If you've bought or sold a home in Colorado, you've probably seen a line in the contract called "New ILC or New Survey Deadline" and moved past it without much thought. Most people do. It deserves a closer look here in the valley, where lots are irregular, fences went up decades ago, and plenty of homes have sheds, garages or additions that were built long after the original plat was drawn.
ILC stands for Improvement Location Certificate. A Colorado licensed land surveyor visits the property, compares where the house, garage, deck and other improvements sit against the lines in the legal description, and notes anything that looks like a problem: a garage corner over a setback, a neighbor's fence a few feet onto your side, an easement running under the spot where someone built a hot tub. Lenders and title companies often ask for one because it helps them confirm there are no obvious encroachments on the property they're lending on or insuring.
The ILC has limits that buyers often miss. Colorado law requires every ILC to state that it is not a land survey plat or an improvement survey plat, and that it can't be relied on to place fences, buildings or future improvements. The surveyor works from general knowledge of the area and usually doesn't locate the actual monuments that mark the corners. For a typical house in town that's enough. If you're planning to build, add on, put in a new fence or settle a question with a neighbor, you'll want an improvement survey plat, where the surveyor finds the monuments and establishes the lines. It costs more and takes longer, and it gives you something you can build from.
On larger or rural parcels between Carbondale and Rifle, the gap between the two matters even more. Acreage often comes with older legal descriptions, ranch fences that follow the terrain instead of the deed, and access roads that cross someone else's ground. In those cases a full survey before closing can save a lot of trouble later.
If you're under contract, a few things are worth checking. Find out who is ordering and paying for the ILC or survey, and when it's due, since the objection deadline that follows is your window to raise concerns. Read the ILC when it arrives, especially the notes along the margins, because that's where surveyors flag encroachments and easements. If the seller offers an ILC from a past sale, ask how old it is, since anything built after that date won't appear on it. And if you have plans for the property beyond living in it as it stands, talk with us before you make an offer about whether a full survey makes sense.
It's one line in a long contract, and most of the time it passes without drama. When it doesn't, you'll be glad you knew what you were looking at.
