BajaOR, post: 357408, member: 9139 wrote: He's obviously confusing good surveying, engineering, and construction with architecture. He doesn't need to tell us how important good architecture is:
These are the folks whose fee is a percentage of the construction cost... It's a wonder everything doesn't look like this!
Jim in AZ, post: 357520, member: 249 wrote: These are the folks whose fee is a percentage of the construction cost... It's a wonder everything doesn't look like this!
I think that would just be the rock stars that get a percentage.
despite popular belief I believe the average architect makes Less than the average surveyor...
Problem for the local investigators is getting property owners to come forward. Acknowledging publicly that the suspects in question were responsible for the design plans that built their homes could impact property values and impact future home sales.
dhunter, post: 357572, member: 286 wrote: Problem for the local investigators is getting property owners to come forward. Acknowledging publicly that the suspects in question were responsible for the design plans that built their homes could impact property values and impact future home sales.
I think, in most states, knowingly hiding such information would be illegal. The buyer may later be able to pursue both criminal and civil actions against the seller and any real estate agent involved.
Dallas Morlan, post: 357581, member: 6020 wrote: I think, in most states, knowingly hiding such information would be illegal. The buyer may later be able to pursue both criminal and civil actions against the seller and any real estate agent involved.
The hard part for that buyer would be showing that the seller knew of the issue. If the authorities don't save the plans, they can't serve notice to the owners that there is a problem.
This is akin to identity theft on the professional level. In the small county that I live in Geogia, aka the independent State of Dade, we used to have a guy that just called himself the county surveyor. Up until the 80's I think. He would hand draw a seal with the words county surveyor in it. and no one ever questioned him. He had no formal training as people tell me. But really what if somebody got my number or yours went and got a seal made up. Unless they had a problem on a job they would go undetected, filing plats as they needed..... Thats kind of scary.
The local office of County Surveyor was an elected position and holding the position did not require having a license.
That office was vacated in the early 1980s by the newly elected surveyor because the County would not provide an office or any other entitlements other than the duties of the office.
makerofmaps, post: 357648, member: 9079 wrote: But really what if somebody got my number or yours went and got a seal made up. Unless they had a problem on a job they would go undetected, filing plats as they needed..... Thats kind of scary.
This happened to me in the early 1990s, a Registered Civil Engineer who wasn't authorized to practice land surveying was certifying bogus monitoring well elevations using my name and license number. He was also falsifying lab reports for well samples. He got caught because on one site his well elevations made the water table appear to come to a peak in the middle of the site, and someone at the county thought that was a little bit fishy. I found out about it when the site owner called me and said, "You remember the job you did for me in [don't recall the town] a few years back?" I scratched my head trying to remember doing any work there -- it's a hundred miles or more south of me -- and finally told him, "I don't think I've ever done any work there." There was a long pause, then a big sigh, and he said, "I was afraid of that" and told me what was going on.
The Board pulled his engineering license, and the D.A. sent him to prison for a spell.
Wow.
I'm surprised that it doesn't happen more often really.
It would be so easy to do these days.
