I have been following the deregulation discussions on here and found many enlightening and some troublesome. All the professions and trades in House Bill 5005 will be lobbying to exclude their particular one. I am concerned that we will get lost in the shuffle. As has been stated on here, the persons voting on this are ignorant of how important land surveying is, to not only the public, but to other professions. In addition to contacting the committee members and my legislators, I am actively trying to get the executives in the title companies I deal with to contact the above and to lobby in our behalf. In addition I have asked the county attorneys, city attorneys and private law firms I deal with to do the same. There are 67 counties and over 400 municipalities in our state. The requirement for products from a surveyor licensed pursuant to FS 472 is likely in all their LDR's. The 472 requirement is also intertwined in the law concerning the removal of the title insurance "survey exception". Do those statutes automatically become modified? We are intertwined in the regulations in the financial world. It is my belief that surveyors and our society lobbying is certainly helpful, we need to make a concerted effort to get our consumers contacting the legislators.
I think it is an excellent idea to get non-surveyors to lobby about how much licensure is needed. Their opinion doesn't hold the same "self servedness" that the opinion of a surveyor would.
I talked to one of my closest Surveyor friends last night over the phone ... needless to say, he's distressed over this ... this whole thing is somewhat surreal ...
Is the Title industry also in the crosshairs?
If this deregulation was discussed as much as 6 months ago, then it's possible this too was also discussed.
What this all boils down to, from what I'm able to deduce, is that the advent of modern technology eliminates the need to insure property because GIS is "perfect". No more land disputes, therefore, no need for Title to be insured, Government insures it all, much cheaper to manage.
I suspect someone drew up a grand plan and fed it to the ignorant politician. I've also heard talk of reinventing the way we do legal descriptions, directly out of GIS.
Just a thought, I know the tin foily criticism comes to mind, I'm not saying I believe this ...
I would say that it's time that NSPS, ACSM and the Title Companies get involved.
After all, they all get together (with others) and write up the ALTA Standards that some are so fond of following to the letter, so why not have them start pitching a few dollars into the collection bucket and help out the Florida surveyors.
I will say this...If these organizations just turn a blind eye to the Florida situation then you will know for sure just how useless the whole club of standard writers really are.
Well that is a familiar name! Welcome to Beer Leg, Mr. Barley!