Sustainable Land Development Today - July/August 2008 - (Page 39) Beyond these subjective observations, there are certain elements of property surveying that you can identify and make sure that your prospective surveyor includes them in his services.1 The competent surveyor should include the following in the standard package of services: 1. Be willing to take full responsibility for securing all the records necessary for the survey, whether it’s deed records, original survey notes and plats, retracement survey records, or court actions. These records should be for both the property being surveyed and for the adjoining properties. 2. Be willing to perpetuate and record all the corners used as control in the survey. 3. Be willing to take full responsibility for the survey by filing in the official records on a plat containing all necessary information to generate and perpetuate the survey. Often these requirements are spelled out in statutes, and the surveyor is obligated by law to include them as a part of the record. 4. Be willing to accomplish a survey that will be defensible in court. This is the strongest test of competency. You should enter into a written contract with any surveyor you retain. This contract should include all of the above items, either by reference or by explicit language. The contract is a two-party document, and it should spell out exactly what the surveyor’s responsibilities are, as well as those of the client. Make sure you have a written agreement that is satisfactory to both parties. Such a valuable and expensive service as property boundary insurance should never be left to the whims of an oral agreement. Additionally, it is important that you have an agreement that can be referred to at a later date should a question arise as to any reWater Systems Planning Road Design Watershed Analysis Environmental Assessments and more … sponsibility of either party to the contract. It is also a pleasant way of doing business. The pricing strategy for surveying services is a subject of continuing debate within the land surveying profession. There are generally two schools of thought: One is that you cannot accurately estimate the cost of doing a boundary survey because of all the unknowns, e.g., existence of original survey monuments, historical surveys, encroachments, terrain, weather, research data, etc., and therefore it is best to just give clients an estimate of the cost and proceed with the survey on the basis of an hourly rate charge, the total being the rate times the number of hours incurred in completing the survey. While this argument has merit in some instances, I would argue to the contrary. A lump sum agreement is the best arrangement because the client knows from the outset what the charges will be and there is complete agreement on fees before the project starts. While it may well be difficult to estimate the cost of a particular survey, it is not impossible and we figure that you can estimate within 80% of the time, and that’s good enough. Besides, you tend to underestimate under an hourly rate system and in most cases, experience has shown, you will end up with a final figure higher than the estimated cost. With lump sum pricing, you get only one shot, and it had better be right. This is reason to watch out for cheap prices - the cheap hourly rate estimate is likely to end up substantially higher than the expensive lump sum fee. In any case, lump sum pricing is more beneficial to the client and the profession. A true professional who knows what he or she is doing, can accurately estimate the cost of a survey and give you a lump sum price. With the above information in hand, you should be able to responsibly choose a competent land surveyor. If not, you should ask about his reputation among people you trust. Also, ask for references. You might even go so far as to check with the Board of Registration and see if the surveyor is in good standing with the licensing authority. This should not be necessary, however, because the competent surveyor will proudly display licenses to practice and be well known and highly regarded in the community. A few additional thoughts: In the written agreement, asks the surveyor to include a description of how your corners will be marked. This is, in the end, what you are paying for. They should be durable and capable of being relocated many years hence. Get your surveyor to commit to at least an estimated time of completion. In times of heavy survey activity, the surveyor tends to prioritize on some rather strange bases. Be prepared to pay all or some of the cost of the survey prior to commencement of the survey work, but make sure you are protected by contractual agreement if such is the case. (Some of the most respected surveyors ask for most of the money up front. It gives them a nice cash flow position and allows them to survey, not collect past due receivables.) Finally, it is essential to remember that a land survey is not a commodity that can be bought and sold for a specific price. It is a service that requires a trained and licensed professional to complete the job correctly and thoroughly. SLDT 1 TILLOTSON, IRA M., Legal Principles of Property Boundary Location on the Ground in the Public Land Survey States, Gateway,1973 About the author: Dan Beardslee, P.L.S. is a practicing land surveyor in Washington State, licensed as a professional since 1975. He has been surveying for 35 years. He is the President of Beardslee Land Surveying Services. Dan has authored many articles and has authored books about land surveying, including “A Business Management Handbook for Land Surveyors” and “Land Surveying for the Landowner and Real Estate Professional.” Intermap’s affordable 3D maps are uniformly accurate and reliable. Call 1-877-837-7246 for details. www.Intermap.com SL1 Circle 110 • or www.SLDTonline.com/webcard www.SLDTonline.com 39 http://www.Intermap.com http://www.SLDTonline.com/webcard http://www.SLDTonline.com
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