ILC vs Survey in Colorado: What Denver Real Estate Agents Need to Know
- Jerad Larkin
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
A buyer walks the back property line with a tape measure, decides the neighbor's shed is three feet over, and calls their agent in a panic. The agent calls me. The first question I ask is always the same: did you order an ILC or a survey?
Most agents use those two words interchangeably. They are not the same document, they do not cost the same, and only one of them will settle a boundary dispute. Knowing the difference is the small thing that separates the agent who runs a clean transaction from the agent who gets a phone call three weeks after closing.
What is the difference between an ILC and a survey in Colorado?
An ILC shows visible improvements relative to recorded property lines and does not establish boundaries. A survey does. Denver Metro real estate agents order either one under Section 9 of the Colorado contract.
As a Sales Executive with Chicago Title Colorado, I have this conversation with Denver Metro real estate agents nearly every week. Nothing here is legal advice, and every property is different. But after enough closings you learn which document answers which question, and I want you walking into your next contract knowing exactly what you are ordering and why.
This matters more in 2026 than it did in 2021. Denver Metro buyers have inventory and they have time. They are asking for repairs, negotiating seller concessions, and actually reading the documents they used to wave through during the frenzy. A buyer who reads an ILC is a buyer who is going to ask you what it means.
Here is the short version. An ILC is a snapshot. A survey is a legal boundary determination. Order the snapshot when the buyer wants comfort. Order the survey when the buyer needs proof.
What Exactly Is an Improvement Location Certificate?
An ILC is prepared by a Colorado licensed professional land surveyor. It shows the visible improvements on a property, meaning the house, the driveway, the shed, the fence, and where those improvements sit in relation to the recorded property lines. It flags apparent encroachments and easements of record.
The document is governed directly by Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-51-108. The statute requires that the certificate be prominently labeled as an improvement location certificate and carry a disclaimer stating that it is not a land survey plat or improvement survey plat, and that it is not to be relied upon for the establishment of fence, building, or other future improvement lines.
Read that disclaimer twice. The legislature put it in writing because buyers were relying on ILCs to build fences and then discovering the fence landed on the neighbor's dirt.
What Does an ILC Do Well?
It answers the practical question your buyer is really asking, which is whether anything is obviously wrong. For a Denver bungalow on a platted lot in a subdivision recorded in 1954, the ILC tells you whether the garage crosses a setback, whether the neighbor's fence wanders, and whether a utility easement runs under the new patio. It typically costs a few hundred dollars and comes back in days, not weeks.
It also satisfies most residential lenders. If your buyer is financing a single-family home in Arapahoe or Jefferson County with a conventional loan, the lender requirement is usually met with an ILC. Confirm it, do not assume it.
What Does an ILC Not Do?
It does not set property corners. It does not establish boundaries. It will not serve as proof of ownership in a dispute. The Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado publishes a plain-language comparison of the ILC and the improvement survey plat, and it is worth handing to any client who believes an ILC settled the fence argument.
Think of it this way. A surveyor preparing an ILC works from general knowledge of the monuments in that area. A surveyor preparing an improvement survey plat goes out and finds the monuments. One is informed. The other is verified.
When Does a Denver Buyer Need a Full Survey Instead?
Three situations, and none of them are subtle once you know to look for them.
1. The Boundary Is Already in Question
A fence that does not track the plat. A neighbor's driveway that clips the corner. A shared retaining wall nobody wants to claim. If two people already disagree about where the line sits, an ILC will not resolve it. Order an improvement survey plat and let a surveyor find the monuments.
2. There Is No Recorded Plat
Plenty of Colorado property outside a platted subdivision is described by bearings and distances written down decades ago. Rural Douglas County, older Jefferson County parcels, mountain property, anything with acreage. An ILC surveyor cannot reliably locate improvements against a boundary that nobody has physically walked and found.
3. The Buyer Plans to Build
New fence, addition, detached garage, accessory dwelling unit. If your buyer is putting real money into a structure anywhere near a property line, the survey is the cheapest insurance in the entire transaction. Denver's ADU rules have pushed a lot more of these conversations onto agents over the last two years, and the agents who raise it early look like professionals.
How Does Section 9 of the Colorado Contract Handle This?
The Colorado Real Estate Commission's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate addresses this in Section 9, titled New ILC, New Survey. The current residential form for use on or after January 1, 2026 is published by the Colorado Division of Real Estate. If you have not opened the current CBS1 form and read Section 9 line by line this year, do that before your next listing appointment.
Who Orders It and Who Pays for It?
