Survey Business Practices and Professional Ethics
This domain tests Michigan licensure, responsible charge, contracts, and the professional-conduct rules enforced by the Board of Professional Surveyors.
Licensure and responsible charge
Surveying in Michigan requires a license from the Board of Professional Surveyors under LARA; the surveyor intern track is a prerequisite. Sign and seal only work you performed or directly supervised. Sealing another person's work, or work you cannot defend, is a violation no client request can excuse. Continuing education is required each renewal; confirm the current hour total and ethics requirement with LARA before filing.
Contracts and business conduct
Use a written agreement defining scope, deliverables, standard of care, and fee. Compensation contingent on a boundary outcome is unethical because it rewards bending the evidence. Disclose conflicts of interest, keep client information confidential, and decline work outside your competence unless you obtain appropriate assistance. Report unlicensed practice to the Board.
Monuments and the public record
Do not disturb or remove existing monuments; Michigan law treats monument destruction as an offense. File required corner records promptly. When your survey reveals an encroachment, a boundary discrepancy, or a missing corner, both the client and the record must be told the truth.
Worked example
A client asks you to omit a neighbor's fence encroachment so a sale will close. You decline: the encroachment is a material fact that the survey must show, and withholding it exposes the client and you to liability. Offer to depict it and explain the options - easement, removal, or a written boundary agreement.
Traps
Sealing technician-drafted plats without review; contingent fees; "correcting" a record to match a client's expectation; promising a boundary result before examining the evidence.