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Is it unethical and a conflict of interest to perform my own survey?
Is it ethical to provide a survey for myself? Not a hypothetical: my adjoining neighbor has agreed to sell us a portion of his parcel. A survey will be needed to layout the new parcel, and a subdivision map will need to be recorded.
I see the obvious conflict of interest, however the neighbor has no issue with me providing this for us to move the transaction forward.
Thoughts?
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203 Replies
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Yes, this should be considered unethical, IMHO… One of my oldest mentors hammered this in me at the onset of my surveying career. His reasoning was, doing your own survey has the possibility of appearing to be self serving, thus is considered to be unethical. Its not really a conflict of interest as it would be serving your interests without being contested.
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More importantly, what does your licensing body think of this scenario? It may be wise to ask them.
Jeff D. -
Is it ethical to provide a survey for myself?
It is not ethical or wise and it’s a poor business decision. ????
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If you and the neighbor have agreed on and monumented a physical line, I see no conflict in you measuring and filing the paperwork. If you have agreed on a distance and you are laying it out, it would appear to give you the opportunity to cheat.
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I see no problem with it. You’re licensed as a surveyor to do surveying.
Are you really going to pay someone else to do it?
Or worse, are you going to do the whole survey and then have a licensed friend stamp it?
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Surprised to see opinions on both sides. On it’s face, I could see the issues, as any semblance of a conflict of interest could be viewed as problematic.
On the other hand, I’m not sure what a malicious actor in this circumstance could even do. My neighbor and I have agreed on a 13 acre sale. He will be left with more than 40. I suppose someone could draw a map that shows 13 acres, but actually monument a 14 acre parcel… but I don’t know what good that would do.
I know that a description is to be interpreted to the favor of the Grantee, perhaps that could come into play if there were an error or ambiguity in my map. That said, there’s always a risk that even a uninterested 3rd party surveyor could make a error or blunder to the advantage/disadvantage of one party or another.
So long as the Grantor takes no issue, and perhaps puts that intent in writing, I don’t see any legal question or risk in providing the survey. That said.. legal does not equal ethical.
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Can a carpenter build himself a house?
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Nope. Would never do it. This is a basic problem from Professional Ethics 101.
One of the basic tenets of ethics is that the real possibility of self-serving bias affecting judgment on a particular job requires the professional to step back from the work.
It’s not just about whether we think/know we can do the work impartially – it’s about upholding strict standards and demonstrating that to the public. Professionals rely upon public trust to do their jobs, and this sort of thing can and will erode that trust.
Doesn’t matter if you’re the most honest, least self-serving surveyor out there. It’s still unethical.
Edit to add – one of the nice things about needing work done in your area of practice is that it’s easy to find someone in your area of practice to do it.
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil Postman -
Would you survey it if you weren’t buying it, but your neighbor just wanted a 13 acre parcel cut out of his 53 acre lot?
Do that, wait a month after it’s recorded, and then buy it
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I knew a prominent long time local surveyor/engineer that later transitioned to developer and surveyed and platted numerous subdivisions that he owned. I built my home in one of them. Unless there is a specific law against it in your state, there is nothing to prevent you doing it. Could the optics cast you in a poor light if something went sideways? I would definitely think so. That much should be obvious.
Willy -
The appearance of a conflict of interest is not a conflict of interest.
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I have surveyed several of my properties. It is not an ethical issue, as some suggest. However, if you encounter a situation where you must make some strong judgement calls, then I would advise you to seek assistance from a fellow surveyor and document that assistance. That will save you in the long run.
I have also paid to have another surveyor make a survey of one tract I purchased. The neighbor was a (female dog). I knew that if I did it myself she would never accept the findings.
On a property I purchased back in the early days of my survey career, the seller was also a licensed surveyor. We had a good friend, who was also a licensed surveyor, sign off on the survey where he was running the gun, the seller was setting the bars to mark the corners and I was running the rod. We were cutting out 28 acres from a quarter section with only one section line required for control and those monuments were in place.
I have also performed surveys where later I purchased a tract that I surveyed. More than once.
I have one section corner that does not have a monument that impacts three of my properties. I have chosen to not set it. I’m hoping someday a surveyor from Timbuktu Geomaticians will have a need to set it. I will accept it and move forward.
