Legal Question in Real Estate Law in North Carolina

No. If the buyer wants a survey, the buyer can pay for it. It depends on the property. If the buyer is buying vacant or undeveloped land, especially land that is still in the name of a grandparent and the grandchildren are selling, a survey might be wise because it can turn up defects. Also, old deeds were written in vague language that often refer to monuments that are no longer there and the boundaries can get fuzzy.

If you are buying a home in a community that is well developed, then incurring the costs of a survey may not be necessary if the boundaries of the land are well defined and marked by iron pins. If you a re the buyer, you have decide how much risk you can tolerate and the likelihood of a defect in title.