Legal Principles and Professional Practice
Core concepts
North Carolina surveyors practice under the state licensing statute and the rules of the Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors. Know the difference between licensure, certification of survey, and business practice requirements; know that a surveyor seals only work they personally prepared or directly supervised. Legal topics include deed construction, easements, adverse possession, prescription, dedication, riparian rights, and professional liability. The evidence hierarchy is central: natural monuments, artificial monuments, adjoining boundaries, courses, distances, and area.
Traps
Questions often test whether a measurement or a monument controls. An original, undisturbed monument called for in the deed generally controls over a distance. Another trap is treating a deed or plat as a map rather than as a conveyance of land. Watch for junior-senior rights when deeds overlap, and distinguish an easement from fee title. Do not confuse a tax map line with a legal boundary. Professional-practice questions may test the seal, records retention, continuing education, or practicing outside one's competence.
Worked example
A deed calls for an iron pin at 100.00 ft, but your total station measures 99.82 ft to the pin. The pin is an original artificial monument and controls; do not hold the deed distance. If the pin is not the called-for monument or lacks corroboration, evaluate it as evidence before relying on it. Rule of thumb: measurements yield to monuments, and distances yield to calls for adjoiners.