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Can a plumber fix his own plumbing?
It could be different for Professionals:
Can a Doctor perform his own Brain Surgery?
Is a lawyer a fool; as his own client?
Are Architects and Engineers at risk, if they do their own design?
You swore an oath to protect the public; you’d be a fool to risk that. As long as the powers that be are okay with it, I see no problem. I say; do your best and don’t worry about it. As long as you can defend it in court, you’re good.
Dougie
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will! -
The appearance of a conflict of interest is not a conflict of interest.
The public, and our clients by extension, don’t make that distinction. If it looks bad, it’s bad for the profession.
All those members of Congress making tons of money on stocks that rose or fell based on decisions they made might be totally squeaky clean and not buying or selling with inside information.
But it’s incredibly shady and has the appearance of a conflict of interest. And it’s one of the bigger (out of many) reasons why public trust is extremely low.
Can it be done legally? Probably. But there are lots of things that are technically legal but not a good idea.
It may be a hard line to take, but it doesn’t force a hardship on surveyors. (Unless we’re trying to argue that surveyors don’t have the resources to pay for their own services.) It’s our professional reputations on the line, which are incredibly easy to destroy and damn near impossible to rebuild.
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil Postman -
Personally, I would not do it. But that is not to say that there is anything unethical in the situation you described. There are no boundary problems or issues. You and your neighbor are both in agreement. If your neighbor owns the property in fee and there are no co-owners and it is not part of an estate then I see no legal problems. But, again I would not do it and in the past have hired other surveyors when I needed land surveyed for myself.
You stated, “I see the obvious conflict of interest…”. I thinks you answered your own question.
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I can give you two examples from my experience.
My intern wanted to purchase property, and it needed to be surveyed before the conveyance. The “conflict of interest” was raised by the real estate agent, and they suggested I hire somebody else.
I wanted them to tell me exactly what the conflict was. I also told them that I don’t just go out and pick someone off the street to assist my surveys, and if they didn’t want my intern to work on the project then I wouldn’t work for them either.
They consulted their attorney, and decided to let us proceed.
Another experience occurred working for DOT when I was not selected to be the resident engineer on a bridge project, because the project was in the town where i live, and it would be a conflict of interest. I pressed the DOT for what the conflict might be, and was told it would be an appearance of a conflict of interest. After that I was awarded the project.
So, the appearance of a conflict of interest is not a conflict of interest. It may be a psychological fact, but that does not make it true.
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I understand the opinions stated in favor of a conflict, but I don’t personally share the sentiment. I’ve surveyed several properties over the years I have both bought and sold.
As surveyors we may approach a boundary as if there are patent or latent ambiguities or errors. In practice they rarely exist to a level that would provide a surveyor with an opportunity to profit themselves with any sort of judgement call. Boundaries are, for the most part and practically, finite.
In general practice if a surveyor made some “judgement call” that provided him, as the owner, some profitable scintilla of attribute the transgression would be just as egregious as if they did the same for a client. Fraudulent practice is the same no matter who’s name is on the deed. Evidence of our process is an open book.
Prior to the late ’80s the State Highway Dept. took care of all the staking for the contractors. They then decided to make “Staking” a pay item making the contractor responsible for all staking and surveying. These responsibilities also included any surveying incidental to measuring borrow areas or embankments.
Well it just so happened that rather than sub-contract the staking pay item, I became an employee of the GC. Some of the mucky-mucks at the state felt this might be a conflict of interest with an employee of the contractor actually calculating pay item quantities.
Although it seem ludicrous to me we had several meetings over the topic. The issue was finally dropped relying on the fact the employee was a professional.
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This question comes up every few years on this site with a roughly 50/50 split opinion.
I survey my own land all the time. Why would I hire an inferior surveyor?
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I knew a prominent long time local surveyor/engineer that later transitioned to developer and surveyed and platted numerous subdivisions that he owned. I built my home in one of them. Unless there is a specific law against it in your state, there is nothing to prevent you doing it. Could the optics cast you in a poor light if something went sideways? I would definitely think so. That much should be obvious.
Does this longtime surveyor tend to wear Hawaiian shirts?
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But there are lots of things that are technically legal but not a good idea.
I guarantee; there are people out there that DO think it’s a good idea…
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
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