The contract asks you to designate it, and the party ordering the New ILC or New Survey is not automatically the party paying for it. Those are separate blanks. Fill in both intentionally rather than by habit. Holland and Hart published a useful breakdown of how the CREC-approved contracts allocate the ordering obligation, and it is a good refresher.
What Are the Deadlines You Cannot Miss?
Section 9 runs on three dates. There is the deadline by which the New ILC or New Survey must be received. There is the objection deadline, by which the buyer must object to what the document reveals. And there is the resolution deadline, by which the parties have to work out any objection.
Miss the ordering window and you burn the objection right. That is the failure I see most often. The box gets checked in Section 9, nobody actually calls a surveyor, and by the time someone notices, the buyer's leverage on that encroaching shed is gone. Put the surveyor call on your day-one task list, right next to the earnest money and the title commitment.
How Does the ILC Connect to Title Insurance Coverage?
This is where the two worlds meet, and where most agents get fuzzy.
A standard owner's title policy contains a survey exception. Broadly speaking, it excludes coverage for matters an accurate survey would have revealed, including encroachments, boundary line disputes, and overlaps. An ILC does not, on its own, remove that exception.
Whether that exception can be deleted or modified depends on the property, the survey product provided, and the underwriting. So if your buyer is spending $800,000 on a Denver Metro property with a questionable fence line, the conversation to have is not whether you need an ILC. It is what the title company needs in order to insure that boundary.
Part of what I do as a Sales Executive at Chicago Title Colorado is walk Denver Metro agents through that exact question on a specific file, before it turns into a problem at the closing table. It is the same reason I spend so much time on closing-table risk generally, including protecting clients from wire fraud at closing. The pattern is the same. The problems that blow up a deal are almost always the ones nobody asked about in week one.
What Do Denver Agents Get Wrong About ILCs?
Four mistakes, roughly in order of how often I see them.
Calling it a survey in front of a client. The words matter. The moment a buyer hears the word survey, they believe the boundary is settled, and you have just created an expectation the document cannot meet.
Ordering it late. Section 9 deadlines are unforgiving, and surveyors have a queue, especially in a busy Denver Metro summer.
Accepting a stale ILC from the seller without asking questions. An ILC from 2013 does not show the deck the seller built in 2019. Some lenders will accept a prior ILC with a seller affidavit confirming no changes. Some will not. Ask before you promise your buyer anything.
Assuming an ILC clears the survey exception on the title policy. It usually does not. One phone call to your title representative answers this in ninety seconds.
None of this makes you a surveyor or an attorney, and it should not. It makes you the agent who spots the issue on day one instead of day thirty. That is what clients remember, and that competence is a bigger listing advantage than any marketing tactic, which is the same argument I made about winning listings in a shifting market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an ILC the same as a survey in Colorado?
No. An Improvement Location Certificate shows visible improvements relative to recorded property lines and carries a statutory disclaimer that it is not a land survey plat. An improvement survey plat locates monuments and establishes boundaries. Colorado law treats them as two different documents with two different purposes.
Who pays for the ILC in a Colorado real estate transaction?
Whoever the parties designate in Section 9 of the Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate. The form separates the party ordering the New ILC or New Survey from the party paying for it, so both blanks need to be completed on purpose. Do not assume the buyer always pays.
How much does an ILC cost in Denver?
Pricing varies by surveyor, lot size, and turnaround time, but an ILC on a standard Denver Metro residential lot generally runs a few hundred dollars, while an improvement survey plat costs considerably more. Call two surveyors in your market, get current numbers, and save them in your phone before you need them.
Do Colorado real estate agents need to order an ILC on every deal?
No. It depends on the lender, the property, and what the buyer wants to know. Most residential lenders in the Denver Metro require one, but land, acreage, and any property with a boundary question call for a survey instead. Ask the lender and the title company in the first week of the contract, not the last.
Can an ILC remove the survey exception from a title policy?
Usually not on its own. The survey exception in a standard owner's policy addresses matters an accurate survey would disclose. Whether it can be deleted or modified depends on the underwriting and the survey product provided. Ask your title representative about the specific file before promising a client coverage.
If you want a plain-English breakdown of the ILC, survey, and title exception conversation for a specific property, send it over. I do this with Denver Metro agents every week, and I teach the closing-process side of it in the classes I run through Chicago Title Colorado. My class schedule, free tools, and every past post live at milehightitleguy.com. Reach out and tell me what deal you are working on.
Jerad Larkin
Sales Executive | Chicago Title Colorado
milehightitleguy.com