California Surveyors Forums

Los Angeles is the largest city in California. Logically there should be more Records of Surveys and Corner Records filed in this city than any other city in California.

I was asked to do a survey of a parcel where the adjacent parcel is building a large building. Large steel piles are being installed very close to our client's building and they are worried that they may be on their property. Our client asked the developer to provide their survey maps which they did. They provided a Topographic Map signed by an RCE (pre 82 I believe) showing buildings, curbs, utilities, spot elevations and "lines" with bearings and distances (evidently indicating property boundaries). One of these "lines" which were not labeled as property lines was right on our building line. No dimension was shown to the building. No monuments found or set were shown. No ties to offsite monuments were shown.

The parcel involved and the line between the developing parcel and our client's parcel have to our knowledge never been shown on a previously recorded map. The legal descriptions are metes and bounds. Therefore a Record of Survey is required.

The developer also provided a map entitled "Boundary Staking". This sheet showed chiseled x's being set in the sidewalk on property line extensions.

I have done quite a few surveys in Los Angeles in the past couple of years and in doing the research see that very few Records of Surveys and Corner Records have been filed.

Interestingly, I found a document online entitled "California Land Surveyors Association Los Angeles Chapter" and nearly at the end of the document there is a heading labeled "Records of Surveys and Corner Records". There is no information in that section. What does that indicate?

I'm afraid that all of this speaks for itself.

Is anything being done by the surveying profession in LA County to improve the situation?


On a side note, did you speak with the engineer? Did you turn this engineer into the JPPC or the Board of Registration?

It turns out that there is a Tentative Tract Map on file. This does not change the fact that chiseled X's were set but it may provide reason why the RS was not submitted. We will be in communication with the company in question.

I have since retired from Los Angeles County, but during my tenure I tracked productivity. The attached should give you a flavor of the number of ROSs filed in LA County each year. As I recall the annual Corner Record volume is in the 3000+ range. There are two full time PLSs assigned to these duties and they are hard working gentlemen. All the resulting documents are posted to the Land Records Information website in near real-time to benefit the surveying community.