Professional Practice, Ethics, and Business
This domain tests licensure, responsible charge, ethics, and business conduct. The recurring theme is that the surveyor's seal is a personal certification, not a product the firm owns.
Licensure and responsible charge
- DC licensure is administered through the Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors within DLCP. Candidates complete the NCEES fundamentals and professional examinations plus the Board's requirements.
- Only the licensee may seal, sign, and date work that the licensee prepared or directly supervised. Responsible charge means substantive review and control, not a title.
- Firms offering services generally need a certificate of authority and a designated responsible licensee.
- Keep continuing-education records and retain project records for the period the Board requires.
Ethics
- Protect public health, safety, and welfare above client and employer interests.
- Practise only within competence; disclose conflicts of interest; keep client information confidential.
- Contingent compensation tied to a boundary determination or to approval of a plat is improper because it compromises objectivity.
- Report known errors that affect the public or the client; do not alter records or conceal mistakes.
Business
- Contracts should define scope, deliverables, standard of care, schedule, and fee. Negligence is judged against the standard of care, not against perfection.
- Liens, collections, and limitation-of-liability clauses are business tools, not substitutes for good records.
Worked example
A client asks you to shift a lot line 3 ft so a proposed addition will fit, saying the neighbor agreed verbally. You decline: a boundary changes only by a recorded instrument executed by the affected owners, and the surveyor cannot relocate it unilaterally. You document the request, offer a lawful lot-line adjustment or easement if the jurisdiction allows, and explain the risk of building over a boundary.
Traps that cost marks
- Sealing plans you did not prepare or supervise.
- Accepting a fee contingent on a boundary outcome.
- Treating a verbal agreement as a conveyance.
- Failing to disclose a conflict or a known error.
- Assuming a limitation-of-liability clause cures unethical conduct.