From data obtained in a tax map survey, or
cadastral survey, a map book is prepared that shows
the location and boundaries of each major subdivision
and of each of the lots it contains. The map book is
filed in the county or city recorder’s office, and
henceforward, in deeds or other instruments, a
particular lot is described as, for example, “Lot 72 of
Tract 5417 as per map recorded in book 72, pages 16
and 17, of maps, in the office of the county/city
recorder of [named] county/city”; or as “Lot 32 of
Christopher Hills Subdivision as per. . . .”
JOB REQUIREMENTS OF
THE LAND SURVEYOR
In resurveying property boundaries and in
carrying out surveys for the subdivision of land, the
EA performing land surveys has the following duties,
responsibilities, and liabilities:
1. Locate in the public records all deed
descriptions and maps pertaining to the property and
properly interpret the requirements contained therein.
2. Set and properly reference new monuments
and replace obliterated monuments.
3. Be liable for damages caused by errors
resulting from incompetent professional work.
4. Attempt to follow in the tracks of the original
surveyor, relocating the old boundaries and not
attempting to correct the original survey.
5. Prepare proper descriptions and maps of the
property.
6. May be required to connect a property survey
with control monuments so that the grid coordinates of
the property corners can be computed.
7. Report all easements, encroachments, or
discrepancies discovered during the course of the
survey.
8. When original monuments cannot be
recovered with certainty from the data contained in the
deed description, seek additional evidence. Such
evidence must be substantial in character and must not
be merely personal opinion.
9. In the absence of conclusive evidence as to the
location of a boundary, seek agreement between
adjoining owners as to a mutually acceptable location.
The surveyor has no judicial functions; he may serve as
an arbiter in relocating the boundary according to
prevailing circumstances and procedures set forth by
local authority.
10. When a boundary dispute is carried to the
courts, he may be called upon to appear as an expert
witness.
11. He must respect the laws of trespass. The right
to enter upon property in conducting public surveys is
provided by law in most localities. In a few political
subdivisions, recent laws make similar provision with
respect to private surveys. Generally, the military
surveyor should request permission from the owner
before entry on private property. When the surveyor
lacks permission from an adjoiner, it is usually possible
to make the survey without trespassing on the adjoiner’s
land, but such a condition normally adds to the
difficulty of the task. The surveyor is liable for actual
damage to private property resulting from his
operations.
A primary responsibility of a land surveyor is to
prepare boundary data that may be submitted as
evidence in a court of law in the event of a legal
dispute over the location of a boundary. The
techniques of land surveying do not vary in any
essential respect from those used in any other type of
horizontal-location surveying—you run a land-
survey boundary traverse, for example, just as you do
a traverse for any other purpose. The thing that
distinguishes land surveying from other types of
surveying is that a land surveyor is often required to
decide the location of a boundary on the basis of
conflicting evidence.
For example, suppose you are required to locate,
on the ground, a boundary line that is described in a
deed as running, from a described point of beginning
marked by a described object, N26°15´E, 216.52 feet.
Suppose you locate the point of beginning, run a line
therefrom the deed distance in the deed direction, and
drive a hub at the end of the line. Then you notice that
there is, a short distance away from the hub, a driven
metal pipe that shows signs of having been in the
ground a long time. Let’s say that the bearing and
distance of the pipe from the point of beginning are
N26°14´E, 215.62 feet.
You can see that there is conflicting evidence
here. By deed evidence the boundary runs N26°15´E,
216.52 feet; but the evidence on the ground seems to
indicate that it runs N26°14´E, 215.62 feet. Did the
surveyor who drove the pipe drive it in the wrong
place, or did he drive the pipe in the right place and
then measure the bearing and distance wrong? The
land surveyor, on the basis of experience, judgment,
and extensive research, must frequently decide
questions of this kind. That is to say, he must possess
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