CSLB Professional Challenge: Cadastral Law common mistakes
CSLB Professional Challenge: Cadastral Law · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
The moment the corner monument cannot be found in the field, the candidate immediately runs single- or double-proportionate measurement and labels the corner 'lost' without a documented search for evidence.
Lost and obliterated get used as synonyms, especially under field time pressure, and proportionate measurement is the only restoration method most candidates have practiced, so it becomes the reflexive default.
What to do instead
Search first for the full evidentiary set before restoration: accessories and bearing trees, topographic calls, fence intersections, adjoining deed and plat records, prior survey maps, and local knowledge. A corner is obliterated when its position can be recovered from acceptable evidence, and lost only when the position cannot be recovered at all. Record the search performed, then proportion only for genuinely lost corners, and state the basis in the survey report.
Computes acreage for north- and west-tier lots by straight aliquot arithmetic, ignoring that these are numbered fractional lots whose area and boundaries come from the record plat.
Aliquot parts are drilled as repeated halving of a perfect square section, so every subdivision problem gets the same halving treatment regardless of which tier or range the parcel sits in.
What to do instead
Use the lot number and the record acreage for fractional lots rather than computed area. Know that excess and deficiency in the north and west tiers is allocated under the governing rules (with the residual often falling to the northwesterly lot) and that record lot acreage controls; computed aliquot area is only a check.
Rejects an original monument because the record bearing and distance do not match it, and adopts the record distance instead.
Field measurement feels objective and courses and distances are numeric and easy to check, so they get elevated over physical evidence that is inconvenient or ambiguous.
What to do instead
Apply the hierarchy in order: natural monuments, artificial monuments, courses and distances, then area. Original survey monuments control over the record calls of the same survey. When a discrepancy appears, ask whether the record call is wrong or the monument is not the one the record describes before abandoning the monument; also distinguish original corners from those re-established by a later survey, since a retracement surveyor has no authority to move or replace an original corner's controlling position.
Sets a riparian boundary at the meander line shown on the plat.
The meander line is drawn and labeled on the plat and looks like a boundary line, and often it is the only line shown anywhere near the water.
What to do instead
Treat the meander line as an approximation used to compute area, not a boundary. The boundary of a parcel abutting water is the water itself per state law (ordinary high water mark for navigable water, thread of the stream for non-navigable water), and it moves with accretion, reliction, and erosion.
Moves the boundary when the river changes course suddenly in a flood, or freezes the boundary at the old channel when the movement was gradual and imperceptible.
Accretion and avulsion are memorized as vocabulary rather than as opposite outcomes, so candidates apply whichever rule they recall first to whatever change they see.
What to do instead
Test the character of the change before deciding: gradual and imperceptible movement (accretion, reliction, erosion) moves the boundary with the water and changes ownership; sudden and perceptible movement (avulsion) leaves the boundary at the old location and transfers no title. Document the evidence relied on, such as historical imagery, deeds, and state law, in the reasoning.
Construes each call in a deed in isolation and adopts whichever one supports the client's position, instead of reading the instrument as a whole.
The calls appear on the deed as an independent list, and candidates are rarely trained in the formal rules of construction, so each call is compared to the ground separately.
What to do instead
Interpret the deed as a whole to effectuate the parties' intent, resolve conflicts with the hierarchy of calls and rules such as specific over general and preference for that which is certain. Before resorting to extrinsic evidence, distinguish a patent ambiguity (apparent on the face) from a latent one, and remember reformation requires proof of mutual mistake, not a surveyor's preference for a different line.
Treats a recorded right-of-way or easement as if the holder owned the fee, and assumes an easement is extinguished by nonuse.
The right-of-way occupies the same footprint as a parcel on a map, and the burdened/servient distinction is invisible on a plat, so the estate conveyed is never examined.
What to do instead
Determine the estate from the instrument and applicable law: easement appurtenant versus in gross versus fee, and who retains the underlying fee. Nonuse alone does not extinguish an easement; look for abandonment plus intent, prescription, merger, release, or condemnation. Evaluate encroachments on their own footing, since they rarely ripen into title absent the required elements.
Calls a long-occupied fence line 'adverse possession' without testing each element, and applies adverse possession where boundary by agreement or acquiescence is the doctrine actually available.
Decades of visible occupation feel dispositive, and the related doctrines blur together because they all end with a line that differs from the record.
What to do instead
Test actual, open and notorious, exclusive, hostile, and continuous possession for the full statutory period, plus any tax payment or color of title requirement in that jurisdiction. For boundary by agreement or acquiescence, show uncertainty or dispute about the true line plus agreement or acquiescence in the line; also note that prescription applies to easements and uses, not to title.
Performs a lot line adjustment between two parcels and records it without checking whether the local ordinance or the subdivision map law permits it or requires a record of survey.
It is viewed as a private deed matter between neighbors rather than a regulated map action, so the statutory and ordinance layer is never opened.
What to do instead
Check the state subdivision map statute and local ordinance limits on lot line adjustments (no new lots created, minimum lot count, zoning compliance) before drafting anything. Also check record-of-survey triggers and record one when the statute requires it, such as setting a monument not shown on a prior map, discovering a material discrepancy, or finding evidence of an unrecorded boundary.
Adopts the boundary position the client wants and omits or downplays field evidence that contradicts it in the survey report.
The client is paying, disagreement feels like a business risk, and advocacy gets confused with good client service.
What to do instead
Retain independence: determine and report the boundary on the evidence, disclose contrary evidence and explain how it was weighed, and state the limitations of the opinion. Refuse to prepare a map that misrepresents the record, document the reasoning so it can be reviewed, and decline or refer the matter when a dispute moves from measurement into legal adjudication.