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*Not a Licensed Surveyor

Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:39 am
Posted by tigerpawl
Can't get there from here.
Member since Dec 2003
22463 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:39 am
If a person has the equipment and expertise to create a land survey but has not obtained a surveying license, can he sell the resulting images and data to a willing landowner provided he clearly states that he is NOT a licensed surveyor?

What precisely would constitute a violation? Is it a matter of semantics or description of the product/service? Could this not be viewed as governmental protectionism?
Posted by sta4ever
The Pit
Member since Aug 2014
15573 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:40 am to
Yes
Posted by Booyow
Member since Mar 2010
4015 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:42 am to
You’d be better off starting an OnlyFans making videos of yourself doing weird shite with the survey equipment
Posted by The Mick
Member since Oct 2010
43341 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:42 am to
Why would one hire that guy instead of a licensed surveyor?
Posted by lowhound
Effie
Member since Aug 2014
7640 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:47 am to
For personal use survey information? Yes. For legal property descriptions and maps filed at the courthouse for land sales? No

I mean, if you want to build something across your neighbor's property line, would you go to court with the licensed surveyor or your buddy with a sight level?
This post was edited on 5/22/24 at 7:49 am
Posted by Y.A. Tittle
Member since Sep 2003
101948 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:48 am to
quote:

Why would one hire that guy instead of a licensed surveyor?


Right. How much money are you really “saving” to buy something that is ultimately useless if you ever need to get down to brass tacks?
Posted by tigerpawl
Can't get there from here.
Member since Dec 2003
22463 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:48 am to
quote:

Why would one hire that guy instead of a licensed surveyor?

What are your presumptions regarding price?
Posted by JackaReaux
BR
Member since Feb 2017
777 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:49 am to
Professional Land Surveys require liicense
Posted by lowhound
Effie
Member since Aug 2014
7640 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:51 am to
Posted by Shamoan
Member since Feb 2019
9428 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:51 am to
He can, but it isn’t considered legitimate.

I worked in surveying during college 20 years ago.
This post was edited on 5/22/24 at 7:53 am
Posted by CootDisCootDat
St. Charles, The Community
Member since May 2014
1654 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:55 am to
quote:

lowhound


This guy gets it.

Sounds like OP is trying to hire or is one of them drone fanboys that wants to make money off a hobby but doesn’t want to get licensed.
Posted by RougeDawg
Member since Jul 2016
5972 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:56 am to
He is basically selling you a pretty drawing. Depends on what you need to use it for, but it carries zero credibility for anyone who cares.
Posted by VolSquatch
First Coast
Member since Sep 2023
2535 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 7:58 am to
Its a legal hoop you have to jump through, but anyone can learn how to do it nowadays with fairly high accuracy. GIS, easily accessible GNSS equipment, and cell phones have removed a ton of barriers to entry here.
Posted by LSUengr
Baton Rouge
Member since Sep 2005
2347 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:04 am to
Title 46 PROFESSIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS Part LXI. Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
Chapter 1. General Provisions §101.
Evidence of Qualification; Licensure
A. In order to safeguard life, health and property, and to promote the public welfare, any individual in either public or private capacity, or foreign or domestic firm, practicing or offering to practice engineering or land surveying in the state of Louisiana, shall be required to submit evidence that they are qualified to so practice and shall be licensed with the board. Unless specifically exempted by law, it shall be unlawful for any person to practice or to offer to practice in the state of Louisiana, engineering or land surveying, as defined in the licensure law and the rules of the board, or to use in connection with their name or otherwise assume, use or advertise any title or description tending to convey the impression that they are a professional engineer, professional land surveyor, professional engineering firm or professional land surveying firm, unless such person has been duly licensed under the provisions of the licensure law and the rules of the board.

c. Surveying and mapping functions which do not require the establishment of relationships to property ownership boundaries must be performed by or under the responsible charge of either a professional engineer or a professional land surveyor.

