I was recently approached by someone who I know to be a boundary guy, he asked me for my rates to do some building construction work for him as a sub. A lot of these people see the prestige in claiming to be in the Greater New York City area. The reality is that there is NYC and then there is everything else. This person was obviously phishing to try to figure out how to price himself, rule #1 -if you don't know what it costs, you're probably in over your head.
My advice to him is, "There are 8 million stories in the Naked City, don't become one"
I have certainly seen the same thing. But in my experience it seems like it was much more prevalent thirty years ago than now. I'm in a position to sometimes hire surveyors, so perhaps I get more people being nice to me for professional reasons. But I kind of felt that many years ago a lot of guys hid their work, wouldn't talk about it and had a kind of keep it to yourself attitude; perhaps to get more of the work in that area or from that client.
Also, it might have a little bit to do with how you approach other surveyors. (not you being anyone in particular, but the universal "you".) If I see what appears to be an error in someone else's survey I generally call them up and say that I found some of their pins (or whatever I dug up) and am having trouble figuring out what was done (or that they just don't agree with what I have done). Not always, but often times, the other surveyor wants to know if s/he has an error or if there was something they missed and are usually willing to sit down with you and compare notes. I have sometimes had them reveal something to me that I hadn't seen (like an unrecorded plat) and I have some information that they had not seen.
Anyway, I'm with you when dealing with one of these "know-it-all-and-I-never-did-anything-wrong guys". There are simply "none so blind as those that will not see."
"- He's stupid, but he knows that he is stupid. So, that almost makes him smart."
That's a double contradiction.
Here's a quote form Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in the character of Sherlock Holmes:
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."
Found that to be true in life.
Plausible Deniability
Thankfully the board memorialized this in their minutes.
Complaint 12-05
"..The local firm contacted the subject surveyor and expressed their
concern as to the discrepancies. At
first, the subject surveyor did not respond.
After, what the complainant says was several attempts, the
subject surveyor did send a field crew back to the site and set the missing monuments. The monuments set by the subject surveyor were incorrectly located.
Upon their return, the subject surveyor did agree there were discrepancies and attempted to take steps to correct them. A revised survey was issued September 2011 with the Lot corners correctly marked and the visible conditions as to a possible
encroachment were noted. The subject surveyor responded that the Firm had issued a corrected survey and had refunded their fee. Mr. Gilley asked the subject surveyor for verification as to whom the fee had been refunded to since the subject surveyor had earlier stated their client was the title company.The subject surveyor determined that a corrected survey report was not issued and the fee had not been
returned as that responsibility had been assigned to other firm employees.
In his response, the subject surveyor stated in reference to the rear Lot corners "I fully admit we used a rotation that was out by 4 degrees." However, if that had been the only problem the northwest Lot corner (a rear Lot corner) would have been misplaced by about 8-5/10 feet. The discrepancy between where the Lot corner was incorrectly marked and the true corner location was about 3-5/10 feet. When
asked about this, the subject surveyor’s explanation was the crew must have used an incorrect backsight. However,the subject surveyor is unable to confirm the surveying equipment used."
http://txls.texas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Minutes-March-9-2012.pdf
Seems like if you view the later minutes "subject surveyor" really gets himself in deep with the board.
Plausible Deniability
> The subject surveyor determined that a corrected survey report was not issued and the fee had not been returned as that responsibility had been assigned to other firm employees.
> The discrepancy between where the Lot corner was incorrectly marked and the true corner location was about 3-5/10 feet. When asked about this, the subject surveyor’s explanation was the crew must have used an incorrect backsight. However,the subject surveyor is unable to confirm the surveying equipment used."
Classic examples of an attempt at the Plausible Deniability defense, although more Implausible Deniability in this case.
