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Misrepresentation
A subdivision plan from 2004 shows “proposed” monuments at every station point (points of curvature and points of tangent) and at every corner on every lot created by the plan. There are forty to fifty lots on the plan.
After 15 years the “proposed” monuments haven’t been set. I would call this a fraudulent misrepresentation. Why bother drawing all the little squares and circles at every change in direction unless the intent was to deceive?
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20 Replies
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Why is it fraudulent? The surveyor proposed to set the monuments, the client declined to pay for the service, the monuments remain as proposed until somebody sets them.
I agree that it’s a lousy practice, but the word “proposed” does not mean “I guarantee or certify that this will be done”.
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Did the survey company go out of business? Nonetheless, the developer should have hired another company to complete it. Unless they went out of business too?
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It is conditional to the acceptance of the subdivision. I would like to ask the town why the subdivision was accepted.
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts -
I’m with Peter, these days the procedure is to design a subdivision, get it approved, then do dirt work over the entire site. We have approval from the authorities to wait until after dirt is done to do the monumentation. The boundary has to be finished, but unless the lot corners are going to be set twice then the monumentation will have to wait. If the subdivider balks then either the surveyor sets his monuments for free or he walks. I would guess that this is what happened and he did say that the monuments are proposed. Heck there have been times I’ve seen the monuments set before construction and they all get wiped out when the roads and utilities are installed.
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This is how we do it in the St. Louis area. Although we set crosses in the street at either the center of the ROW or at the curbs at the prolongation of the property lines and the PC’s, PT’s. We work off of these until the completion/ or near completion of the subdivision and then at that point we come back and set the missing corners and the subdivision monuments.
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It is conditional to the acceptance that permanent monuments be set at all lot corners and all points of inflection on the street boundaries. Regardless of what you think about construction and all that is the town’s subdivision regulation. If no monuments are set then how does the construction take place?
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts -
In Texas, you must set monuments BEFORE signing and sealing any boundary plats, subdivision or otherwise. Houston got tired of developers always saying “I’ll submit a plat ASAP” and never doing it, so it passed ordinances mandating signed and sealed plats (i. e., monuments set) BEFORE a blade of grass is turned to construct utilities.
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No it isn’t, they accept it without the monuments.
Construction takes place like always, rough grade stakes, slope stakes, blue tops, curb and gutter, water line stakes, sewer ect.
Usually, the entire site is stripped of topsoil and not just 4″, then it’s regraded to a design, sometimes 20 plus feet of cut and fill, flowlines rerouted, pipes and bridges installed.
Of course there is more topo here and different subdivisions require different plans, monuments for large tracts that aren’t getting graded are set before approval, but there is no reason to set monuments before construction when the entire subdivision is stripped. And you aren’t going to do the construction before approval.
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When I was in Eugene, OR the city required a deposit for monuments to be set after completion of the roads (I think surveyors responsibility). There was a base amount and an additional per monument amount. It would be pretty steep on a large amount of lots, plus PC’s, PT’s and intersecting road centerlines, cul-de-sac radius pts, etc.
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Here, the Construction Inspector is supposed to verify the monuments are in before accepting the subdivision improvements.
One time a subdivision slipped by without monuments so the agency hired my employer to set them (the developer left town already).
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Around here, you need to post a bond. You might need to get in line, if it comes to that, but the money should be there to set the mons…
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will! -
This frustrates clients sometimes but I will not sign a plat or authorize recording of it until placement of the lot corners and control monuments has been paid for or bonded. I was burned once on this and ate the cost of making it right and will not have my name sullied by having a plat out there without them.
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Here in New Zealand, it is officially “Professional Misconduct” to deposit a plan if the ground marking has not been completed.
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Say some miracle of conscience occurs and the surveyor decides to set one of the “proposed” monuments and finds instead a giant boulder or a rock outcrop. It is, however, more likely that the “proposed” or “to be set” monuments are just a fantasy. It is too bad that innocent, albeit ignorant homeowners are the collateral damage to all these subdivision tricks.
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts -
I guess one question I have is “What was the Statute or rule at the time the plat was approved/filed?” Is it possible that it was acceptable practice back then?
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That’s a good question. Although I don’t see how that practice would be acceptable. In my mind if people do not understand where their boundary is after I am finished then I have not done my job.
Historic Boundaries and Conservation Efforts -
At the time of platting and approvals:
Post approvals and dirt work, time for monuments:
There was dirt moved from left to the right of the photo, filling in a low area, reshaping some flow lines and bringing down a hill.
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We allow subdivisions with exterior monuments only. The surveyor needs to certify the interior monuments will be set within 1 year of recording and the developer must bond 110% of the estimated cost to set them.
We don’t record prior to starting construction. The bonding process is usually avoided.
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That practice is perfectly acceptable until a governing body makes a rule and says itƒ??s not. Hence it goes directly to the question in the OP. Just prior to the adoption of the Subdivision and platting act in this state, the developers had surveyors creating plats with the exterior surveyed… more or less (“photogrammetry werks for me”) and all interior lots were protracted in. 10 years later, those lots were being sold off and the company I worked for would go out and pin one every couple of weeks. Weƒ??d do a certificate of survey on it because it was info not shown on any map. Iƒ??m not sure exactly how it all fit together in the end, but it probably wasnƒ??t pretty. It was however, entirely legal and ethical- the buyers knew they had to have the survey done.
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The job ain’t done till the iron’s in the ground.
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