Who's Responsibility

Yours. You could get a former buddy to revisit, and hand draw the record forms....

If it's your PLS stamp on the document you should be responsible for correcting any errors contained within. The company should have the responsibility of providing the field and office equipment and staff (if needed) to complete the work. Interesting situation you have there.

Dang it. I have to say it...................It depends. (That is the omnipresent answer to nearly every question related to surveying.)

This depends on precisely what kind of employment status you had with that employer at the time the work was done and who put their stamp and signature on the filed documents. Who did the field work? Who prepared the Records for submission? Who signed them? Who paid the recording fee? Who is in possession of all information used to complete the Records? Who will the State come after for disciplinary action if the Records are not modified to the point they are accepted next time?

Are you being punished for leaving the firm?

This is why I would never work for any "company" (other than mine) in which I would be required to use my stamp, signature, caps, etc., WITHOUT an iron-clad contract that stated I would retain and receive copies of all data (electronic or paper), all information in job files, research, deeds, preliminary and final surveys, reports, descriptions, etc., that pertain to any survey or document I worked on or sealed.

Been there, done that. Never again.

WA-ID Surveyor, post: 372662, member: 6294 wrote: If it's your PLS stamp on the document you should be responsible for correcting any errors contained within. The company should have the responsibility of providing the field and office equipment and staff (if needed) to complete the work. Interesting situation you have there.

What is weird is they helped me resolve the first one that was rejected. The cap was stamped incorrectly and I didnt reset a new cap because it was set in the 80s and had a couple corner records filed on it. I was simply setting references to meet the state requirements. They rejected it because the cap diagram didnt match the corner that I said I was filing the corner record for. They sent it back with a copy of the previous corner record and I havent heard whether the state was fine with it.

Now that a second one came they are not being helpful at all.

Holy Cow, post: 372663, member: 50 wrote: Dang it. I have to say it...................It depends. (That is the omnipresent answer to nearly every question related to surveying.)

This depends on precisely what kind of employment status you had with that employer at the time the work was done and who put their stamp and signature on the filed documents. Who did the field work? Who prepared the Records for submission? Who signed them? Who paid the recording fee? Who is in possession of all information used to complete the Records? Who will the State come after for disciplinary action if the Records are not modified to the point they are accepted next time?

Are you being punished for leaving the firm?

I was a project manager for the company that oversaw the field crew that surveyed the corners and cad drafters that drafted the corner records. I was the one that signed them and have no issues helping get the corner record issues resolved. They have all of the information and the state actually keeps sending the rejected corner recorders to them, and my address is current through the state. It sure feels like being punished even though I tried to leave on good terms.

Was the product reviewed by another person in that office.
That would connect the company to the job just as you are as being the signing surveyor.
The State should send the information directly to you and bypass the previous company if they expect the desired results.

WA-ID Surveyor, post: 372662, member: 6294 wrote: If it's your PLS stamp on the document you should be responsible for correcting any errors contained within. The company should have the responsibility of providing the field and office equipment and staff (if needed) to complete the work. Interesting situation you have there.

I agree, the company should be responsible for providing the office and field support needed to correct the issue.

Corey

Sounds like your old company is trying to imply that any need for additional effort (and associated costs) is due to your carelessness. But the way I read this is that you were hired to work from the office and that a dedicated field crew did all the field work. If a site visit is now required, it would be because the field crew did not set something as they should have or did not gather information properly.

Because of the responsible charge aspect of licensing, you have a responsibility to correct and refile the document if the company isn't going to have another LS on staff do it. However, the company entered into a contract and was paid as a business entity to ensure that the work was completed properly. You were not a subconsultant but an employee. If you had not left, you would still be an employee and would be paid to make the corrections.

You have a licensing responsibility that you are trying to meet, and they have a contractual responsibility relative to the project that they are trying to avoid.

It also sounds like rather than retaining you as a consultant to complete this work, they want to get this done on essentially a handshake deal with no cost to them. It also sounds like you are amenable to that as long as everyone is just doing their part to get the job done. If they aren't willing to supply the resources needed at their end without charging you, tell them that you would be happy to complete the work as a consultant under a standard consultant contract structured on a T&M basis. Standard boilerplate on such contracts typically allows for passing on the cost of obtaining copies of records at cost + 15% and similarly pass on the costs of hiring subconsultants at cost +15%.

Rather than doing your part at no cost, you would be charging them for your time at whatever a typical hourly rate is for an LS project manager in your area, and rather than imposing on them for the time it would take to provide copies of the project file and provide field support, propose that you would retain others to reproduce the research efforts reflected in the project file necessary for you to complete this work and also retain another local firm to provide field support.

In addition to that, let them know that you have a letter to the County Surveyor and to the State Licensing board ready to go explaining that you are attempting to address the comments of the returned CRs but that your previous employer, who was contracted to complete the work, is withholding pertinent records and is unwilling to provide field support to assist in correcting mistakes that occurred due to errors made in the field.

I expect that once the company considers the options, they will be much more willing to work with you through a handshake deal to finish up what needs to be done as expeditiously as possible with as little inconvenience to either of you as can be managed.