Here is a link to a PDF of FAQs about the new ALTA Standards...
http://www.californiasurveyors.org/clsaforum/showthread.php?t=3870
Sorry category police...this was supposed to be "Land Surveying"
Good read Ryan. Thanks for posting.
ALTA Survey FAQ Item 3
It's interesting that item 3 says..
...Use of the standards is voluntary, of course, and the Client and Surveyor may agree to different terms which could include use of the 2005 Standard, but in such cases could not be labeled ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey
When was the phrase ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey copyrighted? It's been in use longer that I have been surveying. The word ALTA is a registered trademark, but I have yet to come across the ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey phrase being locked into the standards in such a way that a surveyor could actually get in trouble for using it when they deviate away from any standard that any organization has come up with.
I doubt that anyone would get in trouble using that phrase if they did not follow the standards. I can just see a title officer holding up a multi million dollar closing because of that...what a joke!
Or a bank of attorneys taking some poor surveyor before a judge and explaining just why a suit was brought against him..another good laugh.
ALTA Survey FAQ Item 3
Sounds like standard boilerplate/weasel word, contract stuff to me;-)
ALTA Survey FAQ Item 3
Sometimes a client orders an ALTA Survey because that is just a way to get a survey product that they know will fill their needs, which needs may not always include financing and/or title issues. In a case like that, they don't much care if it's 2005 or 2011 or if it is technically really an ALTA at all.
ALTA Survey FAQ Item 3
What that note is saying is basically protecting the surveyor. How many of us that do ALTAs is held hostage on what our certification will be? I don't know how many times some title officer or attorney has pre-made some mumbo-jumbo about me taking all the blame for things that are out of this world. So what ALTA did was made a standard on certifications and use of the new standard. If someone is trying to hold one arm behind your back on doing the ALTA to some other standard, you have a right now to say, hey--it doesn't follow ALTAs new rules. So, it really doesn't delve much into it in that FAQs, but take a 2011 ALTA class at your next conference and you'll see we have a lot to be happy about w/ 2011 standards.
Thanks Ryan.