Legal Principles and Professional Practice
This domain covers the California Land Surveyors Act (Business and Professions Code section 8700 et seq.), Board rules, records, and the line between surveying and the practice of law.
Practice rules
- Licensure is through BPELSG; work must be performed under the responsible charge of a licensed land surveyor.
- Signing and sealing maps, plats, reports, and surveys is limited to work you prepared or directly supervised.
- Record of survey (B&P section 8762): required when a survey discloses a material discrepancy with the record, evidence of an unrecorded easement or interest, a corner not at its record position, or lines not described in any record. File with the county surveyor.
- Corner record (section 8773): perpetuates PLSS corners or boundary corners when a record of survey is not required.
- Monumentation (section 8771): set durable monuments at corners and note existing monuments you accept.
- Surveyors locate evidence; they do not quiet title or give title opinions. Boundary location is a legal conclusion informed by survey evidence.
Worked example
You retrace an urban lot and find the rear fence 0.9 ft inside the record line, with no prior record of survey on file. The discrepancy is material in a 50-ft lot, and the fence suggests a possible unrecorded interest. You prepare a record of survey showing the measured fence, the record line, basis of bearings, monuments found and set, and a non-disturbing note. Filing does not resolve title; it documents the evidence.
Traps
- Sealing a map you did not supervise.
- Failing to file when a section 8762 trigger exists.
- Treating the record of survey as a title determination.
- Skipping a corner record for a re-established PLSS corner.
- Omitting the basis of bearings or datum statement.