Contractor Setting Pins
I had a project recently where a contractor hired the company I work for to do a record of survey on a platted lot in a 1940s subdivision. The crew arrived on site and called me saying they were finding fresh pins on the property-- rebar, aluminum caps, lath, etc. I thought well this is weird, but maybe the client found someone who could do it sooner or something. I told the crew I'd give the client a call and then call them back.
I called the client and explained how my crew was finding fresh pins on site and he goes "Yeah, those are temporary". After some brief back and forth I said what do you mean temporary? How do you know they're temporary? And he said "Because I set them". I said something like wait what?! My crew says they're finding actual rebar, caps, lath, etc and he goes "Yeah, I got everything on amazon". I was pretty stunned and then he jumped in and said he'd be on site in 5 minutes and explain what's going on to the crew.
I hung up and called the crew and told them the client set them, and the crew explained there was also a city inspector on site and that the inspector might have something to do with it. The client showed up on site and I got off the phone with the crew so they could go about their business.
After talking with the crew when they got back to the office the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. The client was demolishing an old house and building a new one. The city inspector must have been holding his building permit hostage pending the lot corners being set, and rather than wait for us to do our work he thought he'd stick some pins in the ground to fool the inspector. It just so happened my crew showed up the same day as the inspector and busted the fraudulent pins.
I ended up calling the city and explaining the situation to a supervisor in the building department so they could be on the lookout for this sort of thing in the future. I was also curious if the inspectors look for pins on every project they inspect, and the supervisor said no-- generally only on new builds like this contractor was doing.
As far as the lath... there's 1 company in my area that uses fancy lath that has their company info pre-printed on it, and this is the lath my crew found at these pins. So this contractor must have stopped and grabbed these lath off of one of their projects or maybe done a project with them previously. I gave that company a call to let them know this guy was using their lath with fraudulent pins and they thanked me for the heads up, and that's the last I heard of it.
My crew pulled the fraudulent pins and we ended up completing the survey within the next couple weeks.
I've told the story to a dozen or so surveyors so far to see what they think and some are shocked and others aren't so surprised. Anyone else run into something like this before?
The inspector should be looking at the stamped and signed survey map in addition to the monuments.
Also, in each of the states I'm licensed in, the caps must have either the company name and/or the surveyors license number on them. Not having that would be a give away.
Here in new Zealand we dont use caps to identify marks or the surveyor concerned.
But that behaviour in an offence against two sections of our Cadastral Survey Act...
56 False cadastral survey marks
Every person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000 who places in position in relation to any land a peg or mark—
(a)
that is not a cadastral survey mark properly placed; and
(b)
with the intention of causing any person to believe that it is a cadastral survey mark placed in that position for the purposes of a cadastral survey.
57 Unlicensed persons not to act as licensed cadastral surveyors
(1)
Every person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 who, not being a licensed cadastral surveyor or a person acting under the direction of a licensed cadastral surveyor, performs or executes, or undertakes to perform or execute, anything for the purposes of a cadastral survey.
I would ask if you really want a client like that?
I'd really think about letting the contractor's board know what is going on.
The first and only question that I have is was this contractor reported to the State Board for practicing without a license? If not, you dropped the ball, whether you pulled the pins and reset them. These are the things that we should be fighting against big time.
The inspector will say, yup, there is a monument here and not worrying as much about what the stamp is, they are not qualified to determine state boundary laws, they are there to look at final grading and code compliance. My state requires that the licensed surveyor will certify that the monuments have been set and the towns require an escrow until the licensed surveyor makes such signed and sealed certification so that the bond can be released.
The inspector should be looking at the stamped and signed survey map in addition to the monuments.
That's what I told the building department guy. He gave me the inspector's number so I could tell him too, but that guy didn't pick up and didn't call me back.
Also, in each of the states I’m licensed in, the caps must have either
the company name and/or the surveyors license number on them. Not having
that would be a give away.
When I talked to the crew at the end of the day they said the caps were blank which is one of the things that made them suspicious.
I would ask if you really want a client like that?
I think this might have been the first project we've done for this guy actually.
I’d really think about letting the contractor’s board know what is going on.
The first and only question that I have is was this contractor reported
to the State Board for practicing without a license? If not, you dropped
the ball, whether you pulled the pins and reset them. These are the
things that we should be fighting against big time.
So yeah I was wondering what the proper way to handle it would be. Coworkers thought it should either be reported as unlicensed practice or simply call the guy and chew his ass. I kind of thought it should be up to the company he was impersonating to file the complaint or not.
I actually presented the scenario at the local society meeting yesterday to get a variety of feedback and the overwhelming response was that nothing could be done at all other than maybe call a sheriff since it was a civil matter.
Before you do anything, I'd get paid up to current. At least that's what I would do. I find builders are just like any other category of professionals. There are good ones and bad. I just don't worj with the bad ones anymore.
Our Board does not have jurisdiction over unlicensed practice. They do have to sign an agreement to pay investigation and prosecution costs before the AG even looks at it. It's a misdemeanor so the statute of limitations usually runs out before anything happens.
The agency that governs our Board is less than useless. They roadblock every case so the Board doesn't see it. My most recent complaint was several months ago. The (unlicensed) scumbag I turned in still advertises boundary surveys on Facebook marketplace. Our profession is being destroyed but it's certainly no fault of Bstrand.
Oof, I thought the board had enough teeth to at least send a cease and desist letter. That's my mistake, I should have known that.
