Sustainable Land Development Today - July/August 2008 - (Page 38) SURVEYING How to Hire a Competent Property Surveyor By Daniel E. Beardslee, PLS This is the third of a three-part series on land surveying. This article will explain how to find and hire a competent property surveyor. The second article, which appeared last month, explained how the surveying process works. The first installment described the actual and practical task of what a land survey really is. As presented in earlier articles, all surveyors are not alike. They are as unlike as any other group of professionals. There are good surveyors and bad surveyors and every type in between. It is not easy to tell the difference between a good and bad surveyor. It is even more difficult to tell the difference between a good and bad survey. In fact, a bad survey may look better than a good survey. The worst kind of quack surveyor is the one who surveys to existing fence lines or some other kind of occupation line, knowing that it is going to cause the least fuss, because it always fits acknowledged property lines. This kind of survey always looks good until a competent surveyor comes along and finds the error. Real estate professionals and land owners should constantly remind themselves and/or their clients that a good survey and a bad survey may look the same. It is the integrity and competence of the surveyor that can be somewhat judged, and thereby relied upon. If you can’t tell the difference between a good and a bad survey, how do you tell the difference between a good and bad surveyor? There are a number of points to be considered: Is he (she) licensed by the state? In all 50 states of the union, land surveyors must be licensed to practice. Any boundary staked by an unlicensed person is fraudulent, illegal, and completely without value. Make sure your surveyor is licensed. 38 July/August 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today Are they members of the State Surveyors’ Association? Every state has an association of professional land surveyors, and any professional surveyor should belong to and be active in the association representing surveyors’ interest. This is a standard professional measure for any discipline. In addition, the true professional should be active within the association, either on a local, state, or national level. It is a professional responsibility to contribute to the betterment of the profession, and is indicative of a responsible, up-to-date professional. Does the individual appear competent? This is certainly a subjective area of measurement but an important criterion. Look around the office, the personnel, the equipment, and the demeanor and get an overall impression. The competent surveyor has a professional aura that is obvious. The competent surveyor acts like it. As a result, those individuals that are at the top of their careers are successful and generally financially secure, meaning that if something does go wrong, there will be adequate resources to cover such a contingency. The successful surveyor will be around year after year in good times and in bad. It is important that the business be around many years down the road, for that is most likely the time for any survey work to be challenged. Are the services expensive? Now this may seem at first blush to be an anomaly. Obviously it behooves you to spend your dollars wisely, but it is easy when hiring a land surveyor to be penny rich and pound foolish. It is obviously irresponsible not to get the most economical deal you can. This being the case, why should you ask such a question? The reason is that while an expensive survey may not guarantee quality, a cheap survey is very likely to be just that – cheap, and bad! You should keep in mind that it is very important that the surveyor do a thorough and competent job in surveying any property boundary, and to do so requires a budget of sufficient caliber to allow for a complete job. It is also unethical for a surveyor to compete on a price basis. It is easy to see why. The less than competent (responsible) surveyor will lower prices in order to acquire work and will be forced by the sheer nature of the situation to cut corners and do a less than adequate job of surveying. You certainly are not advised to simply hire the highest-priced surveyor in town. This by itself would be irresponsible. You should consider this aspect, however, as one measure of the surveyor’s image of competence. Do not consider it by itself, however. Make sure all the tests of competence are in place. In some cases, the best surveyor may even be the least expensive, but the overall pricing structure is what you want to look at. It’s just like hiring a lawyer or a doctor - when important matters are at stake, you do not hire the cheapest professional, you hire the best.
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