Evidence for lot grading and drainage disputes
A drainage or grading dispute comes down to two questions: what did the ground look like before, and when did it change? Provincial lidar and aerial photos have been recording rural eastern Ontario for years. MuniScan pulls every year on record for the property, compares it with the approved lot grading plan, and adds RTK-mapped ground for today. The result is a set of legal-size sheets with every source, licence and date listed, so your client, the Township, an engineer or the court can check each number.
Get the evidence first. It is cheaper than the letters that follow, and it tells you early whether there is a case.
What we can establish
- Drainage and grading: rear-lot swales, ditches and culverts filled, raised or blocked; where runoff went before and where it goes now; ponding extent and depth.
- Against the approved plan: design lot-corner and swale grades from the subdivision lot grading plan, compared with lidar and measured ground, with any datum difference shown.
- Fill and earthworks: raised pads, berms and stockpiles, with cut and fill volumes once current ground is measured.
- Dating a change: sheds, additions, pools, fences, driveways, tree clearing and shoreline work, bracketed between provincial photo and lidar dates, tightened with your client's dated photos.
- Heights and separations: fence, berm, hedge and building heights; septic bed and tank distances to a well, against Building Code separations.
How it holds up
- Licence-clean sources. Every measurement comes from Open Government Licence data (provincial lidar, DRAPE aerial photos, NRCan elevation and control, Environment Canada weather) or our own RTK mapping. Client photos and third-party imagery appear only as labelled exhibits, never measured from.
- Records cited. Lot grading plans, permits, registry documents and by-laws are cited by number, date and source.
- Field procedure. RTK mapping ties to published control and plan benchmarks, with check shots before and after, repeat observations, photos of each shot, and independent NRCan CSRS-PPP processing of a static session.
- Chain of custody. Raw files are kept unaltered with recorded hashes; work is done on copies.
- Stated accuracy. Each sheet states vertical accuracy and rates every finding high, medium or low confidence.
What we don't do
We don't locate property lines; that is an Ontario Land Surveyor's work, and we refer it. We don't decide fault or cause, give legal advice, or give an engineering opinion; the report is a neutral record of measured facts and dates that a P.Eng. or OLS can rely on and adopt. We don't enter neighbouring property, and we don't contact the other party.
Either side, same evidence
We work for whoever asks: the owner with the wet yard, the owner who regraded, their lawyers, or the Township. The evidence doesn't change with who pays. It is physical proof only: measured ground, dated public records and cited documents. If the data doesn't support the client's version, the report says so. Prepared under the OACETT Code of Ethics.
For Ontario Land Surveyors
Boundary questions that come to us go to an OLS. In the other direction, if a file needs a terrain change history, a grading-plan comparison or historical lidar profiles to cite alongside your work, we can supply the sheets and the data behind them.
Scope and price
- Desktop evidence report: $495 + HST. Timeline sheet (before, during, now) and a profile along the drainage line against the plan grades. About 5 business days after we have the address and the client's dated photos.
- RTK mapping: today's ground added to the same profile, with the field records described above. Quoted per site.
- Multi-lot or larger files: quoted.
See the public sample from a real case (addresses removed, photos blurred).
Area
Lanark County, the Arnprior–Renfrew area and north Leeds and Grenville. Elsewhere in Ontario, desktop work by quote where provincial lidar exists.
Contact
Trevor Affleck, A.Sc.T. (OACETT). 25+ years in Ontario construction layout, legal surveys and municipal infrastructure mapping. Call or text 613-219-0288 or email trevor@tdoubleai.ca. Send the address, a line on the issue and any dates you have; you'll hear back within two business days.
MuniScan reports are not a legal survey, a legal opinion or an engineering opinion. Admissibility and weight are for the court.