Minnesota Statutes and Administrative Rules
Minnesota Statutes and Administrative Rules
This domain tests the legal framework a Minnesota land surveyor works in: licensure, platting, Torrens, common-interest property, adverse possession, and easements. Expect questions that ask which statute governs a record or practice.
Core rules
- Land surveying licensure is administered under Minn. Stat. ch. 326 and Minn. R. ch. 1800 by the Board of AELSLAGID. Only a licensed land surveyor may prepare a boundary survey or plat requiring surveyor certification.
- Minn. Stat. ch. 505 governs subdivision plats: survey, surveyor's certificate and seal, owner's certificate, approvals, and recording. A plat missing required certificates is not recordable.
- Minn. Stat. ch. 508 governs registered (Torrens) land; registered land surveys and filings must follow the registrar's requirements.
- Minn. Stat. ch. 515B governs common-interest communities (condominiums, cooperatives, planned communities); surveyors often prepare plats or descriptions tied to it.
- Minn. Stat. § 541.02 sets the 15-year period for recovery of real estate, the basis for adverse-possession analysis.
Worked example
A city approves a subdivision plat, but the surveyor's certificate is unsigned and unsealed. The county recorder rejects it. Reason: Chapter 505 requires the surveyor's certified survey and the owner's acknowledgment before recording; municipal approval alone does not cure the missing certificate. The surveyor must sign, seal, and certify the plat, and the owner must execute the certificate.
Traps
Assuming city approval makes a plat recordable; citing a statute without checking the current version; treating a registered-land survey as an ordinary plat; confusing the Board's rules with statutory recording requirements; using a federal or generic standard where Minnesota law controls.