Surveying for Immediate Family

I don't see a problem with offering professional services to family members. I've done it myself. But I believe there should be some caveats. If some problem becomes evident in the course of the survey that could affect the location of a boundary or place either owner or surveyor in a liable position; I believe the surveyor should recuse himself.

I've done it only a few times and don't recommend it if you can avoid it.

If you have not yet learned that you should never work for family or friends, this could be your opportunity!

I've done it for my father in law and a brother in law. Its never been a problem. I either did it for free or almost free. I do agree though, if it looked like there might be a major problem with the boundary, I'd probably not do it.

I see no ethical problem with it. View it as surveying for the adjoiners to your family's land. Would you refuse to do that job?
The problem is the long term issue of the line not falling where good ol' Uncle Bob thought it was supposed to fall. You will never hear the end of that so long as one of you is alive.

I do not know of any rule preventing it. Back in the day when Texas was giving away land on the cheap, the landowner would go to a Surveyor to have their land Survey and the Surveyor would say sure for 3 dollars a mile I can do it for you, bring yourself and someone to help me. That someone was not suppose to be a family member, maybe this is the rule he was thinking of. I am sure that rule was broken quite a bit. It also helps to explain why most of the original surveys had extra land since those two helps would pull that chain as tight was possible.

I surveyed my father's farm along with another RLS and a helper. I did all the research, computed and drew the plat. The other RLS had been a roommate when we were in college, had hunted, fished, eaten meals and relaxed on the farm for years. He reviewed all the data and drawing and stamped the plat. I would have had no problem stamping the plat, but just to avoid any semblance of conflict we did it that way. I surveyed my Brother-in-laws property as a house warming gift.
Andy

While there may not be a true conflict of interest, there will always be the appearance of conflict of interest.

Some years back I was performing a large scale sectionalized covering several PLSS sections. I discovered some conflicting boundary evidence. In the corner of one of the sections was some land my family owned.

Long story short, on any other survey the decision I made would have been a no-brainer to me. However because it had affect on my family's land, I still second guess myself as to my decision on that boundary to this date. I have contemplated to great length whether I should error on the side of caution so as to not appear as benefitting my family, as opposed to basing my decision on what I felt was most defendable in court.

I would double check the rules, but I don't ever remember seeing anything that says you cannot perform a survey for a family member. I think ethically you might want to ensure that all parties that are relying on your survey (i.e. title company, lender) are aware of the relationship though. I surveyed a property my parents bought last year and first thing I did was make the title company aware, but they didn't weren't concerned. No lender was involved, but I probably would have informed them as well.

If there is very little likelihood of a boundary dispute arising as a result of your survey or any that may follow, then I don't see a real problem with it. From a business and family relations aspect, as long as you don't expect to make any money and your family member believes that whatever you are charging is a very good deal for them, then that should be OK. Where business and family relationships crash is where the service provider expects a certain payment and the service recipient fails to pay, or where the service recipient expects some screaming deal (essentially free) and the service provider expects at least enough to cover expenses of doing the job that is something more than the screaming deal the other had in mind.

If you can reasonably foresee a possibility of a boundary dispute, then you will run up against the appearance of a conflict of interest even if there is no real conflict of interest for you. If that's the case, avoid doing the work. Explain to your relative that should a boundary dispute arise, no matter how properly and honestly you perform the work, your perceived credibility on the matter would be a serious detriment to your relative's case.

All good comments. I take an opportunity like that to visit with my friends over at Brand X. We have worked out a plan that when this happens, they do the work and write it off to goodwill. I do the same for them.

It is the boundaries of a parcel of land that you are identifying, that is independent of ownership , Here in SOZ we are defining common boundaries and road boundaries for a parcel . The common boundary owner is not even your client, but you decide and mark the boundary location. Your potential liability still exists even if you survey a parcel as a favour for a relative, mate or charity.

I'll let my friend Gimli answer this one.....

One question overlooked so far on this thread is: Just how close does the family connection need to be to qualify as being too close?

First cousin, second cousin, ex-brother-in-law, son-in-law's parents??????