California Surveyors Forums

Mr. Day appears to be treading a fine line between legality and illegality, and my sense is that he's slightly on the legal side in California. As I understand it, he doesn't insert himself into the contractual relationship between surveyor and client, but rather operates a database of land surveyors and exposes it to the public via his website. His business model relies upon land surveyor listing fees (for inclusion in the database), perhaps supplemented by website advertising.

There's been considerable discussion of the matter -- by Mr. Day and others -- on the POB discussion board:

http://www.i-boards.com/bnp/pob/message ... dID=134728

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There are other web based groups that want people providing related services to sign up. A form of networking. Ive never used one.

That's because, as Jim said, they fall just on the legal side of the line. They connect clients and consultants, but don't quite go so far as to be a broker in that they do not contract with either party.

They provide access to listings of potential projects for a fee to the consultant, and provide access to several conultants to prospective clients.

You've probably seen the TV ads for that mortgage outfit that does a similar thing with banks, where the bankers are climbing over each other and shoving each other out of the way to get in and give the prospective client the best deal.

I occasionally get emails from one of these outfits mentioning a new project in order to entice me to sign up. They always seem to be something like a boundary and topo for an acre with an expected budget of $500. Not very enticing.

It seems to me it is time to profession up. Do you think attorneys and doctors would stand for this type of thing. it seems that we ought to get our legislative committee to do something about this. Lets get rid of this fine line and make it a big fat red line and do something about it. I have said this before, these broker types are taking up all the interenet first page advertising space on page on searchs. This is deplorable.....

Legal Zoom

HMOs

I had someone call me the other day and they got a quote of $1325 for an Elevation Certificate. The company is Residential Land Services and is not a Land Survey firm. FEMA is recommending them according to the potential client. The client asked for a contract and they stated they needed the money upfront and than they would have the surveyor contact them? Isn’t that illegal in California? It sounds like brokering to me?

That civil engineering comment hurt...

“The truth is that much of land surveying, not all, is a sublet of civil engineering.â€￾

Greg: Owe me a new keyboard. I sprayed coffee all over my old one when I read that. You? Of ALL people writing THAT? Oh, Greg! <hangs head and shakes>

Land Surveying is NOT akin to Civil Engineering.

There are two portions to Land Surveying.

One is the technical side that has to do with the SCIENCE, CRAFT and TECHNOLOGY of measurements. It is the non-professional side and the one most familiar to Civil Engineers. As Curt Brown once pointed out, it is this side that PEs see most often of land surveyors and the reason why so many Civil Engineers look at us a mere technicians.

The other side is the professional side. It is the side that deals with the EVALUATION of the measurements and of the evidence. The product of this side is a professional opinion, not a technical work product (although there may be significant technical operations in deriving the opinion).

In fact, the professional side of land surveying is much more akin to the practice of law. Yes. I said it. The practice of LAW.

I’m attaching an article, “What Every Lawyer Should Know About Title Surveys - Land Surveys, A Guide For Lawyers- 1987â€￾, that eloquently states this position.

Ah, me……another one…from "Constructiondeal.com"

Time for Mr. Wizard to utter his incantation…

"Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome; time for zis one to come home."


LAND SURVEYING SERVICE
PROJECT INFO:
ID: 072709-138395
Activated: 2009-07-27

Project Owner: Cris T.
Location: Citrus Heights, CA 95610
Type: Residential
Estimated Project Budget: $500 to $1,000
Estimated Square Feet: 1,000 to 5,000 sq. ft.
Type of Land Survey: Property Dispute Survey
Back fence does not align with neighbors back fenc ...
full details available to premium members only.

Boundary dispute…probably needs an RS…probably heavy brush/bushes/fencing…no monuments…no control for blocks…