform additional work or revise the survey. That can create an avoidable delay when everyone is otherwise ready to close.
The better approach is to coordinate the survey requirements with counsel and the title company early enough that the final product actually contains the information needed for the transaction.
Why ALTA/NSPS Surveys in Commercial Lending Should Be Reviewed, Not Just Collected
The goal is not simply to have a survey sitting in the closing file.
For commercial lenders, ALTA/NSPS surveys should help confirm that the property being pledged as collateral matches what the lender believes it is financing and identify physical conditions that need to be addressed before funding.
That review works best when the survey, title commitment, loan documents, and closing requirements are considered together. A problem discovered early may be manageable. The same problem discovered while the wire is waiting to go out is much harder to deal with.
Fortra Law’s Banking & Finance team represents private and commercial lenders in loan documentation, title and survey review, and commercial loan closings. If a survey raises questions about the lender’s collateral or creates an issue that needs to be resolved before funding, reach out to our team to discuss the transaction.
