Isn't stamping, signing, setting monuments with your name on it, under the position of a registered Land Surveyor, and giving to the landowner a "quasi" certificate of authenticity?
Record of Survey maps are filed, not recorded.
They typically don't enter the chain of title unless called for in a Deed so they don't give constructive notice. They are information for future boundary investigators, whoever they may be.
But in California there is no way I know of to file an old map like this other than to provide a copy to the County Surveyor who can file it and index it. The Recorder wouldn't have a copy.
I tend to hold to the thought that surveys should not be "recorded" but, rather, provided to a central depository in each county which is open and available to surveyors. We need access to as much as possible that has been done previously. We do not need to burden the "recorders" office with documents that frequently become worthless following later actions that the "recorder" is to maintain in pristine condition until the end of time.
> ...surveys should not be "recorded" but, rather, provided to a central depository in each county which is open and available to surveyors. ...
Moving to a state without a recording law has been quite unsettling to me. It's a whole 'nuther thing.
It really isn't a problem.
We have over a hundred years of maps, not a problem. Some of them are irrelevant (a Record of Survey of a residential lot in a downtown block which is now the County Courthouse, the entire block) but for the most part they are very nice to have.
My sense of it is that interest rates are about to go ballistic. That will shut down the real estate and development markets. Survey work will shut down. Hope I'm wrong but I'm 100% convinced the debt bubble is about to pop. Once much of the debt is cleared off the books we will be able to get back to work. I'll probably be to old by then. Next ten years ain't going to be a pick nick.
For those with two differing processes; filing = recording below.
Yes, at the time. However, many years later the attempt to file an old map is problematic. How do we know it is actually a map prepared by the now unavailable surveyor? What happened to their stamp when they passed away? Has someone been using it that bought it on ebay? How do we know the map shows what it did at the time it was made, even assuming it was prepared by the surveyor whos name is on it? Maybe the landowner made some beneficial changes and now wants to record them.
I'm not saying these old maps are not useful, only that they should be looked at in context and not necessarily given the same weight as a map prepared at the same time that was filed at the time it was made. Of course there have also been instances of filed maps being altered, but the possibility of this happening is not as great.
The ancient document rule will allow these old unfiled maps into evidence if it can be shown they were from a reliable source (surveyor who practiced in the area), and there are no obvious alterations. So they can be considered but in the context that it is more possible they have been altered or forged than a map that comes from a filed source.
The map is heresay unless the surveyor who made it is available to testify to its authenticity. When the surveyor is not available the map will only be allowed if it has been authenticated by way of filing in a public record or authenticated by way of the ancient document rule exception to heresay.
Just a matter of degree. I was able to get a placemat map (by its looks prepared by the proprietors 5 year old, or a certain local surveyor of the time) entered into evidence once (much to the disappointment of the opposing attorney). The placemat showed the complex of rental cabins, the diner/registration office it was used at, and the roads leading to the cabins so that guests could get to them. The argument was over how long a certain roadway had been used as access to a certain cabin (after the resort was broken up into individual private lots).
Not sure what this has to do with filing v. non-filing states. But it would be good for business if placemats needed a surveyors stamp and had to be filed:)
Here, anyone can file a survey. The person at the counter will get out a ruler, and go through the checklist to make sure it is compliant, but they don't care who the person with the paper is, if they know the surveyor, only if they have a form of payment that they take.
Many companies make their clients record the survey they complete. We do not feel this is a good idea, but it happens.
Personally, I would include it as an additional sheet on my survey, if I got the job.
Here, anyone can file pretty much anything as a miscellaneous document. Filing it as a "survey" is a different story.