Using the equipment to find monuments in the field assisting the landowner is just helping a buddy. Advertising those services is performing land surveying. Creating a plat of what you found in the field is certainly land surveying and the board would take action against said person if it was discovered.
Posted by stout
Smoking Crack with Hunter Biden
Member since Sep 2006
167839 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:06 am to
Imagine the liability you would take on being unable to purchase E&O insurance since you aren't licensed.
Posted by RougeDawg
Member since Jul 2016
5972 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:10 am to
The measuring part of surveying is the easy part.

The hard part is the title work and interpreting historical intent of the boundaries. What do you do when you find four property corners at one spot placed over a hundred years? What do you do when a property is tied to a monument that is no longer there? What do you do when two property lines from different maps contradict each other?

Surveyors have a lot of property law education they have to go through to be eligible to sit for the exam.
Posted by Hangover Haven
Metry
Member since Oct 2013
26938 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:12 am to
Just tell them you're a photographer...

Posted by Antib551
Houma, LA
Member since Dec 2018
956 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:19 am to
LAPELS board will light your arse up. This situation is their pride and joy. The violations section of the quarterly publication is littered with unlawful practice cases.

And to piggyback off of LSUengr's post, here is the updated definition of land surveying as defined by the LAPELS board a few months ago. This definition was created SOLELY to help the board charge violators with unlicensed practice of land surveying,..

quote:

"Practice of land surveying" shall mean providing, or offering to provide, professional services using such sciences as mathematics, geodesy, and photogrammetry, and involving both (1) the making of geometric measurements and gathering related information pertaining to the physical or legal features of the earth, improvements on the earth, the space above, on, or below the earth and (2) providing, utilizing, or developing the same into survey products such as graphics, data, maps, plans, reports, descriptions, or projects. Professional services include acts of consultation, investigation, testimony, evaluation, expert technical testimony, planning, mapping, assembling, and interpreting gathered measurements and information related to any one or more of the following:

i. Determining by measurement the configuration or contour of the earth’s surface or the position of fixed objects thereon;

ii. Determining by performing geodetic surveys the size and shape of the earth or the position of any point on the earth;

iii. Locating, relocating, establishing, reestablishing, or retracing property lines or boundaries of any tract of land, road, right of way, or easement;

iv. Making any survey for the division, subdivision, or consolidation of any tract(s) of land;

v. Locating or laying out alignments, positions, or elevations for the construction of fixed works;

vi. Determining, by the use of principles of land surveying, the position for any survey monument (boundary or nonboundary) or reference point; establishing or replacing any such monument or reference point;

vii. Creating, preparing, or modifying electronic, computerized, or other data, relative to the performance of the activities in items (i) through (vi) above.

(b) A person shall be construed to practice land surveying if he or she does any of the following:

i. Engages in or holds himself or herself out as able and entitled to practice land surveying;

ii. Represents himself or herself to be a professional land surveyor by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, or card or in any other way;

iii. Through the use of some other title, implies that he or she is a professional land surveyor or licensed by the board.


Edit: this bill (HB713) is up for final passage today (5/22).
This post was edited on 5/22/24 at 8:23 am
Posted by chinhoyang
Member since Jun 2011
23774 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:20 am to
quote:

For personal use survey information? Yes. For legal property descriptions and maps filed at the courthouse for land sales? No

I mean, if you want to build something across your neighbor's property line, would you go to court with the licensed surveyor or your buddy with a sight level?


This is the correct answer.
Posted by White Bear
Yonnygo
Member since Jul 2014
14213 posts
Posted on 5/22/24 at 8:23 am to
quote:

with fairly high accuracy. GIS, easily accessible GNSS equipment, and cell phones have removed a ton of barriers to entry here.
Id bet an MD is easier to achieve than a PLS in La, baw. The barrier to entry is the other surveyor baws on the “board.” And who wants to chop fricking lines through a saw briar patch in August anyhow?
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