The Mortgage Plan and the Setback

The core issue A survey plan is a public document lodged with the Registry and relied on by a lender, a purchaser, and the State. Falsifying it is not a favour to a client; it is a false certification, a disciplinary offence under the surveyors' registration framework, and potentially a criminal misrepresentation that exposes you to civil liability to the bank.

Specific actions

1. Area: show the measured 0.1925 ha. It is what the evidence supports. The gap to the valuation's 0.25 ha is 0.0575 ha - a valuation error, not a survey problem, and the client must resolve it with the valuer.
2. Setback: the 30 m highway setback is a statutory constraint. Show the setback line and annotate the 15 m of the plot within it. Do not delete or shift it.
3. Wayleave: show the 132 kV line and its wayleave corridor across the eastern corner. A wayleave is an encumbrance that directly affects the security the bank is taking.
4. Beacons: beacons go where the evidence puts them. If the client's preferred positions conflict with the record or the recovered monuments, that is a boundary dispute, not a drafting choice.
5. Communication: write to the client stating what the plan will show and why, before drafting. Keep the letter. If the client instructs you to falsify the plan, decline in writing and, if he persists, decline the instruction and consider whether the matter must be reported.
6. Confidentiality vs public interest: you owe the client confidentiality, but not where the effect is to mislead a third party about a security. Do not assist the deception; you are not obliged to volunteer information to the bank, but you must not produce a document that conceals it.

Signing No. Signing field notes is a certification of professional responsibility by a registered person. An unregistered technician signing them certifies authority he does not hold, and a plan built on those notes would carry a false chain of responsibility. Accepting his signature and adopting it as your own compounds the problem.

Responsibility of the surveyor in charge

• Work carried out by unregistered staff is done under the direction and supervision of a registered surveyor, and that surveyor remains answerable for it.
• 'Supervision' has to be real: the surveyor must have specified the method, checked the observations for closure and blunder, verified the connection to control, and satisfied himself of the result. A signature on work he has not examined is a false certification regardless of who did the fieldwork.
• The correct route is that the technician records and initials his observations as observer, and the registered surveyor reviews, verifies, and signs as the surveyor responsible. The plan is signed and sealed by the registered surveyor.

Practical test Ask yourself whether you could defend each observation before a panel: was the instrument checked, was the control verified, were the closures computed and within tolerance, are the monument descriptions yours to vouch for? If any answer is no, the work is not ready to be signed - go back to the field. Responsibility cannot be delegated by signature.

Documentation first

• Record the sequence of instructions and your advice in writing, dated, including your refusal to show a false area or omit the setback and wayleave.
• Keep the field notes, computations, recovered-monument evidence, and the correspondence. A contemporaneous written record is the single most valuable protection in a disciplinary or civil matter, because it demonstrates that you advised correctly and did not conceal.

Then decide the professional question

• Declining an improper instruction is not misconduct; it is the duty. Delay caused by refusing to certify a false plan is not a service failure.
• If the client goes to another surveyor, that is his right. You may not discuss his affairs with the new surveyor beyond what the client authorises, but you must not alter or destroy your records, and you should respond factually to any request for information that the client or the Registrar makes.
• If the client's conduct amounts to an attempt to procure a false certificate, consider whether the matter falls to be reported to the Council or the Registrar. The trigger is not the client's threat but whether a false instrument is likely to enter the public record.

Professional closing Reply to the threat calmly and in writing: state what you did, what you refused to do, and why; offer to proceed on the correct basis at any time. Then leave it. A surveyor who is disciplined for telling the truth has a defence; a surveyor who is not disciplined but has certified a lie has none.