NC Land Surveyor common mistakes
NC Land Surveyor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Tells the client in writing or on site that a fence, hedge, or improvement is 'on your property' or that the neighbor is trespassing, and states who owns what.
The client asks a direct ownership question in the field and the surveyor wants to be helpful; declaring a location feels like the natural conclusion of the retracement.
What to do instead
Report only evidence and the surveyor's location opinion, and route all ownership/title questions to the client's attorney in writing; keep a standard referral paragraph in the report template and read it aloud at the exit interview.
Signs and seals a plat or report covering boundary determinations, calculations, or field work performed by others that the licensee never reviewed, and keeps no record of the review.
Deadline pressure and the assumption that a competent crew's field work needs no re-check; the seal is treated as a formality rather than an assumption of responsibility.
What to do instead
Before sealing, run a written review checklist (evidence considered, monuments held, closure, area, coordinate basis, plat content) and initial/date it in the project file; if review cannot be completed, the deliverable does not get sealed.
Holds a computed deed distance or a precise area when a called monument is recovered a fraction of a foot to a few feet away, adjusting the line to make the math close.
Traverse closures and area computations produce authoritative-looking numbers, and coursework rewards mathematical consistency over rules of construction.
What to do instead
Apply the hierarchy of calls explicitly (natural monuments, artificial monuments, adjoiners, then courses and distances, then area) and write a short rationale memorandum identifying which call controlled each line before any new corner is set.
Retraces only the subject parcel's own deed and plat, going to the field without pulling the adjoining owners' deeds, the parent tract, or the chain of conveyances.
The assignment describes one parcel, and records rooms make adjoiner research slow; it feels like scope creep.
What to do instead
Build a title/deed research plan first: subject chain, parent tract, all adjoiners, easements and prior plats; map junior/senior rights and conflicting calls on a research sketch before scheduling field work.
Mixes grid and ground distances: computes State Plane coordinates from total-station observations (or scales record distances to grid) without stating or applying the combined scale factor, so the boundary and the layout disagree.
COGO software defaults and import routines silently convert, and the difference is small enough at short range to hide.
What to do instead
Declare one coordinate basis and one unit system on the first page of every deliverable, apply the combined factor explicitly and show it, and check the result against a known baseline or published control pair before issuing.
Closes a traverse or level loop, sees a small misclosure, and distributes it or accepts it without ever comparing it to an allowable and without re-measuring; no closure statement appears in the file.
Software adjusts automatically, and a small-looking number feels acceptable without a stated standard.
What to do instead
State the allowable misclosure and the basis for it before starting, record the raw closure, and require a documented re-observation or instrument check when the closure approaches the limit; keep the pre-adjustment numbers in the file.
Uses coordinates or a geodetic tie without recording datum, epoch, projection, zone, units, or the source control, so the file cannot be reproduced and later ties disagree.
Data collectors populate coordinate fields automatically and the metadata page is the first thing skipped under time pressure.
What to do instead
Stamp every data set with datum/realization and epoch, projection and zone, units, geoid model or vertical datum, and source control; verify the tie by holding a published NGS control point and comparing the computed value.
Overlays parcel data, orthophotos, and field shots from different coordinate systems in a GIS or CAD map and reports distances or acreage from the resulting display.
Modern GIS reprojects layers on the fly and looks correct at screen scale; the software hides the transformation error.
What to do instead
Reproject all layers to a single declared coordinate system before measuring, verify the overlay against a known monument or control point at map scale, and state the positional accuracy of each source layer on the map.
Sets construction layout from assumed or project coordinates that were never tied to the property corners, the recorded plat, or an offsite durable control network, and does not re-observe control before setting stakes.
The site is busy, the project grid is convenient, and the assumption is that the project control is somebody else's responsibility.
What to do instead
Establish at least two durable offsite control points tied to record monuments and project datum, hold a written control sheet with coordinates and basis, and re-observe control and an existing monument at the start of each layout day.
Sets grades or computes cut/fill from a benchmark whose elevation, datum, or stability was never checked, and skips the check shot on a known point.
The benchmark was given on a plan or by the contractor and appears authoritative; vertical datum differences and disturbed marks are invisible in the field book.
What to do instead
Verify the benchmark on the plans against a second independent mark, record which vertical datum and adjustment both use, close the level run through the benchmark, and shoot a known elevation before turning the elevations loose to the contractor.