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“Splain something to me”
I have paraphrased and shortened this a bit.
I just got off the phone with someone who I got a bit terse with. It was concerning a survey I did back in 2004 with my other survey company that I allowed to die a most inglorious death. Work had dried up so bad that if I did not do something I was gonna have to take my clothes off for money and dumpster dive for food scraps to survive. Anyway I let that company die and 10 years later I began my second life which is where I find myself on this cool sunny Saturday morning. Surprisingly, I have kept the same phone numbers.
I got a call from someone who needed some survey work. You know the usual crap, need to find my corners and put up a fence.
Me: Ask if he ever had a survey done on his property and he proudly claims YES, I have.
I ask if he has contacted the other surveyor and he says; “That’s why I am calling you, you did it”.
Ok, so where is this property that I surveyed, and he tells me so I look it up. Sure enough a recorded survey from me. Now in the interest of full disclosure, all my old records are gone. Gone like a fart in a hurricane and all I have are what is recorded in the county records. Don’t ask for the details on this.
So anywho, This jackwagon wants to know where his corners and lines are. And here is the clincher, he is not the person I did the survey for. He is the third landowner since I did the original survey. The fella I originally did it for died a long time ago and here this jackwagon is, calling me acting like he actually spent his own money to have a survey done. He got quite rude when I told him that I did the survey for someone else and he is the 3rd person to own the property since I originally surveyed it and I would have to do it again since so much time has passed and other people have moved in and built around him. Oh…the wailing and gnashing of teeth that elicited. He got downright indignant that he “was not gonna pay for another survey” at which point I informed him that “sir, you have not paid for one to begin with”. At which point he demanded that I come out for a great discount and show him the corners and mark the lines.
Jackwagon:”I need you to come out and show me the corners and mark the lines”.
Me: I will have to perform a full survey and that is probably gonna run around $3500. I will work up a proper estimate and it send to you for approval. We collect 50% up front with the balance due at completion.
So……………that ended well.
Why is it that these jerks think that a survey done long ago for someone else is a perpetual warranty for future work for free?
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15 Replies
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They don’t understand our liability.
That’s why I love doing ALTA surveys. I tend to bid a fraction low the first time, but dang if it’s not easy money from there on out.
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Comes with the territory I guess. I get similar calls on a regular basis. And it seems as though the majority of them aren’t the original client either.
People can get as angry at me as they wish over the phone (I find it amusing. And men are far more entertaining than women). I try to explain I really do understand their frustration; knowing there are property pins out there with no way to locate them. I try to explain their anger should be focused on my original client and not me. I tell every client it is their responsibility to maintain or perpetuate a corner’s location, not mine. Buyer’s should ask to be shown the “bounds” of a piece of property before they write a check. I wasn’t the one that “lost” them…apparently my original client lost track of them.
One guy recently asked me (in a heated tone), “How do I know these property pins are really there?” I told him there is no way to know unless he finds them. But even I don’t know if they’re still there unless I survey it again. And that costs money because my work is not free, simply put.
Very few callers ever understand my position…and everybody in this world is out to get somethin’ for nothin’.
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Understanding has nothing to do with it. The client literally doesn’t care about the Surveyor’s liability, they just want their lines and corners for cheap or even better, free.
Maybe the answer is to sell a perpetual care plan like the cemetery. For an additional monthly fee (automatically charged to their credit card) I can maintain your boundaries in perpetuity.
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I try not to explain the reasons for my fee. To most people; reasons are like excuses and excuses are like…Everybody’s got one.
I offer them solutions; you need a survey, I need money. You pay me $3500 and I will survey your property. You are welcome to ‘shop around’, please call me back if you’d like to retain my services.
If they need to know why it’s so much; it’s because that is what I charge for professional services.
If they don’t want professional, they can go somewhere else.
Life’s too short to waste time with Jackwagons…
Dougie
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will! -
Surveying is not something most people encounter very often. I realize the point is to make money, and time is one criticsl component of that. At the same time if we invest a few minutes here and there it tends to come back to us. It also pays off in the community attitude toward the profession.
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I agree with others on here that most people don??t understand the liability. I think it??s mainly due to people not realizing the long term ramifications of what we do. Or really what we do at all.
I get clients that mention,?they only want the corners marked? as if that truncated the list of work I had to do to get to that point
I agree with thebionicman. Sometimes you have to invest a little and work on our public image, but I also tell my secretary that when people call for a survey asking how much over the phone the range is 3,000 plus.
Maybe you could charge him to get a copy of the map and let him rent a shovel and a tape from you.
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I give callers a $$$ amount to budget for what they want, final answer.
My short answer to their questions is “it is what it is”.
For the rookies that don’t know any better, “a boundary survey is not a simple job of labor, it requires research, knowing what, where and how to look for the resources and find monuments and mostly it is is based upon my experience as a professional. For what you ask of me I charge a fee”.
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The thing is, they don’t respect your work. It is just a means to an end.
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I had a developer tell me he needed 50 lots in a subdivision staked. When I gave him an estimate he quickly changed his mind, he then just wanted evey other lot staked!
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I have a little different application of Professional, Businessmen, Surveyor and Attorney, which makes me ponder the following question?
Why do you have to totally resurvey it again. Didn’t you survey it correctly the first time?
What if the current owner builds a fence along the boundary of your 2004 survey, is sued and loses because that boundary is determined to be in error. Do you feel that you have any liability?
If your liability only applies to the client you prepared the survey for, shouldn’t you have pulled the corners when your client sells the property?
Do you have no liability for the corners in the ground, but you are paid to flagging them again, you do?
Is you liability with the client or with the accuracy of the monumentation?
Please don’t perceive any devaluation of your duty, I just see things a little differently, hence, questions.
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Mr. oldpacer; You ask some rather odd questions and I have to wonder what is your occupation? Are you just picking nits or are you serious with your questions as they seem quite frankly to be rather dumb?
As I clearly stated in my first post, the reason for a resurvey is simply because it has been 15 years and a lot of new construction has happened adjacent to him and the property he is on has seen a lot of activity as well, new buildings, fences, etc.
Also, I do not have the original records, those are gone like a fart in a hurricane. And quite frankly because he was a jack wagon (that is P.C. for jackass). Even if he had not been a jerk it would demand a resurvey.
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His questions seem to me to be basic issues of liability for a survey, whether time or transfer of the property dissolves that liability, and what reactivates or extends it. I’d like to see those addressed by people with sufficient legal background.
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One of my old peers, has a bit of the gift of gab.
“So, what is it exactly you do or did for a living? Well that’s just dandy!
… and you do (did) that for free?”
Willy -
Here in Georgia, we have a nice law that limits our liability to 6 years from the time the survey was done. He has no liability for damages with the original client or et al. We still have to answer to the board for infractions as long as we hold a surveying license. Also, I don’t think the surveying board would like the reissuing a plat without new field work being done, so I say to be in compliance with the law he would need to resurvey the property.
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I may try to use that if the opportunity presents itself.
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