There are many things to prepare when getting ready to list your home and one of those that my clients are often unaware of is the Real Property Report (RPR). When selling a single-family home or a bare land condominium in Alberta, the seller is required to provide an RPR on closing, so it is an important document to have at hand when you hit the market.

An RPR is a legal document, a survey showing the position of your home and outdoor structures in relation to the property lines and municipal bylaws. It will include:

• The positions of the home, deck and outbuildings in relation to the property lines
• Encroachments to the boundaries of the property
• Easements, restrictive covenants and utility right-of-ways on the property
• a statement from the surveyor with their opinions and any concerns

Here are a couple of examples of an RPR from Arc Surveys (www.arcsurveys.ca), one with no issues and one with an encroachment:

Having an RPR when you first list your home will help to identify if there are any issues with boundaries or encroachments – problems which can cause significant delays or even collapse a sale on closing. Knowing you have an encroachment, for example, allows me to resolve the issue when negotiating an offer before it becomes a problem.

You most likely received an RPR when you purchased your home so have it handy for me to review. If you don’t have one, I can help you arrange a survey. There is no expiry date for an RPR so you may not even need to order a new one. Reasons you might not need to request a new or updated one include:

• you have made no changes to the home’s footprint, like adding a sunroom
• you have made no changes to the exterior, such as adding a deck, garage or shed or entirely replace the fence

It’s always best to contact a surveyor to find out if your RPR is sufficient as sometimes bylaws are changed or a municipality might not accept an RPR of a certain age. You may also be able to save yourself some money by updating your current RPR instead of ordering a completely new survey – an RPR can range from $550 to over $800 so it’s definitely worth looking into the possibility of an update.

You will also need to provide proof of municipal compliance, as shown by the blue certificate of compliance stamp in the first RPR example. The City will review your RPR to identify any issues – no problems will result in a compliance stamp. You will see in the second example, there is no certificate of compliance, but instead shows an encroachment advisory. This signals an issue to be resolved. It is important to note that lots of homes in and around Calgary have encroachments so it’s not necessarily something that will collapse a sale – it can mean that a buyer must acknowledge and accept the encroachment to proceed with the transaction.

No matter what your RPR situation, with me by your side we will make sure your transaction will be as smooth as possible every step of the way. Visit me on Facebook and Google for the latest in real estate information!