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Practice of Land Surveying or not?
jitterboogie replied 3 years, 8 months ago 25 Members · 35 Replies
The statutes require that corners be of a ferrous material so that they can be found do not say “found only by a registered surveyor”. It is not the fact that you find corners but what you do with that information that becomes land surveying. Were you to do it, mark it and then show it to the landowner that may be surveying, but walking with him and assisting him in technical matters may not be. A land owner is entitled to do pretty much anything on their own property that does not endanger the public or violate zoning laws. I have never seen a zoning law that say’s a landowner cannot survey his own property. He may be required to have a “Professional Engineer” (very seldom is “Professional Surveyor” included) prepare a plan for certain submissions to a Planning Board which in fact is a Court. Zoning laws do not prevent landowners from representing themselves at the Zoning Board meeting but a Corporation must be represented by an Attorney. A landowner can build a house (excepting the electrical and plumbing) or above ground swimming pool but a professional is required for an in ground pool because it presents more of a hazard to the public.
Friends walking along the property line is a tradition that predates the United States called Beating the Bounds, professionals not required.
Using the term “Find” is questionable for they were always there and not lost. And that signal from the pin locator is that pin itself telling the world “here I am”. Most corner pins are in fact uncovered and the recovered part comes after you are done but recovered is OK.
A large number of surveyors went to college, does that mean you could only learn from what the professor said, or could you, did you, learn from fellow students?
Gratuity? If I went to a friends house I would always accept coffee, beer, venison, grouse or vegetables or all of the above.
Paul in PA
Perhaps PA is an outlier, but everywhere I’ve worked things are a bit different. A landowner or lessee can survey lines and corners as long as they have no affect on others. No common lines, no controlling corners. This allows them to screw up their own stuff without harming the public. NY was 40 years ago for me and I don’t remember the law there.
- Posted by: @jph
Person who is not a current registered surveyor uses the subdivision plat and metal detector to find his friend’s lot corner monuments.
This person is a registered surveyor in other states, and was formerly registered in this state.
a former Surveyor:
1. has a map/picture/whatever to look at
2. uses a tool of some sort, shovel/metal detector/backhoe/whatever
3. looks for stuff on land he does not own
am I missing something? what part of that is Surveying?
Is a former Surveyor forever barred from doing such things? A few have hit the nail on the head. I haven’t studied every state’s regulations, but all of the many I have only regulate commerce. If he was paid for his work it probably is a violation, if not it isn’t.
- sur·vey·or/s?r??v?r/nounSomeone who will spend $600 of billable time discussing whether something is the practice of surveying or not when, if it was performed by a licensed surveyor, would end up being done by a barely competent low-baller for $50.
If the person locating the monuments represents them as property corners(and why else would they be finding them?), then that falls under the practice of land surveying in my state.
Several years ago, a particular city was sending city staff (not licensed Land Surveyors) out with a metal detector to help residents find their ??corners?. Nice little city benefit. The state examining board came down hard, ruling it was practicing land surveying and ordering the city to cease, which they did.
I don??t believe the city understood their liability if any of the monuments were not at the corner. I have seen too many monuments get up and walk a few feet away mysteriously.
The practice of land surveying typically involves providing professional services. Otherwise any landowner relying upon monuments to build a fence could be said to be “representing monuments as property corners”. The city was rightfully slapped down because it was providing a public service to residents under the auspices of city leadership (who most definitely could have incurred serious liability as you mention).
Sure, there can be gray areas depending on who is doing the locating, what it is for, and what is done after said location, but the simple act of recovering monuments by landowners, whether assisted by a friend who may or may not have some sort of background in, or technical knowledge of, the principles of surveying, is not the practice of professional land surveying.
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil PostmanI’ve heard it said only a licensed boundary surveyor is competent to tell someone the monument they found is the property corner. That said, I know some licensed surveyors that aren’t near as good as some career party chiefs I know.
I’d worry his biggest culpability is the possession of other licenses. He’s fully aware of the regulations, laws, and requirements and is willfully snubbing them.
The difference there is the land owner holds their own liability and is directly liable to their neighbors.
So, basically, anyone can find pipes/pins, it’s in saying what they represent that makes it surveying
@jph if a homeowner looks/finds their lot corners aren’t they also surveying their neighbors property? If this person is out finding monuments and telling people that what is being located are indeed the property corners he is indeed performing unlicensed (illegal) surveying. The problem is the board doesn’t have much recourse with an unlicensed surveyor other than to send them a cease and desist letter. However if this person is licensed in other states and performing surveying services where they are not licensed I would imagine that they are in violation of the board rules of the states they are licensed in.
No.
If you want to go look for your pins and find them etc it’s legal.
If you offer up an opinion and claim that they are something like say a property corner and invoke or induce someone or an entity to rely upon your evidence of a legally determined definition, then yes you’re surveying without a license.
Being licensed comes with deep responsibility and liability which is why the statutes were put in place to protect the public.
Or so I am told and have ascertained.
Oops. Reread. Yes. What you said.
🙂
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