DDA Third Party Building Survey

The trigger is post-construction. The building is finished, and the completion certificate is what stands between the project and handover. DDA states that the third-party building survey is required before that certificate is obtained, with villas excepted.

It does not stand alone. DDA lists an accepted third-party building survey report among the prerequisites to requesting the building completion certificate, alongside two other approvals. Clearing this one does not on its own clear the certificate.

DDA accepts the submission from a surveyor registered by Dubai Land Department. The rule appears twice in DDA’s own material: verification is carried out through a registered surveyor, and the requester named for the service is the surveyor. It is the first thing worth establishing about anyone quoting for this work.

Petra Point is a certified survey company on the Dubai Land Department register.

The surveyor also signs an undertaking certifying that the submitted information, including the calculated gross floor area, is true and genuine, under the surveyor’s own trade licence. Responsibility for what reaches DDA sits with the surveyor, not with the project team.

The object is as-built building information: what was actually built, described in a form the authority can check against what was permitted. Where the building and the permitted drawings differ, the measurement is what is reported.

The area figure carried through the submission is the calculated gross floor area, which the surveyor certifies. It is derived from the measured drawings rather than taken from the design set, which is the reason an independent survey is asked for at all.

The measured survey and the submission are one piece of work. Drawings and forms are produced to the format DDA publishes, filed through the authority’s own channel, and the correspondence is carried to conclusion.

• As-built measured survey of the completed building
• Survey drawings and area diagrams in DDA’s required format
• The completed submission and the surveyor’s signed undertaking
• Filing with DDA, and correspondence and resubmission handled on your behalf

The parties change once the survey is accepted. The surveyor files the third-party building survey. The contractor requests the building completion certificate. Petra Point delivers the survey and carries it through DDA’s review; it does not obtain the completion certificate, and no surveyor does.

Timing depends on the size of the building, the state of the information available, and the authority’s own review, which Petra Point does not set and does not publish a duration for.