ALTA Table A items: the 2026 list and what each one adds to your ALTA survey

An ALTA survey is governed by a single national document: the 2026 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys, jointly adopted by the American Land Title Association and the National Society of Professional Surveyors. It took effect on February 23, 2026 and superseded the 2021 standard that most published guidance still cites. If your commercial closing requires "an ALTA," this standard is the entire contract between you, the surveyor and the title insurer. Here is what it obligates, what changed this year, and where the price actually comes from.

What changed in the 2026 standard

The standard was adopted by ALTA on October 8, 2025 and by NSPS on October 17, 2025, and took effect February 23, 2026. Three changes matter to a deal team.

Your request language changed. The standard requires the request to specify that a "2026 ALTA/NSPS LAND TITLE SURVEY" is required, along with the Table A items elected. Engagement letters and due diligence checklists still saying 2021 are asking for a superseded product, so this is worth a find-and-replace across your firm's templates.

New Table A Item 20: an encroachment summary table. Where elected, the surveyor summarizes on the face of the plat the potential encroachments over the boundary in both directions, potential encroachments into documented rights of way and easements, potential setback encroachments, physical access between adjoining parcels without an easement, and use of adjoining parcels by apparent occupants without an easement. The item is written with two express limits: the surveyor gives no statement of legal opinion or opinion as to ownership, and the table may not be a comprehensive list of everything on the plat. It is a reading aid, not a legal conclusion.

Item 20 is optional, like every Table A item. If your request does not check it, you do not get the table. The setback rows are narrower still: they only appear when the setback requirements were supplied to the surveyor under Item 6(a) or 6(b), or appear in recorded documents. The free-text slot for privately negotiated items, which used to be Item 20, is now Item 21.

Item 15 was also rewritten around the use of imagery. Where imagery is relied on to locate features other than boundaries, the surveyor must agree with the client in writing on the imagery source, date or version and licensing, discuss the accuracy implications with the insurer, lender and client beforehand, and note the source, date and precision on the face of the survey. One number did not move: the maximum allowable Relative Positional Precision is still 2 cm (0.07 feet) plus 50 parts per million at the 95 percent confidence level, measured between adjacent boundary corners.

What every ALTA survey must include

• Boundary resolution per the record title commitment, with monuments found or set at corners.
• All Schedule B-II exceptions plotted. Every recorded easement and encumbrance in the title commitment that can be shown, shown, or noted as not plottable.
• Improvements, access and encroachments. Buildings, visible utilities, means of access, and anything crossing a line in either direction.
• The prescribed certification. Verbatim language certifying to the buyer, lender and title company, naming the effective standard.

These minimums are not negotiable, which is why "just a cheap ALTA" is not a coherent request. The negotiation lives in Table A.

Table A: where scope and price are set

Table A is a menu of optional items the parties elect. The items your lender checks are the items you pay for:

A pad-site ALTA with items 2, 3, 4, 8 quotes very differently from the same site with 5, 6, 9 and 11(b). This is why scoped requests get comparable bids and vague requests get padded ones. Typical 2026 pricing: $2,500 to $4,500 for simple pad sites, $4,000 to $7,500 mid-size, $7,000 to $10,000+ for large or heavy-scope sites. For the full picture on scope and pricing across commercial products, see the commercial land survey cost guide.

Item 20 is worth electing on almost any deal. Title insurers have long asked surveyors to add encroachment statements by revision after the fact, and having the summary on the plat from the start is usually cheaper than the round trip.

The schedule reality deal teams miss

The survey needs the title commitment (the surveyor plots Schedule B-II from it), so ordering the ALTA the day the commitment lands, not the week before closing, is the single best schedule move. Field-to-seal runs 2 to 4 weeks in most markets, and crew availability, not fieldwork hours, is the variable. A late survey is a late closing; three scheduled quotes protect the date better than one incumbent's promise.

Scoping checklist

• Site address, parcel(s), acreage, and current title commitment (or its ETA)
• Lender's required Table A items (ask; they have a standard list)
• Certification parties, exactly as they will appear
• Closing date, worked backward to a required delivery date

Bring that list to the matcher on our homepage and licensed surveyors in the property's state return comparable ALTA quotes with real crew dates. For the wider pricing picture across survey types, see the land survey cost guide.